Steffon Armitage, flanker for RC Toulonnais and Heineken cup champion describes his journey from being born in Trinidad to becoming a professional rugby player in France.

In this interview Steffon touches upon the following topics:

1. 
   
2. His upbringing and how he got his start in rugby
   
3. The decision making process when looking for a professional club
   
4. What was the attraction in coming to Toulon
   
5. Goal setting, self-discipline, and what’s key to make it as a professional rugby player
   
6. The decision making process when looking for an agent
   

Train…. Just train, train, train and listen. I think there’s quite a lot of people

that forget about that last bit – Steffon Armitage

Download transcript

Sporple- Do you want to give me a little history of your sporting background? Other sports you played?

Steffon Armitage- Well growing up my old man gave us the opportunity to play a lot of different sports you know, I’ve got 4 brothers as you know, having 4 brothers is quite competitive at home so, we tried to compete at every single sport possible to see who was the best. My older brother Dylan and myself would play cricket which back then for us was kind of a big deal. He went on to play football and I went on playing golf, we got quite good at a few sports, I was semi pro in golf at the age of 14 and then I just happened to watch a rugby game and realized that since we liked fighting with each other all the time, rugby was kind of the way to release some of that anger in a good way and without hurting my brother.

Sporple- So in terms of growing up you ended up playing a lot of sport in the UK but spent a lot of time in Nice as well, you lived in a couple of different countries, how did you think that affected you growing up?

Steffon Armitage- I definitely think it made me more open minded about people and just the surroundings. I was born in Trinidad and the only sport there is cricket, we stayed in a small town so we didn’t know many people. So moving to London and starting to interact with a lot more people made it easier to make friends etc…With the job my dad had, we would be moving on again at some point and I thought “ok you’ve got to be kind of nice to people you’ve got to treat people the way you want to be treated†so I kind of got that into my head and then moving on it just made it easier to go from Trinidad to London, London to Nice, Nice back to London, and now back to Toulon, so all this made it easier on myself to get on with life.

Sporple- When you had the opportunity to become a professional rugby player what did you look for in terms of signing with your first club how did that all come about?

Steffon Armitage- Well it all started at school level because everyone always told me “you train hard you play hard and you do the right things at school and that’s where you’re going to get seen†I know there’s not a lot of schools that play rugby but it’s an opportunity. I had the opportunity to go to a school that did play rugby, they weren’t very good but it gave you a chance. Also our school was linked to Saracens which made it a lot easier, I got picked up because of that and then they gave me an opportunity, I decided I had to go there  instead of go and join my brother that was at a different club.

Sporple- So did you feel obligated, because of their development program? Did you see what different clubs had to offer?

Steffon Armitage- Yeah I saw what all the different clubs had to offer and I really wanted to join London Irish which was where my brother was at, so obviously being close to him for me was a massive thing. I thought, they have been looking after me at school they used to come down, give us coaching lessons at our school so I just kind of felt “I kind of have to†so I signed for them in the academy and moved on from there.

Sporple- What was the appeal in coming to Toulon, you had obviously spent some time in France previously. What was the attraction coming here?

Steffon Armitage- I wanted to come back here because I used to come to Toulon to play as a young kid. I used to watch Nice, Nice played when they were in the top 14 in the Heineken Cup and I just love this country, I love this place, you have the sun, it’s normally always warm, you get the sea, it’s the good life. I grew up here and learned a lot about myself and a lot about rugby and I taught this is the place where I probably want to finish my career.

Sporple- What advice do you have for young players coming through? Obviously your career has been a really good one, how do you advise young players in terms of setting goals, self-discipline, what’s really key for them to make it as a professional rugby player.

Steffon Armitage-  I think self-discipline, I think you’ve got to separate yourself from some of your friends who are not in the same position as you because sometimes you kind of fall back into what they do, when it doesn’t apply to you. You’ve got to be strong sometimes you know, there’s times when your friends want to go out on the weekend and stuff like that, you’ve been training all week you got a game coming on, you got to stay strong and say “listen I can’t, I can’t do this I need to be ready for the weekend†and it’s just all about trying to stay strong because sometimes you only get one crack at it and you’ve got to take everything you can in one go.

Sporple- As a professional athlete do you have an agent? Did you have an agent or have you ever worked with agencies and how did that go?

Steffon Armitage- Yeah I’ve had, unfortunately I’ve had quite a few agents growing up from 16 onwards and I got to tell you the honest truth…

Sporple- please do…

Steffon Armitage- They haven’t been… like…

Sporple- It wasn’t positive?

Steffon Armitage- No, not at all. That’s why I kind of…

Sporple- So what’s your advice to younger kids in terms of young kids now get approached all the time by different agents what should they look for or what should they keep in mind.

Steffon Armitage- I think they just need to….get everyone together and to look at it properly, ask other people, do your research. I’m sure there will be stuff about different people about what they should expect from an agent, I think you need someone you could talk to, you could call and they will answer you within a couple of days, and just advice because that’s what you need as a young player going through strains I think you just need someone you can just talk to anytime.

Sporple- Alright. What, last question I realize you got little time, you’re 13 years old, what advice do you give yourself to make sure you reach your potential?

Steffon Armitage- Train…. Just train, train, train and listen. I think there’s quite a lot of people that forget about that last bit. You’ve got to listen to the other players around you, you got to listen to the guys who you see as inspiration, watch loads of videos. When I was a teen I used to watch players like Zinzan Brooke and Taine Randall. Those guys inspired me to become a professional rugby player,  just try and take in as much as you can and just keep training.

Do you know any young players that would benifet from Steffon’s advice?

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The post Steffon Armitage: The journey from Trinidad to Toulon appeared first on Sporple Newsroom.