Banbury Living Oct - Nov 2022

CONVERSATIONS WITH A
RUGBY
GIANT
Martin Bayfield is an English actor,
broadcaster, and former rugby union player
who played lock forward for Northampton
Saints, Bedford Blues and England. Now
the former England international embarks
on his ‘Rugby Legends’ 2022 UK Tour. Sally
Thomson catches up with him to find out
what we can expect from the tour...
You are hitting the road soon on tour,
are you looking forward to it?
I am! I’ve never done it before, well not
on this scale. I do a lot of public speaking
but I’m not the main act for this one. This
is mildly terrifying but very exciting.
It is so different to what you have done
before. You are turning up at different
venues and putting on a performance
for people who love rugby.
I can imagine the breakdown of the
audience will be people who love rugby,
so recognise the names of the people
who are coming. But I would love those
people who are just curious to come
along and enjoy it and get involved and
walk away at the end feeling like ‘they are
a good bunch and that was good fun’.
What would you say your story is then?
I think the story is ultimately one of
friendship. But also one of trust, a fair
degree of nonsense and a huge amount
of hard work and pain. But it is ultimately
about your own personality and how
it fits with everyone else’s personality
and how you make it work. Sometimes
it works well, sometimes it fails. But
increasingly, in a world which seems to
be more and more divisive, discovering
and remembering what happens when
a group of individuals, men or women,
come together and do something quite
special. There’s some great characters
there!
I’m a rugby fan and some of the
names you’ve got lined up look very
interesting!
It will be a lot of fun. All of them are
busy people, so I haven’t got everyone I
wanted in every place but that’s just the
way that it is.
Have you got anyone from Bath
appearing?
For Bath we’ve got Brian Moore and
Andy Nichol. Andy used to play for
Bath and has got some great stories
to tell about going on the Two Lions
tours when he was brought along on
both as a late replacement. It’s hilarious
when he goes through that selection
process. And then Brian Moore; one
of the games great thinkers, one of
the games great competitors. He was
my England teammate for pretty much
every game bar three that I played for
England. He is a great character, and he
has a powerful story to tell, so it could
get quite emotional too. We’ll have an
idea of where we want to go with the
conversation, but it will be very much
a case of it goes where it goes, and no
topic is off-limits. We want the audience
to get involved and ask questions. You’ve
got some of the great names of the game
up there.
You are obviously the circus master, so
to speak. What will your initial direction
be?
I’ll be up first to welcome people and
get the chat going. I’ll get the guys up
on stage and start talking with them and
then just let them tell their stories, and as
much as possible, allow the audience to
ask questions. We’ll have some questions
that we will receive from people
attending, or via social media but we will
take live questions on the night too. I’m
sure there will be a suggested timescale
for the show, but I can imagine it will end
up running over!
Have you been to any of the venues
that you are visiting before?
I haven’t! It’s all very new for me.
I’ve done a lot of public speaking at
conference hotels and various places but
standing on a stage in front of people all
facing your direction will be lively!
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