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When injuries happen in any team, coaches frequently talk about how the focus shifts to an opportunity opening up for another player to step up.
Few injuries are so vast and frequent in one team though that the player stepping up has never started a top-flight game and is not even a full-time rugby player.
Yet that is the situation for Will Crane. A full-time mortgage advisor and part-time player with Hartpury in the Champ has found himself at Gloucester, starting in the Prem and Champions Cup as they lost their three first-choice hookers to injury.
“I don’t want to sound like a competition winner but I did take a second to enjoy the experience but then respect the job in hand,” Crane told the Rugby Union Weekly podcast.
The 31-year-old has vast experience of playing rugby in the second tier, as captain of Gloucester’s neighbouring club.
He has featured for the Cherry and Whites once before, coming on as a replacement for 14 minutes in a Prem game in 2020.
But after being called-up for a three-week emergency loan after Christmas, going on to play the full 80 minutes against Newcastle Red Bulls in the Prem and 65 against Edinburgh in the Champions Cup last weekend, marks a significant level up.
This Saturday, he could start against four-times European Cup champions Toulon, when the French giants visit Kingsholm.
“I got a call off George [Skivington, Gloucester director of rugby] when I was out walking the dogs and he explained the scenario that Gloucester were in and asked me to come in for a few weeks to provide a bit of cover while Hartpury’s got a bit of a break,” Crane said.
“[I] jumped at the chance in playing a bit of rugby.”
His appearance against Newcastle was a novel one beyond the gravitas of the game as it was the first time he had seen his surname printed on the back of a shirt.
“I took a quick snap and sent it to a couple of people, I was like ‘yeah, that’s wicked,'” Crane said
‘Bigger, stronger, smarter’
Hartpury train three times a week and Crane’s days typically start around 05:00, with a trip to the gym before a 06:30 team meeting, with training from 07:00-08:30.
After that he’s off to work in his office job.
It is a stark contrast to players full-time in the Prem, who Crane says he has been learning from in recent weeks.
“Seeing how these full-time guys operate not just on the pitch but off the pitch as well, it boils down to that commodity of time that we can’t make more of,” he said.
“How the lads operate in the gym, how they look after themselves recovery-wise, do their analysis, nutrition around it.”
ShutterstockThe challenge of stepping up a level into the top flight and elite European competition is also notable.
“I’d describe it as ‘bigger, stronger smarter’,” Crane said.
“Lads are that much more conditioned, that much smarter, rugby IQs better, so you’ve got to be in engaged in every facet of the game.”
Crane is due to return to Hartpury next week, as they resume Champ action away to Worcester Warriors on 24 January.
And whether we see him in the top flight again or not it will not stop Crane from wanting to play.
“I will play until the wheels fall off. It’s something I’ve done all my life, everything good in my life has come from rugby,” he said.
