Immortalised in art Zaffiro, Weaver and Phillips in front of the oil painting that features the former
Kitted out
The trio in well-fitting shirtsSwitching sides
Phillips in action for
Whitehall against Framptonoffers a little direction, saying, “Chin
up.” The guys quip, “Which one?!”
The laughter continues throughout
the few hours Rugby World spends at
Frampton Cotterell RFC. After all, Tim
Phillips, Mike Weaver and Peter Zaffiro
have been involved in the club since the
Seventies and have each played more
than 800 senior matches in Frampton
colours, so they have plenty of stories to
tell. And they are especially happy to tell
them if it involves mocking one another.
Barely have introductions been made
when Zaffiro – a prop – references his
100% kicking record and then points out
that Weaver, who has played the majority
of his rugby at fly-half, is not as high in
the percentage stakes. So how many
kicks has Zaffiro actually taken? Two!
“I was second-team captain for a game
against Kingswood,” he explains. “We
had four fly-halves, four kickers, in the
team, had scored ten or 11 tries, but had
not got one conversion. After the last
try, I thought, ‘It can’t be that hard’. I
kicked it the old-fashioned way, dug a
hole in the ground, took one step back
and it went straight through the posts.
“Then in my 800th game, I did the
same for the last try and again it went
straight through the posts.”
Weaver is quick to recount a comedy
moment involving Zaffiro too. “On the
first-team pitch, there’s a big divot on
the 10m line,” he says. “In one game,
Zaff called ‘mine’ from the kick-off, but
then fell backwards into the divot and
the ball landed directly on his head –
much to the amusement of the crowd.”
All three can’t hide their derision when
they recount how a team-mate, Tony
Cox, brought his hairdryer out to use
post-match. “Times have changed,” says
Phillips, with a rueful shake of the head.
Then they delight in telling of the time
the same player managed to tie his
bootlaces around a barbell without
realising and fell over as he tried to
walk out of the changing rooms.
There are self-deprecating memories,
too. Weaver recalls a moment from last
year when he aimed to produce the
skills of a 19-year-old but his 50-plus
body could not deliver. “I was running
down the blind side and tried to dummy
this player, but I was too slow. My mind
told my body to move but my body
didn’t move! I was tackled in half – I was
hit in the ribs, winded and landed on the
ball, which hurt my shoulder too. Some
of the guys put a video together with
the Jaws music and played it on a loop.”
This is just a smattering of the stories
that they have accumulated over rugbycareers that span 40-plus years. Weaver
and Phillips started in Frampton’s junior
section in the Seventies, while Zaffiro
was introduced to the sport by his
brother-in-law and made the switch
from football for the 1978-79 season.
“My first training session was on a small
area with a spotlight under a scaffold
pole – it was the only place we couldGrass Roots