Few Australians, Eddie Jones included, receive heartfelt standing ovations at Twickenham but Saturday will be different. In rugby, one man’s misfortune still has the power to unite the best of enemies and those attending the Premiership game between Northampton and Leicester in aid of Rob Horne will be supporting the worthiest of causes.
Last April, in the corresponding fixture at Welford Road, the Wallaby centre was involved in a heavy collision in the opening seconds. Horne is determined not to “make this a sob story”, but his injury turned out to be profoundly serious. All five nerves in his right arm were detached from his spinal cord, the limb remains paralysed and he is still experiencing chronic pain. As well as ending his rugby career, his life has been turned upside down.
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The bravery and character the 29-year-old has shown in adversity, however, is an inspiration to all. He and his family are back in Australia, attempting to adapt to much-changed circumstances and raise awareness of brachial plexus nerve injuries. “To live with paralysis is something that is very new,” says Horne, who has always written left-handed but played golf and tennis right-handed. “I’m still learning ways to do things. It’s funny how the body is. If one thing is taken away from you, you become pretty innovative. You work out other ways to achieve things.”
The worst of times came when he first learned of the severity of his injuries. “There was definitely a hard moment when I came out of the initial surgery which found it [my arm] was completely gone. That was that. There hasn’t been any false hope like: ‘Jeez, this could get better.’ From day one I’ve known the outcome so I’ve had time to deal with it and come to a real understanding of what I’ve been confronted with. I hope that through my approach and through what I go on to achieve I can highlight these types of nerve injuries.”
It remains Horne’s firm view that blaming rugby’s physicality for his predicament is too simplistic, given the number of non-rugby players he has met with similar injuries. “It’s not uncommon. It’s a high-impact injury – a lot of surgeons find it in people who have come off motorbikes. I’ve met an ex-serviceman who was shot through his brachial plexus and a young lady who was skiing and went off a cliff. It can happen in various ways. My injury is not something I hold against the game, it’s just one of those things.”
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While understandably he has no desire to revisit the footage of that April day – “I can’t put myself through it” – he can remember every single detail. “It was my first game leading the team out. It was a special game up at Welford Road and we’d had a big week, changing a few things up. We were pretty primed for that game and I had my family in the crowd as well.
“When the injury happened I was fully conscious the whole time. I’ve been told it looks like I’m trying to get up and I just can’t. Like any player, you don’t think anything’s that wrong. Initially, when I couldn’t move my right foot it was obviously an issue but I kicked and kicked and got that moving. I said to the medics: ‘I think I’m all good, I just think my shoulder’s dislocated.’” Soon enough, though, he noticed something different about the body language and demeanour of the medical staff treating him. “I was lying there thinking: ‘Why are they approaching me like this?’ That was probably the moment I thought that possibly something more serious has happened.”
Horne has subsequently had an operation to try to reduce the pain, which involved transferring some nerves from his ribs to his triceps. Saturday will be emotionally bittersweet but, ultimately, walking back on to a rugby field unable to play his favourite sport is no longer his main concern. “You do face all sorts of different emotions; you get frustrated at some points and elated at other times. To be honest, though, I haven’t felt a loss. I suppose I’ve been faced with bigger challenges than that.”
Tickets for “The Derby at Twickenham” in aid of Rob Horne on Saturday are available at northamptonsaints.co.uk/buytickets