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Growing up just south of Newcastle, there was barely a weekend in the calendar when Guy Pepper was not standing beside a rugby pitch.
Around the birth of professionalism in the sport, his father, Martin, would go head-to-head with Neil Back as a flanker for Harlequins. The family settled up north and Martin, who finished his career as a hooker, ended up coaching rugby at Barnard Castle School.
‘Dad’s been at the school more than 20 years now, coaching guys like Mat Tait and Karl Dickson,’ says Guy as he sits down with Daily Mail Sport. ‘I was brought up with rugby. I played rugby from the age of four and just fell in love with it.’
Pepper, 22, is the latest player to come through the school’s production line and has been selected in Steve Borthwick’s England squad for the autumn internationals. However, it’s not been a straightforward journey for the Bath flanker, who was diagnosed with arthritis when he was at primary school.
‘I had to stop playing rugby for a year when I was six because of arthritis,’ he explains. ‘I’ve still got it now and I still have treatment for it but it’s something that’s manageable. It stayed in my right ankle for a little bit and now it’s pretty settled.
‘I had one blip with my right ankle when I was 14 that set me back and I still manage today. I have injections every two weeks. It’s something I just cracked on with. It caused me some issues, for sure, but day to day it’s fine. Maybe it’s nice for younger people to hear that it’s not the end of the world.’
Pepper’s story can offer inspiration to youngsters in a similar position. He has developed into one of the most abrasive flankers in the PREM – balancing his rugby commitments with a degree at Durham University.
‘I did my dissertation on CBD oil and the benefits for rugby players,’ he says. ‘I was going to get in touch with George Kruis (who has founded a CBD company) about it but I never got around to it. Everyone’s always looking for the next thing in recovery.’
Last year, Pepper matched the record for the most tackles in a single PREM game when he landed 34 shots against Saracens.
He left Newcastle for Bath to develop his game, establishing himself as the starting No 7 in their championship-winning team.
‘I enjoyed my time at Newcastle but I needed a new challenge,’ he says. ‘I needed to be around top-class players and Bath’s squad is rife with them. If that meant me sacrificing playing time, that’s what I was willing to do.
‘We have international standard coaches here at Bath, with Johann van Graan at the top. I went from a team at Newcastle where we didn’t get to attack much to a team at Bath where we have quite a lot of the ball.
‘It makes you develop as an attacking player. Finn Russell, Santi Carreras and Tom de Glanville are all different types of ball players so you learn off all of them. You learn to choose your moments in attack because I don’t want to be running into brick walls, that’s not my type of game.
‘Lee Blackett was massive on the back rows operating like another back, and being in those wide channels as a carrying option. It’s nice to have Lee in the England setup now (as Steve Borthwick’s new attack coach).’
Pepper’s Bath coach, Van Graan, recently compared him to All Black legend Richie McCaw. Van Graan is someone who uses his words carefully so the statement underlined the youngster’s world-class potential.
‘McCaw’s someone I grew up watching so it was pretty cool to hear that,’ says Pepper. ‘I’ve got to back those words up. The breakdown is my game really so I’ve got to be a bit of a nuisance there.
‘Steve always speaks about bringing that physical intensity so that’s something I’m always working to. Securing our own ball and also getting the ball back.’
Bath remain favourites to retain the PREM trophy, following Pepper’s starring performance in last season’s final against Leicester, which earned him his first three Test caps on the summer tour of Argentina and the USA.
And his form this season is boosting his chances of keeping the shirt against Australia next week at Twickenham, for the Autumn Nations Series opener, followed by Fiji, New Zealand and Argentina.
He will be part of a youthful core of loose forwards, including Henry Pollock, Emeka Ilione and Chandler Cunningham-South, while Ben Earl and Pepper’s Bath team-mate Sam Underhill act as senior statesmen.
Bath’s star-studded squad suffered their first defeat of the season at Leicester last weekend, thanks to Billy Searle’s last-gasp penalty with the clock in the red.
They will be hoping to put that result firmly behind them in their local derby against Bristol on Saturday.
‘There’s a great rugby vibe around the city at the moment,’ Pepper says. ‘There’s a bit of talk about the new stadium… although the older lads say they’ll believe it when they see it!
‘The trophy parade after the final was class. There was a bit of, “Why are we doing a trophy parade? There’ll be about 200 people there”. The number of people on the streets was crazy. It shows how much rugby means to everyone in Bath.
‘We had a big night on the Saturday and then I was in camp on the Monday. The other guys carried on for a couple more weeks. The WhatsApp chat was just pinging off with pictures of Alfie Barbeary in his budgie smugglers.
‘We want to win the league, it’s something you always aim for, but there are nine other teams and some of them are looking good. Bristol will be gunning for us at the weekend.’
Borthwick will be watching closely. If things fall Pepper’s way, he has every chance of being on the pitch in an England shirt against Australia next week.
