The rugby nobody whose book is outselling Jones, Gatland and McCaw
Ben Mercer has to pinch himself to make sure he isn’t dreaming. Log onto Amazon UK, search for rugby books and up comes Fringes: Life on the Edge of Professional Rugby, the No1 best-seller written by the retired 33-year-old about his nomadic career in the shadows with a variety of Championship clubs before a switch across the channel to the backwaters of the French game at Rouen.
It’s an extraordinary feat, a little known ex-midfielder writing his autobiography on a whim and leaving established rugby big-hitters such as Eddie Jones, Sam Warburton, Warren Gatland, Rory Best and Richie McCaw in the shade on the go-to book website for buying your long-read sporting fix with the world currently at a standstill.
Think of the major publishing houses, the PR agents, the ghostwriters, the snazzy pictures and all the rest of the glitzy package behind all those publications about the game’s household names. Mercer, in sharp contrast, all but did it by himself. Painstakingly so. Wrote the book, self-published, self-promoted. Became a best-seller in the coronavirus pandemic. No wonder he is hunkered down at the old family home outside Bath during lockdown with a disbelieving smile etched firmly to his face nearly two years after he hung up the boots in Normandy.
“I completely get it why people want to follow the top guys… but there are some good stories out there with the lower-level guys,” he said to RugbyPass, assessing why his offbeat story is suddenly proving popular. “In France, there is a lot more mobility between divisions. The teams that come up through the ranks in the Pro D2, there is some great stories there and great players as well.
“(Anthony) Bouthier, who is in the France team now, he was playing against us for Vannes in the third division. There are some interesting stories to be told but I completely get it, you have to give the people what they want and if people click on whoever the main guys are, that’s just how it is.”
@MikeTyson is down! (it's an amazing book)
you're next @Tyson_Fury ? pic.twitter.com/BaklFvCtnJ
— Ben Mercer (@bcemercer) April 29, 2020
For now, though, people are clicking on the unheralded Ben Mercer, eager to learn about a colourful journey a world away from any top-flight glamour. “When I stopped playing and came home from France I was down in Cornwall with my mates,” he said, explaining the utopian moment when he decided to pen to paper.
“I was telling them about the day-to-day and things that had happened and they were like, ‘What?’ Those are guys who follow rugby but had no idea what goes on. That was the first time I decided to do something and explain it in a reasonably clear way to people who follow the game.”
His breezy, first-hand reflection on what life is really like as a journeyman professional athlete is a pleasing page-turner. “I was completely on my own. I kind of did every bit of it. I’d obviously gone and found an editor and then a cover designer, and I was really pleased with what I put together.
“But to see it up there with those sort of books – I mean, yesterday it was knocking up in the main sports category with Tyson Fury and Mike Tyson, so that is awesome. And just to get messages off people, particular as the book is a different perspective… I’m not a sporting figure like those people, so to see it do that has been great,” he said, satisfied the various intriguing dressing room revelations haven’t soured friendships picked up on travels along rugby’s lesser travelled roads.
“I say in the intro there are certain things that could get people in trouble. Knowing that those things happen is good enough for a reader and I don’t think you need to know exactly who that person is all the time… there was a really fun evening where I got to about 30,000 words. I was like, ‘This is now a serious thing’ and I texted our team WhatsApp group and said, ‘I’m doing this’. We’d this really fun evening with all these messages rolling in. Do you remember this? Remember that? All those little bits… my mates were on board with it and they helped me out.”
Mercer was never a million ever miles away from understanding the ebb and flow of a top-flight rugby career. It was on his own doorstep, his 30-year brother Guy spending a decade in the ranks at Bath before quitting last year. Ben, though, moved in very different circles after exiting the Bath academy, his head always held high despite the lower professional level he was performing at.
There were seasons at Plymouth Albion and Cornish Pirates sandwiching a short part-time spell in Sydney before four years at regional level in France, that invite arriving out of the blue from Richard Hill, the ex-England scrum-half who eventually took Rouen Normandie into the Pro D2 in 2019, the season after Mercer had finished. “I’m incredibly proud of Guy. He did what he always wanted to do, play for Bath. I would have liked to have done that too, but it wasn’t a competitive thing in that respect and I didn’t feel diminished by what he did.
“I left university and went to the Championship. I wanted to do as well as possible and get up to the top division. That was essentially it. I didn’t get too badly paid. It wasn’t good, but I had a load of bonuses added into my first contract that Plymouth thought I wouldn’t get, so I ended up getting them and ended up living reasonably comfortably. In France, it was a better deal, similar money to what we would get in the Championship but you only paid a minimum amount of tax, had an apartment, had a car, and didn’t have expenses.”
Mercer didn’t reach the holy grail of Pro D2, Rouen instead negotiating the Federale system while he was there, but he heard and saw enough to be able to compare the mechanics of the French second tier with the goings-on in an English Championship now under severe financial pressure due to RFU cutbacks and the revenue-killing virus outbreak.
“Pro D2 salaries vary wildly,” he suggested. “We’d a guy who plays for Castres now, Wilfrid Hounkpatin. He was on an academy contract at Montpellier when young, something like €800 a month and bunged in a flat, but there were guys in Pro D2 who were on €15K, €20K a month so the salaries vary outrageously. In the Championship there are a couple of blokes who would be on a decent deal but for the most part, we had guys at Pirates who were on £6K a year. I don’t know how you can survive on that money?
https://www.instagram.com/p/BWqDuhiBsWw/
“The Championship guys are the guys that need the support because their salaries are bad. The RPA were really good with my brother when he was leaving Bath and what they are doing with helping guys get prepped. People have loads of good things to say about what they do. The only thing that is a shame is that the guys that need their help, the guys in the Championship, aren’t getting it and that should definitely be addressed.”
Just like his book, Mercer’s interview was peppered with little vignettes about some of the obstacles clubs regularly place in the way of players looking to be their best. “We’d a guy come down on loan to Plymouth from Bath, Kane Palma-Newport, a friend of my brother’s. I was, ‘Where are you staying, Kaine?’. He was, ‘I’m in the club apartment’. I was like, ‘Go and have a look and if you want to stay that’s fine, but if you want to sleep on my sofa you’re more than welcome’. He took one look at it and was, ‘Please can I have your sofa?’
“There is a conveyor belt of blokes who want a Championship opportunity which is fine. There will always be people that will take that opportunity because the allure and hope of getting to the Premiership is very strong, but it’s just not good. It’s pretty poor and you need to draw a line in the sand one way or another.
I've written a book about life as a lower tier pro, why you do it (usually because like Dan you love rugby and get to go abroad to play), why it's precarious and how it can go very wrong very quickly!
take a look – I'd love to talk to you about ithttps://t.co/KvwD4RzNq8 pic.twitter.com/4AsoruI2Yv
— Ben Mercer (@bcemercer) April 13, 2020
“With the current situation, they are going to have to seriously reconfigure the whole sport. They are talking about global calendar, talking about a whole lot of different things they have been prevaricating on and kicking the can down the road for quite a long time.
“But now they are having to stare it in the face. You almost wonder if they just regionalised the whole thing and then played off in an eventual grand final. I can’t see anything like that ever happening but it is the time now because the sport doesn’t work and they have been hoping not to confront it.”
Any personal regrets about his own career? They are very few. “I got called up for England Students at university but tore my hamstring that week so couldn’t play. That was a bit annoying and there were some other opportunities every now and again. Sliding doors. There was one in France in my first year. A Pro D2 team got in touch. They were up the top of the league and I hurt myself, a four- to six-weeker. I said, ‘This has happened’. They came back and said, ‘Thanks for being honest’.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BAJl87BsN3Z/
“But I was really lucky to go to France. I always wanted to learn a language and get stuck in, and we’d such a diverse squad, guys from Georgia, Romania and wherever else, guys you don’t meet going about your day to day in your English teams. Just having that diverse experience, seeing an amazing country and getting to travel around and get paid, there are no two ways about it – you can use rugby to go and do things you wouldn’t get to do otherwise and I’m really pleased I got the opportunity.”
Now the quest is carving a career in the rugby afterlife, his book writing and a role as head of content at the Life After Professional Sport online platform keeping him ticking him along for now. “It’s hard. For a while, you’re thinking there isn’t anything I’m interested in. You have that experimentation period once you’re out of the group, but I knuckled down, got the book done and now feel there is a sense of positivity.”
Topping the heavyweight rugby book chart has that kind of galvanising effect.
Comments on RugbyPass
Like tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
14 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
13 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
4 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
4 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
26 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
14 Go to commentsTalking bout Ryan Crotty? Heard Crotty say in a interview once that SBW doesen't care about the team . He went on to say that whenever they lost a big game, SBW would be happy as if nothing happened, according to him someone who cares would look down.. Personally I think Crotty is in the wrong, not for feeling gutted but for expecting others 2 be like him… I have been a bad loser forever as it matters so much to me but good on you SBW for being able to see the bigger picture….
26 Go to commentsThis sounds like a WWE idea so Americans can also get excited about rugby, RUGBY NEEDS A INTERNATIONAL CALENDER .. The rugby Championship and Six Nations can be held at same time, top 3 of six nations and top 3 of Rugby championship (6 nations should include Georgia AND another qualifying country while Fiji, Japan and Samoa/Tonga qualifier should make out 6 Southern teams).. Scrap June internationals and year end tours. Have a Elite top six Cup and the Bottom 6 in a secondary comp….
14 Go to commentsThe rugby championship would be even stronger with Fiji in it… I know it doesen’t fit the long term plans of NZ or Aus but you are robbing a whole nation of being able to see their best players play for Fiji…. Every second player in NZ and AUS teams has Fijian surnames… shame on you!!! World rugby won’t step in either as France and England has now also joined in…. I guess where money is involved it will always be the poor countries missing out….
84 Go to commentsNo surprise there. How hard can it be to pick a ball off the ground and chuck it to a mate? 😂
2 Go to commentsSometimes people just like a moan mate!
4 Go to commentsexcellent idea ! rugby needs this 💪
14 Go to comments9 Brumbies! What a joke! The best performing team in Oz! Ditch Skelton for Swain or Neville. Ryan Lonergan ahead of McDermott any day! Best selection bolter is Toole … amazing player
13 Go to commentsI like this, but ultimately rugby already has enough trophies. Trying to make more games “consequential" might prove to be a fools errand, although this is a less bad idea than some others. Minor quibble with the title of the article; it isn’t very meaningful to say the boks are the unofficial world champions when it would be functionally impossible for the Raeburn trophy not to be held by the world champions. There’s a period of a few months every 4 years when there is no “unofficial” world champion, and the Raeburn trophy is held by the actual world champions.
14 Go to commentsIts a great idea but one that I dont think will have a lot of traction. It will depend on the prestige that they each hold but if you can do that it would be great. When Japan beat the Boks (my team) I was absolutely devestated but I wont deny the great game they played that day. We were outclassed and it was one of the best games of rugby I have seen. Using an idea like this you might just give the the underdog teams more of an opportunity to beat the big teams and I can absolutely see it being a brilliant display of rugby. They beat us because they planned for that game. It was a great moment for Japan. This way we can remove the 4 year wait and give teams something to aim for outside of World Cup years.
14 Go to commentsHi, Dave here. Happy to answer questions 🥰
14 Go to commentsDon’t think that headline is accurate. It’s great to see Aus doing better but I’m not sure they’ve shown much threat to the top of the table. They shouldn’t be inflating wins against the lousy Highlanders and Crusaders either.
3 Go to commentsSuch a shame Roigard and Aumua picked up long term injuries, probably the two form players in the comp. Also, pretty sure Clarke Dermody isn’t their coach. Got it half right though.
3 Go to comments