Life after Rugby: Tim Rodber

Editor

Our new series continues as we look back at the lasting memories a rugby player has and what has followed since. Up next, it’s Tim Rodber.

“You never know it all” is the advice of former British & Irish Lion, England international and Northampton captain turned CEO Tim Rodber.

Since departing the game in 2002 Rodber has set about translating his arsenal of knowledge from the rugby pitch to the boardroom. After a decade building up his own marketing services business, working in alliance with the likes of DHL who purchased the company, he has spent the last five years imparting his expertise with the Instant Group.

“When I finished playing rugby I was 31 years old and was looking for a new challenge. I think the first thing I had to do was take two or three steps back. Taking a step back is something you have to do.”

Having captained Northampton Saints for six years and shared dressing rooms with the likes of Martin Johnson, Sir Ian McGeechan and Sir Clive Woodward, Rodber was certainly exposed to the variety of leadership techniques available.

“I always wanted to be a leader. I was always making decisions, taking on challenges, I always enjoyed it from a young age. I’ve learned and played with all these different players,” he said.

“Later on in life one of my strengths I think is being able to interact with different cultures and people, that then translates to understanding how different teams work and what your own strengths and weaknesses are and then building teams around you that cover your weaknesses and harness your strengths.”

20 plus years in team environments has enabled Rodber to tune in to what he believes breeds success, that being both as a leader and understanding the dynamics as a group.

“In any team you need mercurial talent. You want guys that do the job and do it really really well. But you want someone who is mercurial in some way. From a business perspective that’s your creative thinkers, your guys who see things differently. You can’t all be sales led people or financially led people you’ve got to have a blend.”

During his 14-year career Rodber was fortunate enough to be surrounded by a blend of talent, both domestically and internationally. Pivotal figures in today’s game like Pat Lam were part of Rodber’s Northampton side that reached the European summit in 2000 by lifting the Heineken Cup.

“That European Cup final was the result of five years of work. Geech (Sir Ian McGeechan) was our coach for three of those and he kind of set the ball rolling. You know we were the Saracens of the time and we had world class players,” he explained.

That triumph came three years after Rodber played an integral role in securing a British & Irish Lions triumph in South Africa, this two years after South Africa had won their own World Cup. Rodber started at number eight in both winning Tests.

Unlike the modern day where clubs huddle in anticipation around Sky Sports News, Rodber found out via a letter in the post which confirmed his place on what he calls “the pinnacle of a British or Irish players career”.

Having been selected as the third-choice number eight behind Scott Quinnell and Eric Miller, Rodber took advantage of fate handing him the red jersey.

“It was a chance for me to step up and I enjoyed doing that,” he said. “On any Lions trip it’s a bit of an amateur ethos, but the players love that. It’s all about building a relationship with people you don’t really know and if you get that right you will forge something unbeatable on the field.”

Videos of Jeremy Guscott’s drop-goal at Kings Park in Durban still stands as one of, if not the, most defining image of Lions rugby. His namesake Jeremy Davidson the first to put his arm round his Lions colleague in congratulations, little did supporters know that would wait 16 years to taste another series victory thus making Rodber’s part all the more memorable.

“To go and win when you’re thrown together with all the circumstances against you is obviously special. I think its stuff of folklaw,” he beamed.

Both Rodber and Guscott were part of the England group who began their ascent to World Cup glory during the mid-1990’s but left the game prior to the triumph in 2003. Rodber delved that it isn’t always a case of sheer talent, but a combination of that and the appropriate timing.

“It wasn’t a question about whether they were good enough because they probably always were. It was a question of whether they could get the timing right to be good enough. There are lots of great teams who play in between World Cups and the timing isn’t right. New Zealand have certainly fallen foul of that in the past.”

It is in fact a New Zealander that Rodber regards as the best player he played with during his career in the shape of Wayne Shelford.

Another opponent Rodber was keen to pay tribute to was the late Joost van der Westhuizen. The South African scrum-half play at nine for the South Africans during their World Cup triumph in 1995 and sadly passed in February of this year.

“I was talking to Daws (Matt Dawson) who also played 80 odd times for England at a time when Joost, George Gregan and Justin Marshall were the other scrum-halves. What an era, I mean if you were going to pick one of them, even though Daws is one of my best mates, it would be Joost van der Westhuizen all day. A tragic loss.”

Despite opposing Van der Westhuizen for the Lions in 1997, playing alongside the likes of Martin Johnson, Neil Back and Lawrence Dallaglio, Rodber was in little doubt about the outcome. Perhaps that’s why he has made such ease of transferring success on grass to success in an office. Posed with the question as to how he felt heading south to take on the world champions in their own back yard he simply replied: “I don’t think it ever crossed my mind that we wouldn’t win.”

by Sam Meade