Rugby’s answer to Jeremy Clarkson – how England prop turned farmer swapped scrum time for screen time
Julian White is increasing public awareness of farming life.
Rugby’s answer to Jeremy Clarkson has always pushed for a living. First in the scrum, now to champion British farming as an unexpected star of social media.
By his own admission Julian White pushed his luck, at times, too. “A red card here, a red card there,” he recalls, dryly. “I wouldn’t be able to play now. With all those cameras I’d probably last five minutes.”
White was a British and Irish Lion who won a World Cup and 51 caps with England. His rugby CV includes a Grand Slam, a Six Nations title, two Premierships and a European Cup final.
Instagram fame
Yet on Instagram this week the man who famously floored England strongman Andrew Sheridan in a club game with a single punch, was celebrating the blossom on his apple tree and an app which identifies birdsong.
“Wow,” he said, breaking off suddenly from marvelling at it correctly naming a chiffchaff. “You get to a certain age and it just drops off a cliff. Your dullness.”
White, a team-mate of Ben Youngs for five years at the start of the Leicester career of England’s most-capped player, is now 51.
It has been 13 years since one of rugby’s most destructive tighthead props left the stage, bowing out as an unused replacement in Tigers’ Anglo-Welsh Cup final win over Northampton.
Back then he was known for his hardness on the pitch and for being somewhat shy off it. A reluctant interviewee, it would be fair to say.
You would not know it from his entertaining @whitey.southdevons offerings on Instagram, which he posts in an effort to increase public awareness of farming life.
At 3.30 this morning, for example, he was on the move at Crabtree Farm, the 140-acre plot where he owns 90 cows and almost 700 sheep, as one of his heifers was giving birth.
Within hours there he was, replete in trademark beanie, introducing Fidget and her calf to his fast-growing online audience.
“Jeremy Clarkson has brought farming to the masses, his show is very watchable, whether or not you’re a farmer,” says White. “He captures the essence of farming, makes it interesting, and brings awareness to farming to the wider public.
“That is a great thing, fantastic, because farmers, generally speaking, I don’t think are very good at telling a story to the public.
“We’re all very passionate and all very busy, but you’re producing a product. If you don’t share it with people how do you expect them to buy into it and Buy British.”
Inspired by Clarkson, who in 2008 bought a 1,000-acre property in the Cotswolds which became the setting for four seasons of Clarkson’s Farm on Amazon Prime, White has chosen to lift the lid on what he does.
Not only him but Tom Youngs, brother of Ben and another former Leicester, England and Lions front-rower – spreading the gospel online as he tends to the land on his 1,900-acre Sankence Farm in Norfolk.
“Tom’s farm is predominantly arable, mine purely livestock, so although we’re both farmers we’re telling completely different stories,” he points out. “I feel it’s important we continue to do so. You’ve got to be outgoing to be of interest to anyone at all.”
As a player White was highly self-critical. “When you’re in that environment you’re under pressure the whole time,” he says. “I’d sit in bed after a game, always critical of myself, always wanting to play better.”
He gets frustrated at times now, too, by the obstacles he finds himself up against.
“We are living in a little tiny country with 60 or 70 million people that need to eat three times a day,” says the Devonian, who is self-taught and built everything from scratch.
“For farmers it should be fairly straightforward. We produce quality food for everyone, look after the environment and make an honest living. But it’s not that straightforward.
“All that drive I had for rugby I’m now directing at farming. I love what I do. I’m passionate and I’m focused. Yet farming has caused me more stress than rugby ever did.”
Lambing season is coming to an end as the rugby season builds to a climax. White loves to watch his son play at Market Harborough, and last autumn he joined England’s class of 2003 at Twickenham to salute fans and lift the Webb Ellis Cup once more.
“I get a lot of comments like, ‘You played rugby in a certain style’. Not sure what they mean by that!” he adds. “In truth I look back and can’t remember too many of the games. That’s life. Your mind gets full of other things.
“All through life I’ve had to have a goal, something to aim towards. I would have found things hard had I not had farming, which has taken me out of my comfort zone and enabled me to look forward and keep moving forward.”
He is one of the lucky ones. Many players struggle to adjust to life beyond a professional career. In the most extreme instances lives have been taken. Many others suffer with a range of mental health issues.
White had the benefit of foresight. He saw the end coming and, knowing his own mind, realised he needed to put something in place to occupy the rest of his working life.
Big call
The way he did it, withdrawing from England’s 2007 World Cup squad [which would reach the final in France] to rent a farm and sow the seed for his next career, raised more than the odd eyebrow.
“It was a pretty big call back then to suddenly pull out literally just before the tournament, but my mind is not always rational,” he explains.
“You can’t look back with regrets. Go to the World Cup or rent a farm? No brainer, right? Why would you even consider the latter? My wife Sara thought I was absolutely bonkers.
“I remember her saying, ‘Stop being a diva, you will look back and regret it. You’ll never get this opportunity again. For god’s sake, what are you thinking?!’
“In my defence I was 34 and Tigers were saying if you go away we might not give you a contract. There was a bit of pressure. They certainly didn’t say, ‘Go, you’ve got our blessing’.
“Look, I’ve done a few things like that with my career. I’m a bit of a random character. What can I say.”
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