Hodgson eager to seize chance

12 April 2012

Charlie Hodgson will start his first Test for England in 19 months on Saturday determined to grasp a "massive opportunity" he feared may never come around again.

There were dark times when Hodgson felt he might be stranded on 29 caps after wrecking his knee ligaments for a second time against South Africa in November 2006 - but with both Danny Cipriani and Jonny Wilkinson out injured, the Sale fly-half is back in the director's chair for the clash with New Zealand at Eden Park.

"I did think, particularly when I was injured, whether I would get another opportunity," Hodgson said. "But I never gave up hope and believed that one day it would happen again."

Four years ago, when England were last in New Zealand, Hodgson was overwhelmed as the All Blacks romped to 36-3 and 36-12 victories.

But he feels far more equipped to deal with the challenges of Test rugby away in New Zealand, particularly after a successful Lions tour in 2005.

Hodgson did not appear in the Test matches but was a regular in the unbeaten midweek team and impressed All Blacks coach Graham Henry.

Hodgson said: "I draw on the experiences like 2004 and, like everyone says, you learn more from the bad ones.

"Yes, perhaps I am more experienced and more relaxed about the way things are. The fortunate thing about rugby is you get the chance to put things right.

"It is great to hear comments (like those from Henry). This is a different time of my career but hopefully I can repeat those performances of 2005."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in