By Paul Smith 
For those of us who love sport but were never gifted, fit, smart or driven enough to make it a profession it can sometimes be difficult to relate to those who are.
Consider TV interviews with current or recent ex-pros who clearly derive zero pleasure from an experience some would give their right arm and five years of their life to sample.
Coventry Rugby’s genial prop Toby Trinder is very definitely not in this camp. In fact, after a five-and-a-half year spell at the Butts Park Arena he is positively bursting with excitement at the prospect of making his landmark 100th appearance at Nottingham on Saturday.
“I’m very proud and honoured,” he says. “Leading the team out will be a really good feeling.”
“I’m not a crier but it will be a bit emotional especially when I consider those who supported me along the way. I won’t have time to think too much about it though because as usual I’ll need to focus on scrumming hard and playing well!
“In all honesty reaching 100 games wasn’t something I considered until the start of last season when I worked out if I stayed fit and kept getting selected I’d be close come May.
“Unfortunately I then picked up a back injury and missed a few months. During that time the century of appearances felt further and further away, so it’s great to finally get there now.”
Trinder avoids using the word loyalty, but in a sport where so much seems in permanent transition his to-the-point summary embodies this traditional value.
“It seems like it’s almost fashionable these days to have two or three years at a club then move on for the next pay cheque,” he says. “You hear players say something will be better elsewhere only to get there and discover it’s actually not.”
“I’ve been at Cov a good few years and feel like I’m been part of something into which a lot of hard work has gone. I hope I’m helping that by being a constant who brings some consistency.
“There’s no egos here. We’re not superstars or sporting heroes, we’re normal people who know we’re lucky to be in a situation where we feel valued.
“This is the best environment I’ve been involved with and the last few years have been really enjoyable. We have great relationships between players, coaches and staff and everyone buys into what we’re trying to achieve and pulls towards a common goal.”
According to head coach Alex Rae Trinder has established himself as an important figure within Coventry’s playing group.
“First and foremost Toby is a good person and that’s one of the first things we look for,” he says.
“To reach 100 games for one club in the professional era is a huge achievement which doesn’t happen too often. There will be plenty of players who go through a complete career and don’t manage it and he’s done it aged 26.
“The confidence he brings and his scrummaging make us a better team when he’s in it. He’s also a really good clubman whose commitment to the cause stands out.”
Trinder has for the last two years extended his involvement with Cov through a part-time role looking after the club’s commercial sales activity.
The resulting involvement with fans, local business and the wider community has enhanced his awareness of Cov’s respected position within the city and the connections – in some cases going back many generations – that underpin this situation.
“The work I do means I get to see a lot more than I did through playing and training,” he says. “I definitely have more appreciation now of how close some fans and sponsors are to the club and how important that is in making us the club we are.”
“Knowing that makes it easier to run out on the pitch. We go to some tough places where there might only be a few hundred people but we know our fans are always there and for me and I’m sure some of the other lads plenty have become friends.
“You know you will hear them cheering and be able to catch up with them after the match. We play a tough, physical sport and when you’re playing for people you care about it makes it a lot easier.”
Ironically, one of Trinder’s most memorable Coventry appearances does not count in his century. He picks up the story of how he made his debut for the club aged 21 in August 2019 on a stopgap short-term loan deal from Northampton’s academy.
“I was lucky enough to be in Australia where Saints sent me to spend a summer playing for Randwick in Sydney,” he says.
“Cov were playing Leinster in a pre-season game and one of the props got injured early in the week, so I got a phone call telling me to get on a plane. Somehow I went from Sydney on Monday to Dublin by Thursday afternoon to make my first Cov friendly appearance as a replacement.
“My first competitive game was a few weeks later at Ampthill then I made my home debut the following week against Bedford in the Championship Cup. We played them four times that season and I’d spent the previous year there on loan from Northampton so for a while it felt like Bedford was all I ever saw!”
The temporary loan arrangement soon became more permanent and Trinder played almost 20 competitive games plus a couple of friendlies for the Blue-and-Whites before COVID cut the 2019/20 season short.
This meant he knew plenty about the club so when it became apparent that his time at Northampton had run its course, this made Cov a more appealing proposition than Harlequins. As a result Trinder duly signed a full-time contract for the following season which eventually got underway in the Spring after the pandemic relented.
After a bit of thought this weekend’s centurion picks out Cov’s 2021/22 cup run as the highlight of his time at the Butts Park Arena to date, although he admits that beating Saracens in front of over 4000 fans in last season’s Premiership Rugby Cup came a very close second.
“That cup run was very special,” he says. “It was played right at the end of the season when Alex had just taken over as head coach.
“Our season had been a bit mixed and we’d finished mid-table. We knew that a big contingent of players were leaving at the end of the campaign so we were determined to make some special memories and send them off on a high.
“We threw the kitchen sink at it. I especially remember winning the semi-final in Jersey on a Friday night five days after beating Doncaster at home.
“The supporters were amazing in the final at Ealing when they made incredible amounts of noise. We lost 13-19 and to this day I think we were very unlucky to have two disallowed tries that stacked the odds against us.
“Beating Saracens here was also amazing; by then I’d started working on the sales side and knew the incredible amount of work that went in behind the scenes to make it a brilliant occasion.
“Looking back now it shows just how fast things have developed. Playing in front of 4000 seemed colossal for us at the time but we’ve since had three even bigger home crowds than that day.”
Cov’s front row is currently boosted by the loan presence of experienced former Jersey Reds prop Stevie Longwell.
With a grimace Trinder recalls being yellow-carded for repeated scrum collapses – all of which he laughingly puts down to Longwell – when the pair were direct opponents on the day he clocked up his 50th Cov appearance.
Their paths have since crossed on a few occasions so how does the Scottish tight-head see his new teammate?
“To play 100 league and cup games at this level especially in the front row is quite a feat,” he says.
“I remember us having a good tussle in a game at the Butts that ended as a 19-all draw when I came off the bench after he’d been getting a bit of joy earlier on.
“Instead of being on opposite sides we can do his 100th together on Saturday and hopefully have a good day at Nottingham.”
Since rugby union went professional in 1995 only 10 forwards and 12 backs have pulled on Cov’s famous hooped jersey on 100 or more occasions.
Cov’s loose head is clearly honoured to have his name added to this elite group where chronologically he follows Rob Knox, Phil Boulton and Tony Fenner.
Flying winger Kurt Johnson’s professional-era record of 242 appearances which also produced a remarkable 99 tries (just 97 more than Trinder has to date registered through a pair of ‘one yard specials’) is some distance away.
However, former club captain Boulton’s status as Cov’s ‘most-capped’ prop of the last 30 years with 126 is now within range for a player who clearly takes great pride in what he has achieved.
“I remember Rob Knox’s 150th game really well,” he says. “It’s a nice thought to be among a group of people who were here a long time and became Cov legends.
“I was very lucky to stay fit for most of my early time at the Butts which meant I raced to 75 appearances. I then missed a bit of time with my back last season and knowing the 100 was in sight made it feel like I’d hit a bit of a brick wall so to finally get there is a good feeling.
“I’ve played a lot of rugby for someone of my age. I went from Saints on loan to Bury St Edmunds in National Two then Ampthill and Bedford in the Championship before I came to Cov. If you count the games in Sydney, for Northampton in the A League and for England Under-20s I’d played 98 games by the time is was 22 and I’ve now played another 100 here.
“Everyone thinks I’m a lot older than I actually am as I’ve been here quite a few years and obviously had a tough paper round! That said, I have every intention of playing for as long as possible and I’d like to think if I manage my back carefully there’s plenty of life in my legs.
“Beyond that I hope to stay in sport as a nine-to-five life in an office isn’t for me. I’ve just started helping Josh Barton coach Keresley. I’ve also done a few sessions elsewhere as a guest coach and helped our community team so maybe that’s an option for me in the future.”
From Dublin to Lady Bay Toby Trinder’s first century has all been done with a huge sense of enthusiasm and pride at being part of a club doing things the right way.
When last season brought back issues and a spell on the sidelines, his phlegmatic synopsis of the injury – delivered with a shrug – was “prop life.”
Many Cov supporters will hope this particular ‘prop life’ has plenty more years to run. Watch out Kurt…
