My only England game came just days after a boozy trip to Magaluf! – Former Sale, Bath, and Lyon star Carl Fearns looks back on an eventful 17-year professional career in rugby

As he relaxes on a leather sofa in Sedbergh School’s rugby pavilion and reflects on a colourful 17-year professional career, Carl Fearns can’t help but be reminded of his alma mater’s sporting pedigree. 

The names of all the players to have represented Sedbergh’s first XV are listed on the walls of the pavilion. 

Fearns’ is among them, alongside a host of other household figures and Sedbergh alumni which include former England centres Will Carling and Will Greenwood. The international shirts of those ex-pupils who made the highest grade at various ages are hung from the walls.

Freshly retired, the 34-year-old Fearns has just finished taking the Mail on Sunday on a tour of his old school.He then sits down to recall the good, the bad and the ugly of his time in the sport he loves.

Fearns certainly has some stories to tell. Over the course of the afternoon he recalls the time he infamously knocked out Gavin Henson in a Bath nightclub and when he accidently set himself on fire following a drinking session in Lyon. 

He discusses Eddie Jones calling him a ‘whinger’ and ‘moaner’. Fearns reveals he played for England at Twickenham just a few days after returning from a holiday to Magaluf and relives another brawl involving a member of the Tuilagi family.

‘I’ve always been a straight shooter down the years,’ Fearns says. ‘Sometimes it’s got me in a bit of trouble! But I’m unbelievably proud of what I achieved in rugby.

‘I love the sport. It’s opened doors for me that would never have been opened otherwise. I’d never have had the opportunity to come to a place like Sedbergh if I hadn’t played rugby. I started at 11 as a shy, dyslexic kid from Liverpool. Rugby gave me confidence and lifelong friendships.

‘It’s given me everything. I know the sport has its problems at the moment with head injuries, but for people to compare it to child abuse is hugely upsetting to me.

‘We can’t forget the good rugby can do for people. We have to protect it.’ A tough and uncompromising back-rower, Fearns never took a backward step on the field. 

He excelled on English club duty with Sale, Bath and Newcastle but played his best rugby with Lyon. 

England internationals swapping the Gallagher Premiership for France’s TOP14 is now a regular occurrence, but when Fearns left Bath for Lyon in 2015 he was an anomaly. 

Fearns excelled in France, helping his new team to promotion from the country’s second division after recovering from a dramatic incident which nearly threatened to derail his Gallic adventure before it had even begun.

‘Now there’s a story,’ Fearns says with a smile.

‘We had a pre-season camp and on the last day we went on a bike ride three hours into a forest. The lads set up camp and built a fire because we were going to cook a big pig on it.

‘I ended up drinking a whole bottle of gin. When I stood up, I tripped over one of the branches and fell into the middle of the fire. I’d drunk that much gin I had to be pulled out.

‘Our full-back at the time sat me in the river in the middle of this forest while we waited for the ambulance. I had burns down my right side. It was awful.

‘When I got in the ambulance, Pierre Mignoni the head coach was there. He asked if I was going to be playing next week! I was panicking a bit thinking Lyon might sack me. They were very patient.’

Fearns is a rugby throwback in many ways, a player who came through a professional environment but who was never afraid to take the opportunities sport can provide. The camp fire incident, combined with his brilliant performances, saw him nicknamed ‘The Inferno’ in Lyon.

‘If you asked most rugby fans about me, the first thing they’d probably say is the incident with Gav and not what I achieved,’ Fearns says, sitting below a picture of him in Sedbergh colours.

‘It’s not great if that’s the only thing you’re remembered for to be honest but at the end of the day, I don’t have any regrets.’

Fearns quips he had a little more hair back in the day when he was captain of what was statistically Sedbergh’s best ever first XV. Fearns never lost in their colours.

He continues: ‘There are things I wanted to achieve and didn’t but when I was 11, I said I was going to be a professional rugby player and I did it. So for me, that’s enough.’

Fearns left Bath for Lyon after featuring for them in a Premiership final defeat by Saracens and just two years after the incident with Henson in Bath’s The Pig & Fiddle.

‘I turned up late but the lads had been drinking for a long time by the pavilion at The Rec,’ Fearns says. ‘The lads were already egging Gav on. They wanted to see “Super Gav” which was the nickname for his alter ego when he’d had a few. We went to a few bars and Gav flipped the table of a couple who were having dinner in the corner. Stuart Hooper took him outside.

‘Paul James was really annoyed as he’d vouched for Gav because he knew him from Wales. There was a lot of drink involved.

‘Gav came back in and had plenty to say and what happened, happened. I went home and told my now wife it was going to blow up and it did! My wife gave me a good telling off.’

Taking a trip down memory lane, Fearns adds: ‘I got an England opportunity to play against the Barbarians in 2012. I was reluctant to take it because I’d just come back from a holiday to Magaluf!

‘I went because I didn’t know I was going to get picked. The day after I got back, I got a call from Stuart Lancaster asking me to come in. He said Calum Clark would start and I’d be on the bench.

‘Clark then got injured so I started. I wasn’t in the best shape and didn’t have my best game. I got yellow carded. That probably set me back in terms of England selection.

‘Going out with Andy Tuilagi was another one that got me in a bit of trouble. I played with him at Sale. We were in Manchester. I went to the toilet in this club and when I came back, it was chaos.

‘Students were having their phones thrown in the canal. I’ve no idea what started it but there were people getting kicked in the face by bouncers.

‘I’ve looked over to find Andy and he was getting battered by about 10 of them. I went over to help him. We ended up getting filled in pretty much. There was an article in The Sun that said we were knocking out bouncers like Neo from The Matrix but that wasn’t the case. We were the ones who got battered to be honest!’

England’s 2012 game with the Barbarians was uncapped so Fearns never officially represented his country. He was certainly deserving of the honour, but was ineligible for Test selection while tearing up trees with Lyon. The RFU’s controversial selection policy means to represent England, players must be employed by Premiership clubs. Fearns came close to leaving Lyon for Gloucester.

But he eventually penned a fresh three-year French deal to repay Mignoni’s faith and secure a stable financial footing for his family. Former England head coach Jones had shown real interest in Fearns, but the pair failed to see eye-to-eye in a phone call and the player stayed put in Europe. Fearns took exception to Jones’ view of him.

‘I wouldn’t change anything,’ he says. ‘I’m sure some people will say I made some big decisions in terms of clubs and question them. I’d agreed to sign for Gloucester and I was ready to come back to England to fight for a Test spot. But that wasn’t guaranteed and Lyon’s contract was.

‘I had my family to think of long term. For me it’s a silly rule anyway because you should be allowed to play for England if you play In France. I went over there and became twice the player I was.’

Fearns stayed in Lyon until 2020 before enjoying a strong stint with Newcastle via Rouen and setting up home in the North East with his wife – who comes from the area – and four children.

He was disappointed by the way his departure from the Falcons was handled last year and after a brief spell at Carcassonne back in France, Fearns retired in December.

Many players struggle to adapt to life after rugby. But Fearns has moved on seamlessly. He now works as a business development manager for Fusion For Business. 

His primary focus is on advising sports clubs, including those in rugby, on how to cut their energy bills in a tough economic climate. Fearns is keen to give back to the sport which gave him so much.

‘There was a lot of talk that I left Bath because Sam Burgess joined,’ Fearns says, now sitting in Sedbergh’s first XV spit-and-sawdust changing room which is unchanged from his days at the school.

‘But that wasn’t the case at all. I had a lot of setbacks in my career and I can understand why people questioned why I moved to the French second division.

‘But I needed to make that leap and I’m glad I did. I feel very fortunate to have lived out my dream.’