Right Place- Right Time

By Elliott Josypenko
January 16 2005

For a man whose father made a living protecting the establishment, Andy Le Chevalier has spent a long time on the wrong side of the tracks.

Throughout most of his career Pertemps Bees' new tighthead has found himself north of the River not south, an Englishman in Wales or exiled to an inclement region of France.

A rather non-conformist record for the son of Margaret Thatcher's former bodyguard.

Le Chevalier's father, Dennis, spent 13 years as the First Lady's last line of defence, bringing his son into contact with the most famous family in Britain.

"We came across Margaret Thatcher a couple of times," Le Chevalier said. "And Mark Thatcher who, although he is in the news for not the best reasons at the moment, is a lovely guy."

Such occasions were to prove brief moments where the 28-year-old personal trainer stood shoulder to shoulder with the right sort of people. Ever since then he's been on the outside pushing in.

The tendency started at Davenant Foundation School in Loughton, Essex. An institution devoted to its football, tolerant of its rugby.

"Jeff Probyn's son went to my school and Jeff taught me a lot about rugby. Now and again he would coach the side, when he wasn't away with England or Wasps, and it was he who told me go to Harlequins."

Inevitably, with Probyn's brain complementing his students' brawn, Davenant began to beat some more established schools. "Being the wrong side of the River down London way, we put a few noses out of joint," he recalled.

Unperturbed, he crossed the Thames and rose through the ranks at The Stoop until, having made his first-team debut, Nigel Melville spotted him and took him to Wasps. Which is just as well because those who didn't make it at 'Quins ended up, in his words: "number-crunching in the City. Soul-destroying."

Instead he found himself body-crunching in three Senior Cup finals, two successes and a failure, after which he crossed Offa's Dyke and settled at Swansea.

"I thoroughly enjoyed it there," he said. "They signed me after playing them in the European Cup. They told me they liked the way I scrummage and with Darren Morris not going to play for the whole season, I signed."

Unfortunately, despite impressing with his mobility and power, Le Chevalier's move to the Principality was ill-timed and when the Welsh Rugby Union got involved, as they tend to, things went ovoid-shaped.

It was at a juncture when the Super Districts were being formed and Swansea became the Neath-Swansea Ospreys. That brought current Welsh prop Duncan Jones into the equation and, with Morris also vying for time, Le Chevalier knew his opportunities would be limited.

"When Neath and Swansea came together I made the decision to go to France," he said. "They said they were unofficially told to play the Welsh which aggrieved me slightly because, coming from the Channel Islands, you can play for England, Ireland, Scotland or Wales.

"They said I was not 'first' Welsh and they had had the trouble with the Shane Howarth incident so they didn't want to take any risks."

Grenoble came up with the best package and so, aged 26, he moved to souther-eastern France and to the heart of ski country.

Once more he was stationed at an outpost. "Greno-ble was a very multi-cultural team, more foreigners went there than any other club because of the weather.

"The French players don't really like the cold and if you look at the map all the other sides tend to be in the warmer south."

So while Toulouse had their Poitrenauds and Michalaks and Biarritz their Betsens and Brusques, Grenoble were short on stars but big on spirit.

"We were not a team of big names or star players. Very similar to here, we were a team with great drive.

"The first year I went there was the club's first in the Top 16, 2002. We had a couple of players who had played for France but were towards the end of their careers.

"But even Legi Matui and Alex Chazalet were very good team players. Similar to the Bees, you would dog it out for each other and make that extra inch or yard.

"You are really taken into the community as a rugby player. After my first game for the club we beat Biarritz and for the next month or so when I walked into town I didn't pay for a drink.

"I would go into a restaurant which was busy but then a table would miraculously appear from nowhere. You would be given bottles of wine or Champagne from the market. Rugby is their life.

"We were playing in front of a minimum of 13,000 people. The Biarritz match was watched by 27,000, a sizeable fraction of the whole town."

Sadly his stay in the Alps was curtailed by a family tragedy. His father died unexpectedly, leaving a wife and three children devastated.

"He was diagnosed with bowel cancer which spread to the liver. It was so sudden. He was fit and strong and never had a day off in 35 years in the police. He was not a big drinker, he would have one socially but not abuse it.

"It hit the whole family because he was a role model to me, my brother and my sister. My parents had been married for 38 years so it is a big gap in the house.

"Christmases are very quiet, as are birthdays, all the important things where you would expect him to be.

"Even in France I would speak to him twice, sometimes three times a day just for a chat. He took such pride from my rugby, my brother's football and my sister's net-ball, dancing and acting."

As Le Chevalier describes his father his voice lowers to the sort of sotto voce used in a church. During the 1960s, as a young goalkeeper, Dennis captained Jersey against Manchester United. "He broke his shin in that game at a time when he had a good chance of turning professional."

Shaken by his passing, Le Chevalier could not think about rugby for months until Northampton and Saracens played him in Zurich A fixtures at which time Bees offered him something more permanent. "I thought it would be regular rugby and I think Division One is under-estimated. People think that this league is for players on the way down but a lot go up too.

"Just look at the props here last season. Terry Sigley is at Gloucester and Kevin Tkachuk is at Glasgow, hopefully it will be good for my rugby and get my name around England again."

But he doesn't consider himself part of the rugby gravy train, a mercenary whose skills go to the highest bidder. Something at Shar-mans Cross Road has fired his imagination.

"Everyone wants to be professional but if the situation was right I would even consider another part-time season here because Phil is such a good coach.

"I live in Epping and it is 140 miles each way for me but I want to show that I am committed to getting Bees back up where they should be and also be part of the future of the club.

"On Tuesdays and Thursdays I have to stop working at lunchtime and that is financially quite draining. But it is more rewarding for me to play rugby than just train.

"With the way Bees are going, Phil Maynard said to me the want to go professional, I hope they do and I would like to be part of that." For once Le Chevalier has found himself on the right side of the tracks.

Brian Dick Birmingham Post- www.icbirmingham.co.uk