Back: I’d hate to be judged on that Munster dirty trick

NEIL BACK begins his 13th season at Leicester this week with a confession about the notorious piece of gamesmanship which denied Munster’s European Cup final dream last May.

A summer’s reflection has prompted England’s senior professional to talk about a reputation “tarnished” by the incident which brought Leicester’s Heineken Cup triumph over Munster to an uproarious end in Cardiff three months ago.

“In a way, I wish I hadn’t done it,” said Back, referring to the illegal act of slapping the ball out of Munster scrum half Peter Stringer’s hands as he went to feed a last-minute scrum in front of the Leicester posts with the holders defending a 15-9 lead.

“I have to be honest about it. I don’t like people thinking I’m a cheat. I don’t want that slur. I’m not a cheat. I had a lot of mail over that incident, mostly negative. There were letters saying I was a cheat, some of them from Leicester fans, which was a bit hurtful. If people wanted to make me feel bad about what happened, they have. That’s disappointing and I know it upset my wife, Alison. If I thought there was any possible way of redressing it, I would consider it. I regret it because I don’t like to think that, because of that one incident, there are people who think I’m a cheat.

“It has tarnished my reputation. In making any judgment, I would hope people will evaluate me over my whole career and not label me on that one moment. It happened spontaneously. I weighed the options up in a split-second and did what I did.”

Back’s obsessive will to win had seen him in trouble before, most notably for manhandling referee Steve Lander after his last-minute penalty try award had wrenched the English Cup from Leicester during the 1996 Twickenham final against Bath.

Despite that and the dirty trick against Munster, which was plain for everyone to see except the French officials, Back has an enviable reputation among his peers.

He said: “As far as dirty play is concerned, I’m as clean as you can get. I’m very competitive and I will do almost anything to win, but I will not do anything dirty. I play hard and get stuck in.

“The stats for last season show I only gave away a penalty every other match. That’s pretty clean considering back-row players tend to give away a lot of penalties.”

Back, deservedly awarded a testimonial at 33 in acknowledgement of his outstanding service dating back to five years before the professional revolution in 1995, plans to stretch his England career through to the World Cup in October next year. That would be no mean feat given the rise of another Leicester flanker, Lewis Moody, as an England openside in his own right.

Back said: “The World Cup is out there but my goal is to play in the No 7 shirt for Leicester, week in, week out. I don’t want to say I’ll retire after the World Cup, because if I’m still passionate about playing then why not continue?”