Tommo glad to be back

Thomspon: insurance payout

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Steve Thompson is delighted to be back in the England fold even though his return to top class rugby has cost the hooker £500,000.

The 2003 World Cup winner spent almost a year in retirement in 2007 after sustaining what was initially diagnosed as a career-ending neck injury.

Having accepted a coaching role with Brive, Thompson sought further medical advice in France and the United States and was told he could resume his career.

A strong season in the French Top 14 secured his place in England's squad to face the Barbarians and Argentina this summer.

And while the £500,000 insurance pay-out received for hanging up his boots has had to be returned, the 30-year-old is convinced he made the right decision.

"All the compensation had to go back. It was just over half a million pounds. I've lost money from coming back but I don't regret it," he said.

"I had to send the cheque back. I still had more in me and I wanted to do it. I felt like I'd lost that edge just before I had my injury.

"I wasn't enjoying rugby so the injury came at a good time. But later I felt I had so much more to give.

"I spoke to players who had retired and they all said how much they wished they were still playing.

Opportunity

"They all said if they had the opportunity to come back they would.

"I trained the hardest I have ever have done when I did decide to come back. Being selected by England is the cherry on the cake."

Thompson has returned to the Test arena with the sole aim of re-establishing himself as England's first-choice hooker.

Once viewed as the best in the world in his position, his form tailed off towards the end of his 47 caps as the former Northampton front row grew weary of the rugby treadmill.

But revitalised by the enforced break, he has rediscovered the drive that marked his early Test career.

"I've definitely still got it in me. I'm a lot more relaxed now because it feels like a second chance," he said.

"People say you can be too relaxed but now everything is a bonus and I'm enjoying it all the more because of that.

"Before it just felt like a job but now it feels like a fun job.

"There are worse things I could be doing - I used to work in a factory meat packing.

"I'd lost that fire in my belly and it was always hard. I didn't want to train any more and started cutting corners, so I lost my edge.

"The burnout was just down to playing too much rugby - four or five years of back-to-back rugby."