When James Pater was 15, his team-mates at Shelford RFC clubbed together to bid for a training session with Jonny Wilkinson in a charity auction. To their amazement, they won – and suddenly found themselves sharing a pitch with English rugby’s most famous man.
‘It was an auction prize at a big memorial match between the two local schools, Perse and The Leys,’ Pater tells Daily Mail Sport.
‘One of the dads drove us to Pennyhill Park in the Shelford minibus. We had breakfast in the hotel and then we went out on the pitch with him. I brought my kicking tee. It was funny because there were props and hookers and second rows doing a kicking session with Jonny Wilkinson.
‘He went through everyone individually and talked about how he deals with challenges. He was quite insightful on how to control your emotions and manage things that don’t go your way.
‘Don’t dwell on it. Move onto the next thing. We have a similar mindset here at Northampton so it’s something I take into everyday life.’
James Pater, 19, has made an astonishingly quick rise into the Northampton first team and is now their go-to full-back
A 15-year-old Pater does some kicking under the watchful eye of Jonny Wilkinson (Source: Instagram/Jamespater_)
Pater has carried Wilkinson’s advice into his fledgling career. Now 19, the rangy 6ft 3in full-back is showing composure beyond his years, thrusting himself into contention for an England A call-up next week.
But rugby was not always his destiny. ‘I hadn’t played academy rugby at the time we met Jonny Wilkinson. I played football for Cambridge Academy until I was 15 or 16. We played Chelsea when I was like 12 years old but more often we played teams like Luton and Peterborough.
‘I played central defensive midfield or centre back. I liked Sergio Busquets in that 4-3-3 formation at Barcelona – or the quick centre backs like (former PSG man) Presnel Kimpembe. I grew up wanting to be a footballer, 100 per cent, but GCSEs came along and I didn’t really progress any further. That’s when I called it.’
Rugby was never far away. Throughout secondary school, Pater played for the Huntingdon Stags – the junior club that brought through George Furbank. He joined Shelford at Colts level and his rugby snowballed when he starred at Warwick Festival as a 16-year-old.
‘I was picked for Ireland IQ, which is for Irish-qualified English people,’ reveals Pater. ‘My mum’s from Letterkenny, County Donegal. She’s one of 10 so I’ve got 40 or 50 cousins. We’d go down to the beach with any kind of ball. We’d have enough of us to play our own match!
‘I played for Ireland IQ against Ealing Trailfinders and a week later I got a call-up for England Under 18s. I started playing in the Under 18s Academy League for Northampton and that’s when rugby became something to really go after. Charlie Reed, the manager, said, “If you keep playing well then you could get offered a contract”.
‘We won the Academy League and then I made my PREM debut a few weeks after that against Gloucester, when I was still at school, which was pretty sick.
‘I was doing my A Levels at the time. It was half-term, I was revising, and I got the message saying I might be travelling with the team. I came up and trained on the Thursday and it was announced that I was on the bench. It all happened so quickly.’
‘We won the Academy League and then I made my PREM debut a few weeks after that against Gloucester, when I was still at school, which was pretty sick’
‘It’s been pretty seamless,’ Pater says. ‘I didn’t feel like I was the next in line. I just got an opportunity at the start of the season and played well’
At the time, Pater was only on a part-time contract with Northampton. A highflyer at the Leys School, he secured the grades required for a three-year economics degree at the University of Bath.
‘I had my accommodation sorted and everything was ready to go. I would play BUCS University rugby there on Wednesdays and come back every few weeks to train as part of a uni deal.
‘That was the plan. I stayed with Northampton for pre-season and that summer I had conversations with Sam Vesty and Phil Dowson about staying on and doing this full time. It got to late August – a few weeks before uni started – and I decided to defer my first year at Bath. I put all my eggs in one basket and decided to go for it.’
Pater has not looked back. He had been earmarked as the club’s long-term successor to Furbank, who joined Harlequins during the summer. He opted not to move to Bath, instead enrolling with the Open University for an online course.
He scored a hat-trick in the opening game of the season and has been praised for his unflappable abilities as a ball-playing 15.
‘It’s been pretty seamless,’ he says. ‘I didn’t feel like I was the next in line. I just got an opportunity at the start of the season and played well. My aim was actually to make more than half of the matchday 23s. I’ve been pretty over the moon with how it’s gone so far.
‘Furbs is an idol of mine. When I joined the academy, the players I liked to watch were the dual playmakers like Dan Carter and Beauden Barrett. I’d watch their YouTube highlights. Now I look at guys like Sascha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Ruben Love and Will Jordan.
‘But when you’re with someone 24/7 in this environment, you learn so much quicker than watching online. Furbs taught me so much. When you’re training against him, you learn so much, like what he does positionally.
Pater celebrates a try with his Northampton team-mates Tommy Freeman (left) and Fin Smith
Pater scores Northampton’s fifth try during their remarkably high-scoring PREM match against Bath earlier this month
‘I want to be involved all the time. I want to get my hands to the ball. I don’t want to miss moments and I want to have a triple threat: run, pass, kick. I don’t want to feel like I’m watching the game.
‘I never have targets, but I always look at the stats sheets. Especially at Under 20s, I’d want to have the most carries and play 80 minutes every game.’
Pater has played his way into Test conversations. Furbank, Freddie Steward and Marcus Smith are England’s senior full-backs but, if he continues on the same trajectory, then Pater could be their longer-term successor.
Weighing 86kg, the willowy teenager is nicknamed ‘The Slim Reaper’ by his club-mates. On Northampton’s pre-season tour to Sri Lanka, the senior players ribbed the youngster about bulking up for the demands of senior rugby.
‘That nickname actually came from Chunya Munga,’ laughs Pater. ‘He started calling me it because I’m tall and thin, but it’s also what they call Kevin Durant in the NBA. It’s not a terrible nickname, to be fair.
‘I’m trying to put a bit of weight on but it’s hard when you’re playing every weekend and running a lot. I’m just trying to put more on my plate at dinner time, speaking to the nutritionist.’
Still living in the club’s academy house, dinners are an unglamorous affair. ‘You hear about Tigers putting 20 people in an academy house with two kitchens but we just have three or four people. It’s quite civil.’
Pater touches down against Newcastle Red Bulls on the opening day of the season, when he grabbed a hat-trick
‘You’re brought up knowing that Leicester’s a big game,’ Pater says about this weekend’s opponents. ‘That’s never lost on you in the academy’
Which means he might stay with his mates in the house even if the academy contract he’s on should shortly be upgraded, what with him now being the club’s first-choice full-back. His ball-playing skills have fitted seamlessly into Northampton’s expansive attack and this weekend he will be taking on Leicester in the East Midlands derby.
‘You’re brought up knowing that Leicester’s a big game,’ he says. ‘That’s never lost on you in the academy. If you look at the scores, we used to put 70 points on them in the academy!
‘We had Tim Rodber, our old forward, come in and talk to us this week about these being the best times of your life. He talked about what it means for yourself, the club, and the town.’
Pater, still carrying Wilkinson’s unflappable advice, will no doubt take it all in his long stride.
