Steffon Armitage’s Huge Revelation & Why He Rejected England

Pau flanker Steffon Armitage has revealed that he hated rugby towards the end of his time with Toulon.

The flanker has revealed that he now wants to prove people wrong with Top 14 strugglers Pau.

Armitage has also revealed that Toulon owner Mourad Boudjellal drove him to a point where he literally hated rugby.

“I can’t really say I interacted with [Boudjellal],” Armitage said.

“He didn’t interact with anyone. He is a special kind of guy, in every way possible… but at the end of the day he kind of made me want to hate Toulon when I was leaving, by making it difficult. 

“He was quite happy to get rid of me but he was making crazy offers for me to leave, in terms of transfer fees and everything 

“That was a horrible part after spending five years at the club, and then to go through all of that. I literally hated rugby.”

Armitage was speaking to to Planet Rugby’s Ben Coles in the fascinating interview and also told him why he turned his back on the England rugby team.

The flanker recalled an incident from England’s tour of Australia in 2010. Armitage apparently felt betrayed after the coaching staff had told him he was their number one flanker, but selected Lewis Moody for all three tests.

In 2010 I had one of my best seasons with London Irish. We went to Australia and [Lewis] Moody had played 30 minutes of Premiership rugby in the last six months, and he ended up starting all three Tests, even though they had told me I was the number one flanker.

Now it has just got to the point where, do I go back and hope I get in… but it doesn’t matter if you are good enough, or if you are the best?

I think that [Danny] Cipriani has been playing awesome rugby – how is he not in the team? He has been overlooked every single time. That is the way I look at it. Sometimes it is not just all about who is the best player.

Armitage has been a revelation in French rugby over the last few years and many English fans will be thinking what could of been.