The man who talked too much

The former England hooker will apply his anger and frustration to promoted Bristol's impending fight for survival in the top flight

Some seven months previously, the 33-year-old Bristolian announced his retirement from Test rugby after being passed over for England's opening autumn fixture, with the touring Canadians at Twickenham. Generally speaking, there are two ways of calling it a day as a consequence of public rejection: the stoical approach or the double-barrelled "tell 'em like it is" strategy. Stoicism had never been one of Regan's more obvious characteristics, even though he had accepted and absorbed any number of thorough kickings with barely a flinch, so under the circumstances, there was only one thing for it.

"I'm flabbergasted," he said at the time. "I don't want people to think this is a case of sour grapes, but I really don't think I can take any more. I know I'm playing better than any hooker in England at the moment, but that doesn't appear to count. What is the point of flogging up and down the country when I can concentrate on playing for my club, where I know where I stand? I can't remember being more upset about anything in all the time I've been playing rugby and I don't mind admitting that I've shed a tear over this." Is he flabbergasted still? Yes. Are the tears still flowing? No, but he remains distinctly unamused.

It is as well that he has better things to think about, not least tomorrow's derby between Bristol and Bath at the Memorial Ground, which will mark, among other things, Regan's return to the home-town club he left - for Bath, as it happens - in 1997. The old ruffian has been suffering from an ankle injury of fairly alarming proportions and it remains touch and go as to whether he will start, but of all the "wouldn't miss it for the world" games, this one takes the biscuit. "If I can walk," he said, "I'll be there."

All the same, the England business continues to prey on his mind. "Yes, I think my decision was premature," he admitted after considerable thought. "I'll own up to that, since you ask. But I've made my bed, so that's that. There's no going back. It's just that looking at it from this distance, I think I probably could have gone on the Lions tour, which would have been wonderful. I know I was outplaying people in my position last season, so had I been available... well, who knows? I might have won myself another Test cap.

"What made me give it away when I did? Anger and frustration, as much as anything. I'd been in and out of the England side for years, so it wasn't as though I was being precious about it. But I'd won the shirt back on merit during the trip to New Zealand and Australia last year, and I returned from the tour buoyant and happy, with a spring in my step." And then? "It was the same old shit, wasn't it? I wasn't even picked on the bench for the Canada game, which was quite a kick in the teeth.

"Steve Thompson [his rival from Northampton] was selected, two days after we'd played against each other in a Premiership game and I'd had the better of the contest. I'd even scored a try that day. Everyone said I was the form hooker in the country, so to lose my place without having an opportunity to defend it was bloody hurtful. People were playing mind games with me, and I'd had all the mind games I could take."

Regan was playing for Leeds at the time, having moved there from Bath in 2002. He could have stayed at Headingley for another season or so, which would have seen him safely into semi-retirement, but the lure of a second spell with Bristol was overpowering and, having committed himself to a two-year deal at his old stamping ground, he could not be happier.

"Home's home at the end of the day," he explained. "Leeds? I loved it there and I have incredibly fond memories of the place. But I've always felt close to the Bristol club - if my first priority has been the team paying my wages, my second priority has been to find out what's happening at the Memorial Ground - and by moving back now I can spend what time is left to me where I feel I belong. Apart from anything else, it's easier on my family. My parents have been incredibly loyal, incredibly supportive; they've barely missed a game I've played, anywhere in the world. But they're not getting any younger and it won't do them any harm not to flog up to Yorkshire every couple of weeks.

"To be straight with you, I don't think I'd have left Bristol in the first place if the game had stayed amateur. But in the professional world, you go places to win things. Bristol didn't have things right off the pitch when I was here last - they were going down the chute, basically, because nothing was organised the way it should have been. We had the players to prosper but it wasn't happening, so in that situation it comes down to a career move. It tore me up to go elsewhere, especially to bitter rivals like Bath. Painful isn't the word. They were the best, though, and if you can't beat the best, you join the best. In my first season there, we won the Heineken Cup. There you have it."

Bath are no longer the best - not quite, although their forward pack, powered as it is by Steve Borthwick and Danny Grewcock operating behind a veritable behemoth of a front row, is as close to a state-of-the-art unit as can currently be found in the Premiership. The Recreation Grounders have used their erstwhile colleague as a human doormat more than once over the last couple of years and there is no great likelihood of it being any different tomorrow. In spite of this - perhaps even because of it - few Bristol players will back themselves more heavily than Regan, who will be at the very core of the home effort, both positionally and inspirationally.

"There are some bloody good hookers in the Premiership, but not many of them are English," he said, mischievously, before identifying Lee Mears as an exception - the same Mears who understudied Regan at Bath and faces him tomorrow afternoon.

"I looked after Lee when I was down at the Recreation Ground; I taught him everything he knows. Quite genuinely, I hope the guy gets an England cap, and gets it soon. I have respect for him. A lot of respect."

Respect is a big word in the Regan vocabulary; indeed, it is the one thing he wants Bristol to earn on their return to big-time professional union.

"It's all about survival, of course, but we won't get close to survival unless we fight for, and command, respect," he said. "Worcester did that last season, and I congratulate them on it. When they arrived in the Premiership, there were no star names. What they developed over the course of 22 matches was a star team, a group of players prepared to give it their all, to support each other and do what was necessary to stay up."

Does he detect the first green shoots of such a "whatever it takes" attitude at the Memorial Ground?

"I like the set-up here," he replied. "We have some real talent behind us. I played against Richard Hill [the head coach]; I played with and against Martin Haag [one of Hill's assistants]; I played with Paul Hull [another front-line coach who rejoined Bristol from London Irish last summer]. I know these people and what they bring to the club in terms of commitment and expertise. I have no fears on the coaching front because we're talking about a top-drawer staff.

"Actually, I'm pretty sure I would have returned even had the club still been in the Second Division. As it is, we're in the Premiership - in with the big boys, where you either stand up to be counted or get hurt.

"Bath, first up? It's a tough one, definitely, but hell, let's get stuck in and find out what we're made of. A bit of local passion on a Sunday afternoon? Lovely."