Moseley's Ben Pons recalls harrowing trip to Esher

Mar 27 2011 by Brian Dick, Sunday Mercury

BEN Pons goes to Esher next Saturday knowing whatever happens will not be as bad as the last time he played at the Pillar Data Arena.

The young flanker will be part of a Moseley squad haunted by relegation fears – but that pales into insignificance alongside the possible consequences of his last trip to Surrey.

That was in March 2009 and a day that hadn’t gone well suddenly got a lot worse.

The 22-year-old was then at Coventry and found himself fighting for breath as the team bus headed back to the Midlands after a 27-18 defeat.

The prompt action of physio Julie Snow helped get Pons through the life-threatening anaphylactic shock before he was rushed from the roadside to hospital in Banbury.

And although he was later released to return home he was struck down again the following day and was taken in to Solihull Hospital where he spent more than a week.

As he looks back on that fateful day now, without any lasting damage, the homegrown forward realises he could have lost more then a rugby match.

“I didn’t feel right on the day,” he reflects. “I was getting a lot of stick on the bus on the way because of all the welts I had, they looked like big massive red spots, raised a few millimetres – I looked like a leopard.

“But when I got there I didn’t feel too bad and I was desperate to get on. I got ten minutes but it was clear to me I just couldn’t get my head in the right place.

“I took a lineout and couldn’t remember if I was supposed to throw it off the top or not so I came halfway down and bobbled it and it went to ground.

“Then I made a tackle and came in at the side – it was little things like that, I just couldn’t get my head concentrated.