Brotherly love put to one side for Armitages

When London Welsh's Guy Armitage comes up against Doncaster Knights and his brother Bevon, any brotherly love will be put to one side as the Greene King IPA Championship gets underway on 5th September.

Both are centres and the physiological war of words has already started between Bevon, who is 10 years older than Guy.

"He [Bevon] told me before I’d even found out the fixture list ‘we’ve got you first game of the season - I’m going to hurt you’," Guy says, laughing.

"Bevon’s loud, he’s physical and he’s competitive, but he’s getting quite old!
 
"In the last few seasons I was twice supposed to play against him, but twice one of us had to pull out.

"I think he’s hoping he’ll get to play against me at least once before he retires."

Guy is the youngest of the four Armitage rugby-playing brothers - the other two being Toulon pair Delon and Steffon - with whom he won the Middlesex 7s during their time together at London Irish.

Both of the England-capped players, as well as Bevon, have influenced Guy's career.

"They’ve all got things they’re good at. In terms of hitting the line at pace and angles, Delon’s really got that and he’s very, very vocal on the pitch. He’s quite a presence when he’s playing.

"Steffon thinks about what he’s going to do and he knows what he’s doing in the breakdown.

"Bevon’s the loudest of them all. It’s a mixture," said Armitage, who joined Welsh in the summer from London Irish.

2015/16 represents a big season for Armitage, as he looks to put two injury-ravaged seasons behind him.

"I’ve had a tough couple of seasons with injuries. I’ve had a couple of knee operations and they’ve not given me a chance to get my fitness back and get a run of games.

"First of all at Welsh, get fit, integrate within the squad and try and look to start," he said, adding that he has been settling in well so far.
 
"It’s been pretty good; it’s a good bunch of boys and we’re gelling quite quickly.

"It wasn’t tough to settle in; I knew a couple of the boys from my loan spell three years ago, so coming back it wasn’t too tough to settle in."

On loan to London Welsh in 2010, Armitage made his debut in a 20-15 win over Plymouth Albion and then made three starts in the Championship-winning season that followed.

Armitage was picked up by London Irish while playing for Devon at the age of 14 and was with them until 2012, when he left on a two-year deal to join Toulon's academy.

However, injuries and intense competition for places saw Armitage decide to return to playing regular rugby with Irish again and now he is back at Welsh.

"Rowland asked me if I wanted to be a part of it and I did. The second half of last season for Welsh, the results didn’t come but the performances got better and you could see there was more of a plan coming together.

"I saw they were trying to keep hold of quite a few players to build for next season and that worked with nicely with what I wanted to do," he said.

"I’ve found the atmosphere to be good, everyone’s excited. It’s a fresh start, we’ve got quite a few new players.

"Everyone’s coming to make an impression and get results, and we’re all optimistic about the season.

"In terms of competition in the backs, we’ve got a good mixture of pace and power, so whatever the conditions might be I’m confident we can get a good team out to compete."