'I go to the home games and just scream'
Matthew Pryor (The Times)John and Verna Armitage, parents of Steffon and Delon Armitage who are both for England
Everybody in Brixham knows Verna Armitage. The Trinidadian mother of England’s Armitage brothers cuts a striking swath with her long, braided hair and infectious laughter when she goes on her runs around town.
“The support here is terrific, it’s quite a close-knit town,” John Armitage, her husband, says. “She [Verna] goes running in the morning down to the quay and back and she has people knocking and saying, ‘Hey, I just saw the news, it’s lovely’.”
The South Devon home of what is probably the best rugby-playing family on the planet (the Du Plessis brothers in South Africa are not bad) is a venerable yellow semi-detached cottage on the rise of a hill opposite a church. Verna’s colourful carnival costumes hang on the wall on the way up to John’s office for his African travel business.
It has been under a minor media siege this week. But the Armitages will lay their own siege at Twickenham tomorrow when England play Italy in the RBS Six Nations Championship, with John (52, a former Hatfield No
and Verna, 42, taking Guy (17, a centre at Wellington College, London Irish and England Under-16), Joel (13, a prop at Brixham Colts) and Juanita (8, no club yet) to watch Delon, 25, and Steffon, 23, play for England together for the first time. Bevon (26, a centre for Doncaster Knights and England Counties) will not make it, because he will be playing for his club.
Delon (pronounced “Dillon”) and Steffon were introduced to rugby by John, their stepfather, but, though he misses one of their games only if he is in Africa, he says that Verna is their loudest supporter. Before 1990, when John met her and asked her to marry him after a fortnight while he was on holiday in Trinidad, Verna did not know what rugby was.
“We didn’t even know what the shape of the ball was,” Verna said. “Now rugby is family life.” Although, as John says: “The boys support England rugby, but when it comes to cricket it’s West Indies and football it’s Trinidad & Tobago.”
Verna has become a familiar figure at London Irish, whom Delon and Steffon have helped to propel into contention for the Guinness Premiership title this season. “I normally go to the home games and scream,” she said. “I get carried away with [Mike] Catt’s wife — we go and watch the games and both of us should never be close because we shout and scream.”
“It’s not just her boys, she screams at anyone,” John said, laughing. “At one of the autumn internationals she was screaming at Ugo [Monye] and Ugo’s family were right in front of us.”
“I know most of the boys who play,” Verna said. “So if they do something wrong, I can scream, ‘What the a*** are you doing?’ If they do something good, I’m, like, ‘Yes’. I get carried away and then John reminds me, ‘look, their parents are there’. The last four games Delon \[the full back]played for England, he was one of the best players. I shouted at all the players who did something wrong. Unfortunately I end up sitting around
the same table as them for dinner. If they had done something, why can’t I shout?” She bursts out laughing and it is impossible not to follow suit.
Verna remembers Delon walking earlier as a baby. “Steffon was a big, chubby baby,” Verna said. “When he was a year and six months he had a broken leg and he was strapped up for a month, so he had to learn how to walk twice.”
Rugby came naturally to the rough-and-tumble brothers. “Delon was always a good dodger and Steffon’s always tackled people,” she said. “They had non-contact games but they had to put [Steffon] a year up because he wouldn’t stop tackling when he was eight. He just liked the contact.”
John, who says that Steffon’s physique reminds him of a cross between Mike Tyson and George Smith, the Australia flanker, thinks Steffon’s only disappointment on his international debut will be not having a chance to match up against Mauro Bergamasco, the Italy flanker, who has been moved to scrum half.
“That’s going to disappoint him a bit,” John said. “He had wanted Bergamasco; he loves playing against the best. I think of the flankers he’s played against, the only one he’s come back with great respect for is Martyn Williams [of Cardiff Blues and Wales].”
Like most mothers, Verna worries about her boys. “I think with any parent it’s always a worry when your kids go out in these rough games,” she said. “If my child gets a cut and I see blood, that’s really painful. We have X-rays for every bit of the body. Last night I was talking to them and I said ‘are you all right?’ because you always feel that you might get bad news.”
If it does not go smoothly tomorrow, there are liable to be three Armitages on the pitch. Verna has been known to run on and tend to a son injured on the Brixham pitch. “Delon says he would normally lie down, relax and let them check him, but tells them, ‘I can’t stay down because I know she’ll come down’.”
“The security is good at Twickenham,” John warns. “Don’t forget I can jump,” is Verna’s reply. “I’ve got this vision now of security running after Verna and Delon and Steffon running after security,” John said. You read it here first.
