Robinson: This is my finest hour

13 April 2012

Some rugby league people called me a traitor when I switched codes, but I believe that to play for a Lions team which wins a Test series in Australia would be the greatest achievement of my career.

I won everything there was to win in league with Wigan, but to do the same in another sport is an altogether different matter.

After all, I had never seen a game of rugby union until four years ago, let alone played in one. I had been reared on league from the age of 10 and it was almost as if no other form of the game existed.

When the subject of union cropped up, it tended to be dismissed as a game where not very much happened for most of the time, and, in my ignorance, I assumed that to be the case. The fact that I never watched the big internationals on television in those days ensured that I remained ignorant.

It all changed, though, when league switched to a summer season and union turned professional.

Those revolutionary changes allowed me to join Bath for an off-season. But, while that was enjoyable, I was still a dyed-in-the-wool league player when I returned to Wigan a few months later.

Who would have thought, therefore, that I would be where I am today - a member of the Lions' Test team with the chance of winning the series in Melbourne on Saturday?

It has all happened so quickly. I joined Sale last year and have yet to play a full match for England. A lot of people - me included - find it hard to believe.

It's nice to hear that a lot of league people are watching the Lions because I am playing but I have been careful to avoid getting caught in any political cross-fire between the codes.

I got a fair amount of abuse when I switched to union and some of the messages on my website were not very nice. They said: 'You are a traitor. We have lost all respect for you.'

But I wasn't bothered. Before I joined Sale, Wigan offered me more money to stay and I had prayed for six months for guidance to help me make the right decision.

Had I not been given the strength through Christianity to change my ways, I would never be where I am today. At the rate I was drinking and running around, I would probably have been lucky still to be in the game.

Once I made the move, a lot of people were fearful for my future but I set out to learn as much as possible as quickly as possible and justify the faith shown in me by the Sale chairman, Brian Kennedy.

If he hadn't shown such faith I would not have had this wonderful experience of playing with the best players in the game and in front of such awesome support.

Wherever I go, I see a mass of red jerseys. They went bananas last Saturday and I hope they go bananas again this week.

But don't forget that Australia are not world champions for nothing and we will not win the series by being content with last week ' s performance.

I know only too well how hard it is to beat them. I managed it on the odd occasion in league but never twice in a row.

There is a first time for everything.

Interview: Peter Jackson

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Robinson: This is my finest hour

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