Transglobe Blog The World in a Blog

Will Carling is a former captain of the England Rugby team, and arguably the most successful, as well as being the youngest ever. He now runs his very successful rugby based website www.rucku.com as well as a corporate hospitality business in partnership with his wife Lisa.  He is a well known UK celebrity and appears on television and radio frequently.

Our bedroom door is usually barged open by our eight year old at 7o’clock sharp! ‘Can I go downstairs?’ is the usual start to my day! He heads off and I listen out to hear if he calls to tell me the cats have left a ‘mouse’ present or not! Always nice cleaning up what’s left of a mouse/ bird or rabbit ! I then make my wife Lisa a cup of tea, she is quite particular about her tea, so it has become quite a ceremony!

Having got the little ones all washed, fed and dressed for school, our Nanny usually drives them there, or if Lisa and I have the time we will take them as I love listening to them chat away in the car.

Shower time, sometimes shave time and then into the office. We have converted an outbuilding into the office, so work is a short walk in the drive. I check www.rucku.com first to see what views are being debated and what photos or videos have been uploaded over night. It is a great site, lots of funny rugby fans as well as many very serious and knowledgeable ones. I then check a couple of other sites and then start on the emails.

Lisa and I work together in our Corporate Hospitality business, she is the brains and the looks and we have yet to work out my role even though we have been going nine years! We have many of the FTSE 100 companies as clients and we entertain their key clients, so differentiating the events and the attention to detail are crucial – Lisa is brilliant at both luckily!

I try to get out on my bike 3-4 times a week and cycle for an hour. It is a hybrid, in between a road and mountain bike, so not the quickest but more comfortable than a serious road bike. I usually cover 20 – 22 miles which gets a fair sweat on. The lanes around us are pretty quiet, so cycling is a great way to switch off and relax – no phones, no emails, just the road and some exercise. I love it for that.

The day can consist of anything from turning down interviews, to fixing meetings with existing clients, trying to entice new clients into meetings, posting irrelevant thoughts on rucku, discussing some of our new projects, one possible one with Stephen Fry and one that could be fascinating in China. So the day can be very varied, and once or twice a week I am up in London meeting clients or potential partners / sponsors to some of the projects.

Once the little ones are back from school, they run into the office to give us an update on their day and Lisa and I try to pack up pretty quickly so as to spend some time with them before bed. I usually cook two or three times a week and really enjoy it, but I have to follow a recipe to the letter out of a book so there is no talent or flair involved! We eat after the kids have gone to bed, but always eat as a family at the weekend. We like to spend evenings at home, so any friends or family are always invited around to us, as Lisa and I do not like spending time away from the kids.

If no one is around for dinner we usually lock up after the Ten O’clock news, put the dogs out, carry the cats down from the children’s beds, lock up and turn everything off downstairs. We usually discuss the days events whilst cleaning our teeth, laughing at any new lines from the kids, young or old and then it is into bed, looking forward to the door being barged open again at 7 o’clock sharp the next morning!