In the beginning, Jason Robinson was a bit of a lad, actually; until the age of 21, he devoured every temptation which came his way.
As the most exciting young rugby league player in the land, Robinson had it all: wealth, fame, the flash car, the sumptuous home. His world was a whirling kaleidoscope of booze, birds and nightclubs. Everything, in fact, he had dreamed of as a child on the council estate in Leeds where he grew up as the son of a loving Scottish mother and Jamaican father who made but a fleeting impact on his life before disappearing who knows where.
Unexpected entrance...
Robinson himself was already a dad from a previous relationship and his girlfriend, Amanda, to whom he is now blissfully married, was pregnant. 'Yeah, I was a wild boy. I was earning more money than I'd ever imagined possible. Living in Wigan, which is a small town where everything revolves round rugby league, people were forever telling me how great I was and I started believing them. You read stories day in day out about actors, professional footballers, whatever, who give in to the pressures with drink or drugs. But for the grace of God I don't know where I'd be now...' God unexpectedly entered Robinson's fragile existence in the shape of Samoan international Va'aiga Tuigamala.