As the saying goes, it is never too late to try something new.

However, the person who first spoke those words may not have been encouraging a 35-year-old man to take up a sport that involved battering into other men for 80 minutes on the weekend – but Steven Gauge did just that.

At 35 and, as an answer to his impending mid-life crisis, Caterham-based PR consultant Gauge made the decision to take on the challenge of joining Warlingham rugby club, having no previous experience in the game.

After numerous injuries and eventually being made captain of the fourth team, Gauge has retold his story, and its many anecdotes, in a book entitled My Life as a Hooker.

The book documents events from his first training session – where he talks of interacting with a hoodie-wearing teenager without finding it unbearably painful – to his league championship win.

“I was in a job that was quite stressful and it was a much more blokey environment than I had been used to and I thought I needed to man up a bit,” said Gauge, now 44.

“But you can’t be thinking about the stresses of work when you’ve got a 20st prop running at you with a ball in one hand and a clenched fist in the other.

“The great thing about rugby is there’s always a place for a short fat bloke where in most other sports you have to be much taller and thinner.”

Gauge’s story may be the catalyst to inspire a few more men out of their armchairs and onto the pitch – as he managed with a few friends.

“Inspired isn’t quite the right word,” he added.

“But I have bribed a few friends and family to play with me on odd games and they have had a laugh.”

As well as the excitement of playing in the game, there is also the famous pint culture that ensures the fun continues long after the referee has blown the final whistle and brings together groups of people who, away from the oval ball, probably would not give each other the time of day.

“It was just a great group of people to meet that I just would never have encountered in any other walk of life,” said Gauge.

“No one’s forced to drink 15 pints of beer after every match but celebrating with a pint is a part of the game.

“All those divisions of age and class and everything just evaporate.”

Available at Waterstone’s or at summersdale.com.