Gareth Simpson: Ex-Worcester Warriors scrum-half's search for Barbarians bag
- Published
Gareth Simpson was in his fourth full season with Worcester Warriors when his contract was terminated in October
Former Worcester Warriors scrum-half Gareth Simpson has enlisted the help of the British Transport Police in the hope of finding his missing, presumed stolen, Barbarians kit bag.
The mystery of exactly what happened to it has been going on for more than a week, since Simpson set off to return home to Worcester from London on the 14:50 from Paddington.
It had gone missing by the time it came for him to get off the Great Western Railway train two-and-a-half hours later at Worcestershire Parkway - and Simpson has since taken to social media, external in a bid to get this prized possession back.
"I really appreciate all the messages and the tweets," he told BBC Hereford & Worcester. "It's really gone far and wide.
"But I've been in discussion with a few people, who are in direct contact with the British Transport Police, and they are now looking at the CCTV footage."
The England-born South African is particularly proud of the bag he took possession of after his first Barbarians call-up last month - a proud honour for any rugby player.
And the loss of personal contents inside it has hit him.
"It's really for sentimental reasons I wanted to reach out," he said.
"I had some Christmas presents in there, although that's not the end of the world. We're living in tough times, there's a cost of living crisis. And if someone really needed money that badly I could have given them some stuff to help them out.
"But really it's just the sentimental things, like a jumper that was given to me by my grandad.
"The bag is black, with wheels at the bottom, with Gilbert branding, a big Barbarians logo printed on the back and a small number 34 printed at the top. That was my squad number."
Gareth Simpson was one of the five try scorers in Worcester's last game, the now expunged 39-3 Premiership win over Newcastle in September
Simpson was part of a Baa-baas squad top-heavy with former Wasps and Warriors players for three meetings with Premiership sides Bath, Harlequins and Northampton last month - fixtures ironically staged to help fill the gap left by this season's demise of Wasps and Worcester.
Wasps had seven former players in the squad - Elliott Stooke, Gabriel Oghre, Jacob Umaga, Kieran Brookes, Tim Cardall, Tom Cruse and Francois Hougaard, who also previously played for Worcester.
And Simpson, who scored during a brief stint with Saracens early last month, was joined by two other fellow former Warriors without a team, Graham Kitchener and Murray McCallum.
"It's been a tough couple of months," he said. "And it was awesome to get these two opportunities.
"But it looks like I'll now have a Christmas off, which is actually a blessing. It's nice not to have to worry about rugby for once and be able to spend some time with my family."