My son Dominic, who was six at the time, was captivated and wanted to play so I took him along to a club and after a few weeks of shouting for him to run the right way, I decided it would be more effective heard from the touchline as his coach. Since then, I have undertaken various coaching and referee exams, achieved my Level One Certificate in Coaching Rugby Union (L1CCRU) and I'm now working towards Level Two.

I spend my weekdays in Leeds at the WhizzGo head office and return to my home county of Suffolk at weekends where I coach the U11s at Bury St Edmunds RFC. I was itching to play myself so in 2007 I decided that after a 20-year break I would see if a team needed any old duffers.

Two months later, not only was I training and working towards my first season of rugby with Mildenhall RUFC, I was voted in as chairman and helped with all the off-field administration.

My first match at the age of 41 was quite daunting; we drew against a very established team and I cracked two ribs. I now find playing is a great release and escape after a busy week at work as you can only concentrate on hitting and being hit, supporting your mates and enjoying the game, plus a few pints of Guinness afterwards always helps.

Rugby is completely inclusive, if you are small or large, slow or fast, and whatever your background, you will be welcomed into a rugby club. Only last month World Cup winning England captain, Martin Johnson came down to run a training session. Everyone who turns up is treated equally, no one gets turned away and you always get a game. The beauty of rugby is that the game needs a complete mix of skills, sizes, strengths and abilities. We often get kids who have been turned down by local soccer clubs as they are not quite the right fit but when they come to us, we take them all.

Forward and backs in rugby do very different jobs, require very different skills and work in quite different ways, but they join together in a game to achieve one objective – to win. I have used this analogy in business many times. It's not enough to say you are a team in business, you have to demonstrate it and have a passion for what you are trying to achieve; rugby is the embodiment of that every week, whether at international level or U11s.

Coaching kids is one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. It can also be very frustrating as they don't always act the way you think they should. However, if you make coaching fun, implement lots of games rather than drills, make sure everyone knows what they need to do and how they fit into the squad, then you get quite brilliant rugby being played and, most importantly, kids walking off a pitch completely exhausted but smiling.

Steve Gregory, managing director of WhizzGo, the Leeds-based pay-by-the-hour car club.