Another use for rugby:

Baby thrown from burning building

Press Association
Saturday December 10, 2005 3:38 PM

An ex-rugby player relied on his safe pair of hands to catch a baby boy after his mother was forced to drop him out of her burning home.

Katie Rogers, 19, said neighbour Mike Webber was a hero for safely catching her nine-month-old son Brandon.

Burly ex-prop forward with Newport Saracens Mr Webber, 38, said he imagined Brandon was a rugby ball as he waited to catch him falling from a first-floor window in Barrack Hill, Newport.

Mr Webber's proud wife Lorraine, 40, from Harlequin Court, Barrack Hill, said her husband did what anyone else would have done.

Mr Webber used his 19-stone frame to shoulder-charge the front door open so Miss Rogers and her family could escape.

Mrs Webber said: "He was first on the scene and because of his strength he could get through the door and was able to help."

But because the smoke was so thick on the ground floor of Miss Rogers' home in Harlequin Drive, Barrack Hill, she was forced to drop her son. Mrs Webber said: "It's lucky Mike has a safe pair of hands after playing rugby for so many years."

Miss Rogers said she took the decision because she feared for Brandon's safety in the smoke.

She said: "I didn't want to throw him but the smoke was so thick and he was coughing and spluttering. In the end I had to let go and Mike caught him."

Miss Rogers and Brandon, along with her elder son Ashley, two, her mother Lesley, 45, and sister Rachel, 17, were treated for breathing in smoke. Cause of the blaze was not yet known.