A THANKFUL woman has expressed her gratitude after two Saracens rugby players came to her rescue when her car broke down on a busy road.

Gayeanna Allcock was travelling along Batchwood Drive in St Albans on the way back from gymnastics with her daughter and her friend, both one and a half, when she ran out of fuel.

The 35 year old said: “Unfortunately I had no petrol can and no buggy and had no credit in my phone. I’m one of those people that leave it until when it’s on the line. I won’t ever be doing that again!”

Luckily, Saracens’ Justin Melck was just behind the worried mother and offered her some assistance. The loose forward gave her a petrol can and started to explain where the nearest garage was but it was at this point Gayeanna realised she had no buggies to get there with the kids.

To her surprise the player said he had some time before training and he could get it for her.

She said: “Who really does that?! He was polite as anything and really lovely. He went into the house and another rugby player, John Smit, came out and asked if I took petrol or diesel.”

John, a World Cup-winning hooker, gave her a full can of petrol and refused to take any money for it.

The mother-of-two said Justin joked that it was meant to be that she was supposed to break down behind him.

She added: “I would have been well and truly stuffed if they hadn’t stopped.”

Gayeanna, who also has an eight-year-old son, said: “I told my son when I collected him from school that afternoon about what happened and he looked at me and said ‘that’s a really nice thing to do mum’.”

The two players in question were unavailable for comment this week as they were at a training camp in Switzerland.