Dogged Assiratti digs in

KEIRON ASSIRATTI is ready for big dogs Ireland next week after time spent mulling over his future with his pet sausage dog, Pixie.

Less than a year ago, Assiratti’s future in rugby looked bleak after the Wales prop was told by Cardiff they could not afford to keep him.

But Assiratti’s form forced a rethink and now he will be the guard dog of the Wales pack at tighthead as they try and muzzle double Grand Slamchasing Ireland next Saturday.

“I was thinking of signing for Merthyr and I probably would have taken a side job,” admitted the 26-year-old (above). “I’ve no idea. I’d have just had to wing it!”

But hard training away from Pixie – “she doesn’t stop barking, she does my head in” – gave the forward from the Rhondda Valley a dogged determination to dig in.

He said: “I had to think about getting a job for my family, to try to secure everything.

“I just had to play as well I could and see what happened. Now, I can say I’m doing quite well so it’s been a big turnaround.”

Assiratti made his Wales debut last summer and featured in the first two rounds of this Six Nations, both of which ended with narrow defeats against Scotland and then England for the young side led by 21-year-old captain Dafydd Jenkins (above).

“I feel like it’s going to come so people just have to be a little patient with us,” added Assiratti.

“But as Dafydd Jenkins has said, we can’t keep going on about having a young squad.

“We just have to go there and meet fire with fire.”

For Assiratti that will mean coping with the power of Andrew Porter, 28, the Irish colossus who already looks like the favourite to wear the No.1 shirt for the British & Irish Lions in Australia next year.

“He has been good for Ireland for the last I don’t know how many years,” said Assiratti. “But I am enjoying playing and having the exposure of my first Six Nations.

“Even though the results haven’t gone our way we feel like we are fighting and it is going to come.”