GILES STILL DOING THE HARD YARDS
Former Wales ace Ray is on his bike for charity as he reaches 60th milestone
RAY Giles knows all about challenges, having vied with Terry Holmes, David Bishop and Robert Jones for the Wales No. 9 jersey. Now he’s just completed his latest one, a 60-mile charity cycle ride to coincide with his 60th birthday.
The three-times capped former Aberavon and Cardiff scrum-half took to his bike as part of his fundraising efforts for Prostate Cymru, for which he is a long-standing ambassador.
It’s a link-up that stems from a health scare he went through when he was in his early 40s.
“About 17 years ago, I had suspected testicular cancer,” he reveals.
“So I went in to see Andy Thomas, the head urologist at Princess of Wales hospital, in Bridgend, who treated me.
“As it turned out, it wasn’t cancer and I had the all-clear.
“We got chatting and he told me he had just set up a charity for prostate cancer and asked if I’d like to get involved.
“So I went away and thought about it and had a look.
“Prostate cancer is a deadly man’s disease and I felt nobody was speaking up about it, so I joined Andy and Ray Murray with the charity and I’ve been with it ever since.
“We were called Glaze when we first started and then rebranded as Prostate Cymru.
“It’s really taken off. I do the fundraising part of things and try to raise the awareness and motivate people.”
Giles had no shortage of motivation as a player, with the Wales scrum-half position having been such a competitive one in the 1980s.
As he points out, in addition to Holmes, Bishop and Jones, there was also Llanelli’s Mark Douglas, who won three caps in 1984.
“We were all battling it out,” he recalls.
“Terry was the man for quite a while and then Rob came in from nowhere really and stole the thunder from us all.”
Giles made his Test debut against Romania in 1983, won a second cap versus Fiji two years later and then had his final outing for Wales during the 1987 World Cup, when he faced Canada in Invercargill, right down at the bottom of New Zealand’s south island.
There were also a number of occasions where he was an unused sub, including the other five matches at the inaugural World Cup when he was back-up to Robert Jones.
“I only had the one game in weeks!” he reflects.
“It was totally different then. It was an 80-minute game then for the starting players.
“Now your subs are tactical. You can win matches with your bench.
“In our day, if you were having a bad game, you were on there anyway.
“The rules were a lot stricter then. Somebody would have to come off injured before you could go on.
“You weren’t allowed to do the tactical stuff you can now.”
Looking back on that 1987 World Cup, where Wales finished third, he says: “It was all brand new. Nobody knew anything about it.
“It was an eye-opener how professional New Zealand and Australia were in their set-ups and the way the five
players conducted themselves.
“We were lucky enough to mingle with them and talk and pick a few brains.
“Flipping heck, they were miles in front of us. We did well to do what we did. It was a massive privilege and an honour to be a part of the third-place team.”
Born and bred in Kenfig Hill, father-of-two Giles played his whole career in the amateur era, primarily for the Wizards.
“You worked hard in two ways in those days,” he said.
“I was working 12-hour shifts on the opencast mine in Llanharan and going straight from there to training. “But that’s the way it was. “You played rugby because you enjoyed it and you just wanted to play well for your club.”
There was also that burning desire to represent your country.
“Once you have a little sniff of you want more,” he says.
“You just work hard and keep going.
“I just kept plugging away. I went to squad training when called and then openings happened and you just take them.
“Sometimes I think I was playing well enough at the time to have snuck another cap perhaps.
“But I am really honoured and privileged to have played for Wales.
“When I go to the matches now at the stadium and meet the guys in the ex-internationals bar, I take my best mate Neale Doughty.
“He won the Grand National on Hello Dandy in 1984, the year after I got capped.
“We go to the internationals home and away and we talk and say how privileged we both were – for him to win the National and me to play for Wales, both of us from the same village.
“I very feel very humbled to have played for my country. It’s something I cherish. It’s my part of history.”
After hanging up his boots, following a couple of seasons with Cardiff, Giles spent seven years coaching Wales Youth in the 1990s.
“That was fantastic, I loved that,” he said.
“I coached the likes of Ryan Jones, Gavin Henson, Jonathan Thomas, Matthew J Watkins.
“It was great being something back in.”
Away from rugby, he has been employed for the last 26 years at Port Talbot steelworks, where he spends able to it, put his time at the coal-blending plant.
He still remains involved in the game as a committee member at his home village club of Kenfig Hill RFC, where he helped set up the junior section more than 30 years ago.
And it was from the club that he set out on his bike ride.
“I thought ‘I’m 60, okay miles,” he explains.
“It was 100km, so 62 miles actually! “It was a bit nippy out there.
“I did a bit of the Neath Port Talbot valleys, but I stayed away from the mountains because of the ice on the road.
“I was into a bit of a headwind on the way back.
“It was head down, backside up all the way home!
“I did it in about four and a half hours in the end. Not too bad.
“The donations are up to £3,000. It has taken off well, so I am more than happy.”
And as he enters a new decade, Giles is a pretty contented man all round.
“I went round the world playing rugby, which a lot of people don’t do,” he said.
“I was very that.
“Thinking back, my daughter was born a couple of weeks before we went out to the World Cup in 1987. Now I’ve got grandchildren and I’m 60. The time has just flown past.
“I was privileged to play for Wales, I am privileged to be part of the charity and I am very privileged to have a fantastic family.
“As you get older, you get a bit softer and more emotional. It’s been a great trip.”
I’ll do 60 lucky enough to do