IT WAS TOUGH TO STAND UP IN FRONT OF THE TEAM AND SAY I WAS FINISHING
FOR Dafydd Lockyer, it was an emotional moment as he broke the news to his Pontypridd team-mates.
After 16 seasons with the club and 382 appearances, the skipper had decided the time had come to call it a day.
“It’s been really hard, really emotional, to be honest,” he admits.
“I had to go and tell the boys on Tuesday. I had to stand up in front of them, which wasn’t easy. I found that really tough.
“It’s one of the hardest things I have had to do, getting up and speaking like that and saying I was finishing.
“It’s just hard to admit when you come to that stage and you can’t do it no more.
“But I just wanted to be honest with everyone.
“I just think the team and the boys deserve it.”
He continued: “It’s been a tough decision, one I’ve taken some time to consider.
“I’d been training hard for the coming season, but, the last month or two, I just couldn’t get back to what I was.
“I was struggling with my shoulder, which I have been struggling with for years.
“I just had to be honest with the coaches. I spoke to Justin (Burnell).
“He offered me the chance to play one week and have a week off.
“But that’s not me. I’m either all in or I’m not in.
“I would have loved to get to 400 appearances for the club.
“I was only 18 games away, but I just think those 18 games would have taken a hell of a lot out of me.
“After everything I have achieved, I didn’t want to go on the pitch just to get those caps in.
“At the end of the day, I just think it’s the right decision for me, my family, my body and for the team.
“Although I’m gutted, it will be good to leave the club that has meant so much to me on my own terms, on good terms, and not just to be told by others that I’m not wanted any more.
“I’ve had to be honest with myself and listen to what my body is telling me - my time is up.”
So, at 36, the hard-running centre has brought down the curtain on his illustrious Ponty career.
“I had told Chris Dicomidis and Rhys Shellard, they knew, and I had spoken to Justin and Dan Godfrey,” he said.
“But they were the only people who knew.
“I told the rest of the boys upstairs in the team room at Sardis.
“They were really surprised because I think they all thought I was hellbent on getting to my 400.
“They look at me and I don’t show a lot. I’m in a lot of pain with my shoulder, but I don’t really show it.
“I still probably appear fit, but they don’t see the other side of it where I am at home and in work.
“They were really surprised and gutted. I had so many texts afterwards.
“But I just don’t think my body is able to carry on at that level. I would hate to get another bad bump at this stage in my life.
“I thought of my family and it was just the right move and the right time.”
Father-of-three Lockyer made his Ponty debut as a teenager against Ebbw Vale way back in 2003.
There have been numerous opportunities to move into the pro game, but he has always turned them down, with two years at Neath from 2007 to 2009 his only time elsewhere.
“Since I have been at the club, I have had a contract offer from every region at some point,” he revealed.
“The Blues came in twice, the Scarlets twice, Ospreys, Dragons. I had chances to go over the border to the English Championship.
“The Scarlets one was probably the closest I came to leaving the club.
“It was when Nigel Davies was in charge there, in about 2012.
“I went up and had a chat with him and watched one of the games.
“It was around the time he went to Gloucester. He phoned me to say he was going, but the contract was there on the table. But I decided to stay with Ponty in the end.
“Then I had a bad injury on my shoulder seven or eight years ago and I probably knew then I could never go full-time.
“A couple of offers came in, but I just didn’t think I could play at that level with my shoulder to be honest.
“It was a big decision not to try and give it a go at a higher level.
“But I don’t regret any of it, I don’t regret not going. I am just happy with what I have done and achieved.
“I don’t spend time wondering what might have been. I have loved my time at Ponty and everything, the friends I have met.”
Lockyer helped the club win both the league title and the Welsh Cup four times apiece and was named Premiership player of the year twice, in 2011 and 2013, while he has been captain since 2014.
He has scored 92 tries in all, while his 382 appearances put him in the top six on the all-time list, along with the likes of Bob Penberthy, Dale McIntosh, Phil John and Steele Lewis.
As for his favourite game, he chooses the British & Irish Cup quarter-final victory away to Cornish Pirates in April 2014.
“That’s probably the biggest one that stands out,” he says.
“We were written off really, but turned them over on their pitch.
“We took something like 1,000 fans up there.”
The Ponty faithful have come to mean a huge amount to Lockyer over the years.
“They have played a massive part,” he said.
“I have met so many friends there, friends that I will have for the rest of my life.
“They are the club. They are everything. I appreciate all the support I have had off them.
“They have been great. I love going in the clubhouse afterwards, I love bumping into them when I’m about in Ponty and the valleys. They are just lovely people and so mad for Ponty. They have made my time there to be honest.
“Without them, the club wouldn’t
be what it was and what it is. I have so many experiences to treasure of being with them.”
Away from rugby, Lockyer is an electrician with a housing association and has recently been promoted to a management role, based in Treforest.
He will remain involved in the game, coaching his local club Abercwmboi, along with former Wales second row Ian Evans, while also playing the odd match.
“Ian is one of my best mates,” he said.
“We were in the same class in school at Blaengwawr Comprehensive.
“Abercwmboi is a club that means a lot to me and I have many friends there.”
He will still head down to Sardis Road with his family to watch Ponty play and has strong opinions about the game at semi-pro level.
“The Premiership is massively important,” he said.
“I just don’t think the WRU are really helping at the minute, with the lack of funding.
“Clubs are on their a **** and struggling.
“The amount of Premiership players who are in the Wales squad at the moment is amazing. It’s got a massive part to play.
“I just think it could play an even bigger part if the WRU invested a bit more into it, in terms of facilities and just helping the clubs out in general.”
So, as Lockyer finally calls it a day, what is it that has kept him going all these years?
What does he put his longevity down to?
“I never thought I would play for such a great club as Ponty, let alone for so many years, but my family have backed me all the way and given me the self-belief to carry on,” he says. “I have always kept myself fit. “I have just loved being around the club, being around the boys, turning up training, being in that environment and I’ve had great fun off the pitch.
“I have just enjoyed it and made so many good friends there.
“I was lucky to be a part of so many great Ponty teams and there are so many people I want to thank, all the players, coaches and officials I’ve worked with and, of course, the fans, who have been so important.
“Ponty means so much to me. It’s been an honour to represent the club and the badge, for which I have massive respect and always will.
“It’s just the club, it’s just Ponty, it’s the best club in Wales, it always will be, the best supported club in Wales and it’s just been a smashing part of my life.”