Moriarty: My back was so bad they wouldn’t operate
WHEN Ross Moriarty strides into the gladiator’s pit this afternoon, jaws in Cardiff should hit the floor. Moriarty — a Lion last summer — has returned for his 18th cap from a blow so bad he could not feel his legs, and four surgeons refused to operate, fearing any slight mistake would end his career. For Wales’s 23-year-old No 8, kick-off will be a blessed relief. In June, playing for the Lions against the Provincial Barbarians in Whangarei, he managed 80 minutes with two slipped discs in his back.
‘Somehow I stayed on the pitch,’ he said. ‘I was in the Lions team and all I wanted to do was play and continue my time there, but my body wouldn’t let me.’
The injury was much worse than he realised. ‘Two of the discs slipped in my back and jammed into the nerves of my legs, so the muscles on my legs stopped working,’ he explained. ‘Sometimes I’d stand up and the nerve would get jammed by the disc and I’d fall over.’
Over the next few months he was a wreck. ‘I couldn’t run, stand on one leg, walk upstairs or downstairs. It was quite a tough time. It wasn’t until the doctor saw that the reflex in my knee had stopped working that they realised how bad it was.’
Amazingly, Moriarty returned for Gloucester in November, only for the problems to resurface.
‘A tear in my disc was leaking fluid on to my knee again, so that was giving me a lot of problems in my leg,’ he added. ‘ No surgeon would go in there, they said it was too close to the nerve and if they damaged it that would basically be me done. I was really worried and upset.’
He sought solace from his family. Father Paul could empathise, having suffered his fair share of knocks while winning 21 Wales caps.
The dark time became worse when Moriarty ( right) announced he would be moving clubs — from Gloucester to the Dragons — next season.
He had to, as with fewer than 60 caps he would be ineligible for Wales if he stayed in England. It prompted social media trolls to question his loyalty to the club that made him.
‘There are a lot of people who say things on the internet who have never had any experience in rugby, but act like they’ve coached the All Blacks,’ the backrower said. ‘That is the sad reality.’ Luckily, Moriarty’s thoughts can finally turn to the matter of beating Scotland today. Warren Gatland, on the 10th anniversary of his first Wales Test, knows that his side should win. Scotland, for all their vim, vigour and voraciousness, are an unproven force away from home. Moriarty will be grateful for the chance to bash people again. ‘I will be relieved to walk off the pitch in one piece, but I’ll walk on to the pitch as if it’s my last international,’ he said. WALES: L Halfpenny; J Adams, S Williams, H Parkes, S Evans; R Patchell, G Davies; R Evans, K Owens, S Lee; C Hill, A W Jones (capt); A Shingler, R Moriarty J Navidi. Subs: E Dee, W Jones, T Francis, B Davies, J Tipuric, A Davies, O Watkin, G Anscombe. SCOTLAND: S Hogg; T Seymour, C Harris, H Jones, B McGuigan; F Russell, A Price; G Reid, S McInally, J Welsh; B Toolis, J Gray; J Barclay (capt), C du Preez, H Watson. S Lawson, J Bhatti, M McCallum, G Gilchrist, R Wilson, G Laidlaw, P Horne, S Maitland.