‘When somebody is trying to offend me, the choice is mine’
RUGBY star Glenn Webbe, a pioneering black player who achieved cult status in Welsh rugby, has recalled the vile moment when he had a banana thrown at him while he was part of Bridgend RFC.
The Welsh rugby star recalled some of the abuse he had been subjected to, as well as revealing more about himself and his career, in the BBC documentary series Legends of Welsh Sport.
Webbe had a banana thrown at him on the field when he was playing in Maesteg in his second season with Bridgend.
The documentary described the mercurial player as having almost always been the only black player on the pitch, meaning that he was sometimes a “target”.
Bridgend superfan Wayne Barrington said in the episode: “It was a game we had up in Maesteg, which was just up the valley here, a local derby. I was in the crowd. There was a banana thrown from the crowd, just in Glenn’s direction.”
Webbe said: “I picked it up and just sort of peeled it. Took a little bite, and in the end just threw it back into the crowd, where it came from and I was surprised the crowd erupted.
“They were like, ‘yeah well done, Webby! Well done!’ When someone’s trying to offend me, you know, the choice is mine now. I decide if I want to take offence or not.
“And so, on this occasion, I decided, no I’m not going to take offence. I’m just not going to let it go any further than the surface.
“I was flattered, really, when I think about it, you know, the fact that they’d gone to all of that trouble just to put me off my game, which it didn’t.”
At the beginning of the documentary, Webbe was asked if he was a rebel, to which he replied: “I’m not a rebel at all. I suppose I rebelled against some things which I felt I was being slighted about but I was never a rebel.”
The episode revealed more about what it was like for Webbe working as one of few black Welshmen in rugby at the time.
His sister Jacky Ayres noted in the episode: “My mother always used to saybecause you’re black, you need to work harder to get what you want.”
Webbe said, on the subject of his race: “I do think that it’s the reason why I was very self-driven. If I did want something, I’d believe it and I’d go for it and persevere until, you know, I got it.”
The documentary also looked back at the moments he refused the opportunity to join Cardiff RFC, his hometown club.
As described in the documentary: “Glenn was offered a straight route to the top, but Glenne said no.”
But he took a different route by joining Bridgend RFC at the age of 18, and also found a job as a labourer on a nearby building site.
Wayne added: “I remember Glenn Webbe starting for Bridgend.
“I knew that we had an exciting winger that was likely to train with us from Canton Youth and it made a change for a Cardiff player to come to Bridgend, not the other way round.”
The head coach of Bridgend from 1984-95, Bill Griffiths said: “He was very, very quick. But not only that, he had a fantastic change of pace where he’d be striding, somebody would come to him and then he’d just fly away from them, you know.
“It was nothing but progress from the day he joined us and he just got better and better.”
Webbe is now 61 and, although he is no longer playing rugby after he retired in 1996, he has kept himself very busy. He has since opened a company – the Kitchen Bureau – as well as publishing his autobiography.