How All Blacks legend Lomu inspired Wales star’s rugby journey
JOSH Navidi’s journey to becoming one of Wales’ most important players is a suitably interesting one.
The son of an Iranian wrestler, he has played college rugby in New Zealand, harboured an interest in just about every possible hobby you can imagine and boasted Welsh rugby’s most recognisable hairstyle. There’s a fair bit to unpack.
However, the versatile flanker recently sat down with World Rugby’s The Openside to discuss what makes him tick, as well as offer more insight into his background and how he became a Welsh international.
Unsurprisingly, the dreadlocks were the starting point of the discussion, with Navidi revealing they won’t be around forever.
“Yeah I’ve had them since I was 15 and I’m 31 now,” he said. “So they’ve been a part of me.
“My fiancee doesn’t want me to cut them, but they’ll have to come off at some point. I want to shave them off for charity at some point and hopefully raise some money there.
“But it’s a part of me and a bit of my image more than anything. I used to enjoy watching Tana [Umaga] play. But I don’t think it’s come from that. It’s something I’ve always wanted.”
Of course, former All Black centre Umaga was just one Kiwi icon a young Navidi enjoyed watching. Like so many others, he was first captivated by the emergence of the late Jonah Lomu, who sent shockwaves around the game with his remarkable mix of speed and power.
In fact, a chance meeting with the former All Black wing, who enjoyed a spell at the Arms Park later in his career, might have played some part in Navidi spending time in New Zealand.
At the age of 16, Navidi’s father Hedy took him to Christchurch, where he studied accountancy and PE at St Bedes College and was even being offered a place in the Canterbury Academy.
“This is back in Bridgend, I remember my dad sat me down, he goes ‘just sit here for five minutes and watch this game’,” recalls Navidi.
“And I remember it was All Blacks v England when Jonah Lomu ran over three guys and scores that amazing try in the corner.
“That set me off. The passion started from there. I remember that day vividly. Jonah Lomu was huge, like how many people he got into rugby and I was lucky enough to meet him at a dinner in Bridgend.
“My dad basically cornered him. So after everything had finished, fair play to him, he actually took his time to sit down with us. And I’m sure he spent about an hour, hour and a half with my dad just talking about New Zealand, about all the rugby and stuff like that. I was just sat there staring at him. Luckily I got a signed jersey by Jonah and Christian Cullen in my house, which is pretty special.”
Navidi’s Iranian roots are welldocumented by now, with his father having once finished fifth in the British Open freestyle wrestling event. Hedy came to Wales at the age of 18 to study engineering, which is when he met his wife Euros, who hails from Anglesey.
Navidi had hoped to head back to Iran to learn more about his heritage, only for the Covid pandemic to deny him that chance.
“I was looking to go before Covid hit,” he added. “I was trying to sort it out so I could see rugby out there because they’ve slowly started building up.
“They do a lot of sevens. It’d just be nice to see where my dad’s from, where he grew up, where my family’s from and to just get that experience because my dad always talks about it.
“You can imagine it, but it’d be nice to see where the family home was and where he’d play football and go to wrestle. Normally, in Iran, you do national service but if you’re studying, you don’t have to do it.
“I’d probably have to do national service because of my surname. But he came over and studied in Bangor and then ended up down in Pontypridd, in the uni there doing civil engineering.”
Navidi has been named in Wayne Pivac’s Wales squad to face South Africa in a three-Test series in July.