Dollman’s journey can finish with a pot of gold
He rode out of Wales almost ten years ago with no reservations, heading west towards the one in Devon set aside for a new force in the English game. Phil Dollman may not have felt much like a new frontiersman upon arriving on the outskirts of Exeter at a place called Sandy Park, home of the Chiefs. He had been asked to meet the club’s newlyappointed director of rugby who outlined his vision to shake the Premiership hierarchy as it had never been shaken before.
Considering that the Chiefs didn’t even belong to the Premiership at the time made it sound all the more ambitious. Rob Baxter was so new to the job that he hadn’t got round to signing any of the players to help his grand plan get off the ground. Dollman has the distinction of being his first.
Soon the war cry would be heard all over England and beyond. Impressed by what he heard and saw, the newcomer sensed that the Chiefs would be going places even if, in the beginning, the journey meant stopping at venues not exactly synonymous with sell-out crowds, like Rotherham, Nottingham and Doncaster.
His debut, in September 2009, took him to another of those unlikely places – Billesley Common in Birmingham for a runaway 50-25 win over Moseley in front of a ‘crowd’ of 842. The Chiefs and their new Welsh full-back were on their way.
Dollman hoped he would be in for the long haul. Exeter, then in the Championship, made their move after the player had fallen victim to the inevitable cost-cutting at Rodney Parade, a tightening of the belt which forced them to let him go at the age of 24.
“We wanted to keep him but lost him to the budget,’’ Paul Turner, then Dragons’ director of rugby, said. “Kevin Morgan was our full-back at the time. We used Phil in the centre and he was coming through well.
“We had to cut the playing staff and I was do disappointed to see him go. He was a good player back then and he joined the right club. He’s been outstanding in the games I’ve seen.’’
Dollman is still there, some achievement in an era of mass movement where few stay put for any length of time. Only one other member of the starting line-up against Moseley is still in situ, fly-half Gareth Steenson.
They present persuasively worthy claims to another joint distinction, that of being the best uncapped players in the Gallagher Premiership from Wales and Ireland respectively. Dollman is the only Welshman in the last ten years to have played in two Premiership finals.
The winning one, in extra time over Wasps before 80,000 at Twickenham last year, came at a price. Earlier that week he had been called into the Wales squad for matches against Samoa and Tonga in place of the injured Blues full-back Rhun Williams.
“One day I got this message on my phone which came out of the blue,’’ Dollman says. “The voice had a strong Welsh accent and at first I thought it was someone taking the mickey. Then it dawned on me that it really was Robin McBryde (Wales’ acting head coach) .
“Knee ligament damage put paid to that. It was hard to take but I handled it quite well. There are plenty of other things that can go wrong in life. I believe the chance will come, if it’s meant to be.’’
Dollman’s first season coincided with the inception of the two-leg Championship play-off between the top two. Runners-up in each of the two previous seasons, the Chiefs beat Bristol home and away.
“Rob’s attitude before that first Premiership season was very clear,’’ Dollman says.
“It was: ‘Let’s get this straight, we’re not here to make up the numbers.’ Even then I couldn’t have imagined that we would go all the way and win it.
“What would have happened had I stayed in Wales? There was a lot of turmoil in regional rugby, a lot of chopping and changing. In contrast there’s been real stability at the Chiefs.’’
At 33, Dollman is still the first-choice full-back. “I’ll carry on for as long as I can,’’ he says. “I love being a rugby player. When there was no contract offer from the Dragons, I was lucky to have the interview with Rob and lucky to have the chance to play at such a high level. I owe the club a lot.’’
The Chiefs could be said to owe Dollman a lot in return, hence their granting him a testimonial next year in reward for his loyalty.