Career ended just as it was taking off
AN injury to Lee Byrne opened the door for me to make my international debut in a one-off game against South Africa in November, 2007. It was quite quick how I went from Treorchy through to international rugby via Pontypridd and the Scarlets. I hadn’t done any age grade or academy rugby. So it was a bit surreal.
I got in and scored but we were well beaten at the Millennium Stadium. South Africa had won the World Cup in the summer and had a very good side whereas we were in a bit of transition after getting knocked out by Fiji.
A couple more caps came my way over the next 12 months but then I got the first of two bad leg injuries, damaging my ACL/MCL in a game at Edinburgh, and I had to wait until 2011 for my next chance.
At the time, there were lots of good back-three players with the likes of Lee at full-back and Shane Williams and Mark Jones on the wings, with 50-60 caps each. By 2011 though, I was a much more rounded player. Previously, I’d been picked purely on my attacking game, but I was starting to bring all other aspects of my game up to the same level.
I had a good Six Nations that year, starting three games and being involved in the others, but at the start of the second half against England in a World Cup warm-up game I suffered a double leg fracture. Delon Armitage tackled me from behind and I landed awkwardly. It was starting to all come together but I was never able to get back properly from that injury.
From the pain I was in I knew I’d done something bad, but I couldn’t tell just how bad. The crowd clapped me off as I lay prostrate on the stretcher. I wish it had been in different circumstances!
Funnily enough, I was never meant to start that game so you could call it fate. Stephen Jones pulled out in the warm-up and I only came into the starting line-up at the last minute. And because I was originally on the bench, none of my family were there. They were watching it at home. My nowwife was working at the time, so she was bombarded with messages saying I was injured. She was probably just thinking not again!
Luckily for me, it happened at Twickenham not in the middle of nowhere. They’ve got a kind of mini hospital in the bowels of the stadium and within half an hour of doing it, I’d had it x-rayed and I was quickly in plaster once the break was revealed. Then I was sent to a private hospital in Charing Cross for the operation, but it was delayed for two to three days because of the rioting in London. I remember laying there, not really knowing what was going on, hearing sirens blaring out.
It was painful watching the World Cup but knowing how much hard work and the sacrifices the boys had made, I desperately wanted it to go well for them, and it did. Had it not been for Sam Warburton’s red card in the semi-final, it would have gone even better.
The question of whether I would ever play rugby again was asked loads of times and I was fairly confident that I’d be able to come back. I’m the type of person that remains positive, but having gone through a serious injury before can be a blessing and a curse. You know what’s coming, but you know how difficult it is and it’s mentally challenging to go through it again.
I always had it in my mind to give it a go, and I was lucky enough to do that – 14 months later – after a lot of hard work. However, five games in, it just got too much. I was in so much pain training was impossible, so I’d just go from game to game with rehab in between. It was impossible to keep going on like that and I decided to call it a day.
Retiring at 28 obviously wasn’t what I had in mind when I first set out down the professional route, but you take what you are given, and to get eight caps for my country is something I’m massively proud of.
There were plenty of ups and downs and, as always, your plans change but you just have to adapt and move on. Some of the European nights with the Scarlets created some great memories. I scored home and away against Leicester one season, and in another, we won six out of six in our pool and reached the semifinals.
Now, after four to five years of learning the ropes under some experienced coaches, I’m head coach of Cross Keys in Division 1. It’s great to still be involved in rugby at a decent level and, hopefully, we can get back out on the pitch before too long. I’m looking forward to getting stuck into it fulltime when life is back to normal.
“I suffered a double leg fracture against England and was not able to get back from that injury”