Why Clive will dodge All Blacks showdown
On the last Saturday of this month, Clive Griffiths could have been watching WalesNew Zealand in Cardiff free of charge. He has chosen to head for Rotherham instead and a match in the Fourth Division of the English League.
Taken at face value, the decision would appear to make the former Wales full-back and coach a suitable case for treatment. A complimentary ticket to see the All Blacks on a trip back home and he opts for the Titans, thrashing around in the backwaters of National League 2 North?
There is more to this than meets the eye, far more. Three years ago Griffiths suffered a heart attack while on a routine run, a trauma which changed his life and made him count his blessings on a daily basis along with his medication.
“I was horrified recently to read about a couple of Welsh players who had suffered fatal heart attacks,’’ he says. “These are young men in their twenties and thirties. I was in my mid-sixties and yet I’ve had a second chance.
“Thank God, I’ve come through it. I wouldn’t say I’m devoutly religious. I’m not a regular church-goer but you have to believe and I do believe. I feel blessed.
“People were saying to me: ‘Good God if a fit fella like you has a heart attack, what chance have we got?’ Others put it down to the stress of the job (he was then director of rugby at Doncaster Knights) but it was caused by cholesterol clogging up an artery.’’
I have a fair idea what he would have gone through. At five o’clock in the morning of February 20, 2018, Ayush Khurana and his cardiology team at the University of Wales Hospital in Cardiff saved me from an identical attack. Griffiths had to cope with the same fears in the immediate aftermath.
“I’d close my eyes but I didn’t want to go to sleep because I was afraid I might not wake up,’’ he says. “You are scared. You don’t want to die. We all have to face it sometime but not this early in your life.’’
Another clue behind his preference for Rotherham over the All Blacks is to be found in the pandemic. “I’ve just heard today that we’ve had another 35,000 new infections in the last 24 hours,’’ he says. “This thing is here to stay, that’s the reality.
“You’ve got to be very careful and I’m still very wary. I wear a mask and keep my two-metre distance.’’
And therein lies the biggest clue of all as to why he’s giving Wales a miss. “The WRU are very good in looking after the past players,’’ he says. “I’d love to be there but it’s so long since I’ve been in a big crowd…’’
Besides, he feels a commitment to his new club, Hull RFC as run by another dual-code Welsh international, Gary Pearce.
“The journey goes on,’’ says Griffiths. “I work with them as a consultant coach. I could stay at home which would be ok but it’s nice to be part of a team again, helping players improve. That’s the big thing because the enthusiasm of the Hull players is brilliant.
“I don’t go crashing into tackle bags any more, otherwise the stent would be in danger of coming out of one ear! I don’t catch high balls any more, I don’t dive on the ones on the ground either but there are other ways of demonstrating the skill required. And the lovely thing about it is that I can finish whenever I want.’’
Rotherham’s gates for their first two home fixtures average 553 which ought to guarantee Griffiths ample space to keep his distance at Clifton Lane when Hull arrive there on October 30.
Considering what he’s been through, his choice of venue, far from absurd, sounds eminently safe and sensible.
“I didn’t want to go to sleep because I was afraid I might not wake up”