The story of how swapped South
DARREN Morris can tell you who shot JR, exactly where JFK was assassinated and point you in the direction of the cemeteries that house Bonnie and Clyde’s graves.
But there’s another question most people who know the ex-Wales and Lions prop usually want answered.
How is it that Morris, who hails from Hirwaun, has ended up coaching rugby in Dallas, Texas?
“It’s a long story,” laughs Morris on the phone from his home.
“But I have the travel bug and just love sampling different places and different cultures.
“Before Dallas, I worked in Russia and I’ve also moved about in Britain. I left Wales in 2003 and have barely been home since.
“I guess it’s a case of feeling that you have one life and it’s a big old world out there with quite a bit to see and do.”
Even so, it is a long way from Hirwaun to Dallas – 4,660 miles as the crow flies and light years away in terms of pretty much everything else.
Morris lives just 10 minutes from the Southfork Ranch, where JR Ewing and family were based in the TV series Dallas. If he feels like it, he can venture downtown and visit the spot near the grassy knoll where JFK was shot all those years ago.
Bonnie and Clyde’s graves are in the city, plus many skyscrapers and the Dallas Cowboys Stadium is so big that, with the roof closed, the Statue of Liberty could fit into it.
A bit different from the Recreation Ground in Hirwaun, then?
“It is what it is,” says Morris. “There are pluses and minuses wherever you live.
“Hirwaun’s a great place, with a tight community, but, of course, Dallas is a city and everything takes a bit of getting used to. The climate, for instance, is crazy. You can go from snow in the morning to flip-flops and shorts in the afternoon with clear blue skies and sun.
“In the summer it can get up to 100 degrees fahrenheit, which is pushing 38 degrees centigrade. That is a bit hot, to be honest, but at other times it’s brilliant.
“You wake up and you know it’s not going to be grey, wet and dour outside. You can plan to do things outdoors.
“And the people are fantastic, helpful and genuinely interested in what you are doing. The lifestyle couldn’t be much better.” The rugby is different as well. Morris is coaching the self-styled biggest rugby club in the USA, the Dallas Reds, the Manchester United of the American game, if you will, albeit that he doesn’t wheelbarrow home Jose Mourinho-style wages.
Yet the sport is still growing in the US and there is no dressing room or clubhouse for Morris’ players.
They get changed pitch-side and head off to their homes for postmatch showers.
“There are a lot of things people take for granted in European rugby,” laughs Morris.
“We rely on cities to provide us with facilities.
“Where do people get changed for our games? By the side of the pitch. Or, to be precise, they drive to the ground in their kits, play the match and then go home to get showered.
“Of course, it would be nice if there were facilities to compare with those in the UK, but there’s a great spirit within the squad and the way it is actually binds the boys together.
“We have Kiwis, Australians and a few British lads in the set-up who drive standards and a core of homegrown players who are really keen to learn.
“The interest is growing and only