THE MAN WHO HELD THE KEYS TO NO.10 FOR JUST TWO MINUTES...
LEE JARVIS REFLECTS ON A BRIEF, BUT MEMORABLE STINT IN PIVOTAL ROLE FOR WALES:
MENTION Wales against Romania in the 1990s and most people will call to mind Paul Bodin smacking a football against the Arms Park crossbar from the penalty spot as the nation’s round-ball representatives failed agonisingly to qualify for a World Cup. But not Lee Jarvis.
For him, the Wales-Romania clash that sticks most in the mind is the rugby international between the two countries at Wrexham in 1997.
It was the afternoon that saw Jarvis make his one and only appearance at senior international level.
And it earned him a place in history in the slot allocated for the shortest Test career of any Wales fly-half.
For in the 137 years Wales have been playing international rugby, no-one ever held onto the Welsh game’s most revered shirt for a briefer period. His reign lasted barely two minutes, after he came on as a replacement for Arwel Thomas with the outcome of the game long since settled.
There was still time for Jarvis to send out a pass that led to a try and add the conversion as Wales posted a 71-20 win, but that was it.
One of Welsh rugby’s most prodigious goal-kickers, who amassed mountains of points wherever he played, including 446 in a season for Neath – he averaged close on 18 points a match over 25 games in that record-breaking campaign – never took the field for Wales in a Test again.
The anniversary of that match at the Racecourse Ground passed by last week.
How did Jarvis feel?
“I have fond memories of it,” he says.
“It was a great honour to win a cap for Wales – countless rugby players never get to experience what I experienced.
“I can still remember it pretty well. I had been excited to get on but the minutes had ticked by and you begin to think it’s not going to happen. But I got on for Arwel in the closing stages and was part of the game. There was time to send out a pass for our final try and I also kicked the conversion.
“Of course I’d have preferred to have played more times, but I’m still proud to have played for Wales. It doesn’t matter whether you have one cap or 101 caps. It is still in the house for you to cherish and show to your children and perhaps grandchildren. “
Jarvis’s party trick was to propel the ball between the posts from ranges that some might consider a long-distance commute. Rival teams gave away penalties at their peril with him on the field. And, like his mentor Neil Jenkins, he stayed cool under pressure.
Crowds would frequently be hushed into silence when he attempted to thump the ball through different postcodes en route to the posts, then a few thousand jaws would often crash into concrete as the flags went up to signal the sticks had once again been bisected.
For sure, if a list of Welsh rugby’s top 20 all-time kickers were to be drawn up, Jarvis would feature on it.
His misfortune was to have played at the same time as Jenkins, while the mercurial Arwel Thomas offered something different as an old-style game-breaking No. 10 who had the skill to mesmerise defences.
“They were both really good players,” says Jarvis.
“Jenks was a role model for me when I was coming through at Pontypridd.
“I remember he was in the Wales set-up and I was in the Under-15s and I thought to ask him if I could go kicking with him. I didn’t expect him to say yes, but he agreed and twice a week he’d pick me up in his car, going about 15 minutes out of his way, and we’d go to Llantwit to practise. He was a star and I was a kid, but he still made the effort. “That’s the type of bloke he is. “He has never forgotten where he came from and I thought he handled the stick he received as Wales fly-half really well.
“It is a position where everyone who fills it is criticised, where you can go from hero to villain and back to hero in the blink of an eye. But he just focused on his rugby and in the end won over the critics.
“For me as a young player to have the chance to learn off Neil and then play against him when I went to Cardiff was something else.
“The game wasn’t properly professional in Wales at the time, but he had an incredible work ethic. Watching someone like him, you couldn’t help but learn.”
That brief spell in the Test sun 21 years ago wasn’t the last time Jarvis pulled on a red jersey, though.
He was a regular for Wales A and relished those occasions, believing they helped develop him as a player.
“I’m a fan of the Wales A team,” he says.
“It was a step up from the club scene and allowed you to train and play alongside excellent players from