Wales skipper’s Canty link
Wales’ new captain Josh Navidi has revealed he turned down a rugby contract with Canterbury and was tempted to stay in New Zealand.
The dreadlocked backrower will captain Wales for the first time in a World Cup game warmup game against Ireland in Cardiff on Saturday (Sunday NZ time).
But the 28-year-old could easily have been playing Super Rugby for the Crusaders had fate taken a different turn.
Navidi’s father Hedy was an Iranian wrestler who went to university in Wales and met and married a Welsh woman. Bridgend born Josh Navidi told
Wales Online his father took him to Christchurch at the age of 16 to study and play rugby at St Bede’s College. He had two seasons in St Bede’s first XV, helping them win The Press Cup Crusaders region title in 2008.
Navidi – who sported dreadlocks as a schoolboy – scored a try in St Bede’s 36-14 grand final win over Marlborough Boy’s College. The match report in The Press noted: ‘‘No. 8 Josh Navidi was combative off the back [of the scrum], making some powerful surges’’.
The young Welshman was invited to join the Canterbury rugby academy – famous for producing professional rugby players and future internationals, but the lure of a Wales cap proved too strong.
‘‘At the end of my time there, Canterbury offered me an academy contract to stay on. It was a big thing to turn down,’’ Navidi told Wales Online.
‘‘But it was just hard for me getting residency to stay, so it was easier for me to come back home.’’
The Navidi family contemplated emigrating to New Zealand, but ‘‘we had too too much back here’’.
‘‘My dad has got businesses in Wales, so it was quite hard to leave that and move down there.
‘‘In the end, it came down to my dad reminding me I was Welsh. I could have stayed there happily enough but I am a Welsh boy and wanted to put a red jersey on.’’
Navidi said he had a ‘‘a fantastic experience’’ in Christchurch and grew as a rugby player.
‘‘It is a lovely country. I would tell anyone to go out there and visit. The climate is great, the people are so friendly and their approach to rugby is phenomenal. They are so hard-nosed.
‘‘The standard was so high and it certainly toughened me up. I’ll never forget some of those games.
‘‘Christchurch was a good place to get experience and see how they play. Every school has got a different haka as well and you have to learn it. You can’t just stand on the sidelines and run on. I still remember bits of it.’’
Navidi returned to Wales and eventually signed for the Cardiff Blues, making his professional debut in 2010.
He won the first of his 17 Wales caps in 2013, but had to wait four years for another opportunity.
Navidi nailed it with a strong display in Wales’ 33-18 loss to the All Blacks in Cardiff in 2017 when he opposed Codie Taylor, Luke Whitelock, Sam Whitelock, Matt Todd and Ryan Crotty, who could have been his Canterbury and Crusaders teammates had he decided to stay in Christchurch.
The 1.85m flanker became a vital part of Warren Gatland’s 2019 Six Nations grand slam winning squad and is considered a World Cup squad certainty. Navidi can play in all three backrow roles, but is likely to be at No 8 against Ireland as Gatland rests some regular starters to freshen for the World Cup.