I WOULD HAVE CELEBRATED LIKE THAT WITH A BROKEN LEG! ‘I waddled back to the wing... then scored!
He was already injured before he scored his try against England, but Josh Adams says...
It NEARLY didn’t happen. Wales fans could have been denied Josh Adams’ picture-perfect jump to beat Elliot Daly to a high ball — the wriggle over the try- line and explosion of joy at sealing a win against the old enemy — if the physios had got their way.
they had asked him before the scrum that led to his try if he wanted to hobble off.
Adams had pulled his groin after a heavy tackle from England captain Owen Farrell. He already had tape wrapped around his head after cutting his left eyebrow when Mark Wilson bashed into him.
those knocks will keep him out of Worcester’s relegation dog- fight with Newcastle tomorrow. But Wales v England? No chance.
‘ I got up, waddled back to the wing and felt pain easing slowly,’ Adams recalls. ‘thankfully I stayed on or I wouldn’t have scored!
‘I’ve seen the clips of the beer going wild!’ Adams adds with a smile. ‘It was sanjay (liam Williams) who jumped on me and put me to the floor, Jon (Davies) came over and tapped me on the head. It was a special moment.
‘ I could have broken my leg and I still would have celebrated the way I did!’
that acrobatic try felt like the moment his future in Wales was sealed, with Adams on the horns of a dilemma — should he put club or country first.
Wales’s man of the moment is a victim of rugby’s mad rules. the 23-year-old winger must soon decide whether his priority is Wales or Worcester. When his club contract is up at the end of this season, does he stay in England and sacrifice a blossoming test career? Or does the red jersey lure him back to the country that once rejected him?
the Welsh Rugby Union have stipulated that any player taking up a new contract that is not with a Welsh region must have 60 caps to be eligible for the national team. Adams has only nine.
‘With both Warren Gatland ( Wales coach) and Alan solomons (Worcester coach) saying, “We want to have him”, you can sometimes get caught up in it, lose your way and concentration on the games, but you have to block that out as much as you can,’ says Adams.
there is pressure enough trying to win a Grand slam for your country, and keep your club away from relegation danger, without transfer drama raging around. Gatland called himi home publiclyi ini November while solomons constantly cites Adams as an academy boy Worcester have produced — and want to keep.
But if Adams re- signs for Worcester, he knows that a test career he has fought so hard to forge will be over. ‘I have to listen to the politics above me,’ adds Adams. When
you know his story, you see the issue. Adams went to Ysgol y Strade, a West Walian institution with strong rugby traditions.
Next he was in the Scarlets academy and went to the 2015 Under 20s World Cup, scoring tries galore.
All was going swimmingly until he was released at 18, deemed surplus to requirements. ‘I’d just turned 18 and didn’t know how things were going to go,’ Adams reflects.
‘I was thinking, “I’ve got an academy contract with the Scarlets, I don’t need to work hard”. It came as a bit of a shock. I still believed I could give full-time rugby a crack.’
Adams had to gamble. In order to pursue a career in the sport he loved, he had to move out of house and home — rejection was the kick up the backside he needed.
Worcester Warriors took him into their academy, sent him to the ‘proper old school’ Cinderford RFC before nurturing him into a Test star. ‘Moving up here wasn’t just a rugby change, it was a lifestyle change,’ says Adams sitting at Worcester’s Sixways Stadium.
‘I was living comfortably at home, with food on the table. If I needed a bit of money I would say, “Oh Dad!” Then as soon as you move you’re two hours from home and on your own.
‘I had to learn small things like to cook, manage my money, wash my own kit.
‘ Moving here opened my eyes. Getting a contract doesn’t mean you are sorted, you have to work at it.’ Adams broke into the first team properly last season, scoring 13 tries in 21 matches — joint-top of the Premiership marksmen’s list.
It was this form which saw him make his Test debut against Scotland, go on to secure a starting spot on Wales’s wing and led Gatland to shower him with praise.
He owes it all to Worcester, the club he regards as his first, the town he regards as home.
‘The previous backs coach here was Sam Vesty and he taught me that putting time and effort in reaps rewards,’ Adams continues.
‘He encouraged me to do extras after training. I put a lot of time and effort into the small parts of my game, kicking, high-balls and passing off my weak hand.
‘I got the opportunity then with a few injuries and all those extras meant I was in a good place to step up.’
How it has paid off.