TWELVE YEARS OF DAN... THE TRAINING GROUND TENSIONS AND GESTURES THAT DEFINE WHO HE IS
THE American rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd once asked the question: “If I leave here tomorrow, would you still remember me?” It is not known if Dan Biggar is a fan of southern rock, blues rock or hard rock.
But it’s a pretty safe bet that when he does eventually vacate the rugby scene, he’ll be remembered for years at the places he’s played and beyond.
“Even those who haven’t been his biggest fans will have to admit he’s put in huge shifts for the Ospreys, Wales and Northampton,” says Ian Gough, a former team-mate with region and country.
“The doubters who say he hasn’t been a classical Welsh fly-half may not have rung too may bells on his behalf over the years, but when he’s gone they’ll realise exactly how much he’s brought to the table.”
Biggar made his first start in professional rugby a dozen years ago last weekend, when he displayed remarkable maturity to help the Ospreys to a 21-18 win on the road against Glasgow.
Not for him obvious nerves, with one mistake preceding another.
He was only 18, but played as if he was 28. There was game-control, tackles were made, team-mates ordered into position. The young No. 10 fired over two penalties, but arguably his most memorable contribution saw him propel over a drop-goal from close to the half-way line.
When he left the pitch after 68 minutes to be replaced by James Hook, tea-leaves were not needed to foresee that he’d be around at the top of Welsh rugby for a long time.
It would be wrong to say he’s been universally popular all the time since.
Many people judge him by what they see on the pitch, an ultra-competitive individual who’s so driven he can sometimes have difficulty keeping a lid on.
Even team-mates have been known to come close to losing it with him, among them, improbably, Adam Jones, one of life’s nice guys who had possibly never previously encountered the phenomenon of descending red mist until Biggar chose to appraise him of what needed to be done in the celebrated prop’s specialist area.
“It was quite funny,” says Gough. “I think we’d been playing one of the heavyweight sides in Europe and our scrum had been under a bit of pressure.
“Dan was trying to dish out what Bomb saw as scrummaging advice.
“He was telling Adam: ‘Can’t you try to get the ball to the back of the scrum quicker so that it comes to me earlier?’
“Bomb came across to me and said: ‘Goughie, shut that f****r up before I do.’
“It was all forgotten about later, but it made me chuckle.”
Biggar will never change in that respect.
Early in his career, this writer interviewed him after he’d been booed continually during a Dragons v Ospreys encounter at Rodney Parade.
The assumption was people had seen this supposedly upstart kid becoming animated in previous games on TV and happily piled into him. Biggar accepted he had a developing image problem, but insisted he wouldn’t be changing his need to lead. “It’s the way I play, and the way I am,” he said at the time.
“If I try to change that part of my game, I won’t be the same player.”
Gough, who was in the side with Biggar that night in Glasgow in 2008, says: “The thing about him is, he’s a winner.
“He may have broken into the Ospreys team at a young age, but within