SHAUN REACHES ‘700’ LANDMARK
AN incredible landmark was achieved by a Welsh rugby player yesterday when Shaun Pitt ended his 25th season playing for the same club side – amassing more than 700 games for a village side.
Now 43, the flanker made his debut for Blaenau Gwent side Brynithel RFC when he was 18 and has played in a myriad of positions for the team, who currently ply their trade in Division 3 East B.
He lined up against Beaufort RFC, who boast their own long- serving veteran in Jason Taylor, who reached the 500 games milestone this season.
Starting out as a wing, Shaun graduated to outside-half, filling in as an occasional scrum-half, before finding his present home at openside flanker.
Now also a coach for the first team, Shaun shows no sign of hanging up his boots any time soon. He may still have some way to eclipse Bob Penberthy’s 876 appearances for Pontypridd RFC, but he admits he will carry on playing for the foreseeable future – or until his team-mates tell him it’s time to stop.
“I have thought of retiring I because I’ve been doing it for so many years, but I enjoy it too much,” he said. “I don’t think I would know what to do with myself if I didn’t have the rugby. It’s a way of life for me.”
He also added that his 16-year-old daughter Regan loves watching her dad play every Saturday – and is his constant companion at games. “She loves it,” said Shaun, who also has a son Curtis, who is 21. “I take her into the clubhouse after the games and she loves the banter.”
Playing rugby is very much a family affair in every sense for the player. Two of his brothers still regularly turn out for Brynithel RFC and at one time there were four brothers playing for the side.
Shaun puts his longevity down to avoiding serious injury, as well as the physical demands of his job and a particularly huge hill near to where he lives.
“I’ve had sprained ankles and the usual cuts and bruises but I’ve never broken anything, although I’ve got a nose like a boxer because I’ve been punched in the face so many times,” he laughed.
“I don’t go to the gym or anything like that,” added Shaun, who works as a line leader at A. Schulman Plastics in Oakdale. “In work I’m on my feet all day lifting, so that keeps me fit and where I live in Abertillery I regularly run to Six Bells where there is a huge hill that I run up.”
Coupled with the coaching and midweek training sessions, Shaun is one of the fittest 40-somethings you are likely to meet.
“I still regularly start games so I must be doing something right,” said the player, who cites his highlight as a period in the ’90s when the club ascended the leagues with successive promotions.
Shaun said many things have changed over the years and it’s not always easy to get youngsters to turn up and train given the many distractions they have nowadays.
“In the older days it was a lot better,” he said. “We would train in all weathers, but now you can’t get people to train so much. For the coaches we do struggle to get people at training. In the old days you turned up and that was the end of it.”
Shaun stressed it’s not all negative, as the club are fostering a real camaraderie at Brynithel RFC, with the future stalwarts of the club coming through.
Although, he added, that those youngsters were lacking in one key fundamental area.
“We do try and get a sing-song going in the clubhouse but most of the kids need to learn the words and most of them also need singing lessons!”