It was a fair cop... Dafydd reveals the true story of how Wales coach Hansen had him bang to rights!
THE memory drifts back to a golden autumn afternoon in 1996 at the Brewery Field, when two young centres sliced Neath apart so ruthlessly the thought was Bridgend had drafted Jack the Ripper and his mate into their side.
When they stopped counting, the hosts had scored 59 points and the Welsh All Blacks 13. Quite how many clean breaks Dafydd James and Gareth Thomas made in midfield that day was another matter.
They were fast, powerful and relentless, and Neath couldn’t cope.
Had the pair been wearing black instead of blue and white, it would have been a different story altogether.
James went on to play 48 times for Wales and feature in three Tests for the Lions. During that series against Australia in 2001, one respected writer described his efforts as ‘regal’. For a long time, he held the record as top try scorer in the Heineken Cup. Even now, only three players have crossed the whitewash more times than James managed in top-tier European rugby.
He has a great rugby back catalogue, then, and some wonderful tales to tell.
But the question at the top of this writer’s notepad concerns an incident off the pitch.
It is a query he could have evaded as easily as he once slipped past tackles during his playing career.
But he is up for a chat and invites me to bring it on.
THE WHISTLING EX-POLICEMAN
IT concerns an episode that unfolded many years ago when James was playing for Wales. Their coach at the time, Steve Hansen, had insisted all players should stay in camp at the Vale of Glamorgan Hotel. James slipped off home for the night, only to be greeted by the New Zealander in the car park the following morning. What happened next?
James has never spoken publicly and fully about the episode before. But when the potential googly is sent down to him, he deals with it without flinching.
“It was an incident that happened a long time ago, when I was young and a bit naive,” he says.
“I brought it on myself in a way. “Living just 20 minutes from the Vale, I thought it would be a good opportunity to go home for a good night’s sleep. Everyone wants to sleep at home at night and I was no different. “Unfortunately, I bumped into Steve Hansen in the hotel car park as I returned the next morning. It was really early and hardly anyone else was around.
“He had put in place rules for players to stay in the hotel.
“I think he suspected a few of us hadn’t exactly been sticking to those rules, anyway, so there he was, standing before me and asking where I’d been.
“I was caught on the hop and told him I couldn’t sleep and had been up to the car to get my laptop because I wanted to watch a film.
“He said: ‘So you haven’t been home for the night, then?’
“I just froze and said: ‘No’.
“He suggested I go back to my room.”
James continues: “I told our wing Mark Jones I had a bad feeling about the whole episode and was in the process of trying to persuade him to cover for me when there was a knock on the door. It was Steve. He whistled to me, as you would if you were calling a dog.
“I didn’t budge at first.
“But when I went to see him he told me he had felt the hood and exhaust of the car and both were warm. There was nowhere to go after that really.
“He was a former police officer and I’d been caught out.
“The thing was, around eight other boys had gone home as well. Nothing was said to any of them.
“But there he was, outside that door, Inspector Clouseau.”
Case closed and all that .....
A FAIR COP?
BUT as contrite as he is about his decision to tell a white lie about where he’d slept the previous night – a regrettable occurrence, but hardly a hanging offence – James still feels a tad hard doneby.
“I think he was gunning for me,” he says.
“A meeting was called, with the end result being that I was dropped for the next game because I hadn’t told the truth.
“It made me laugh in a way.
“Our centre Jamie Robinson had gone home and hadn’t even returned in time for the meeting, yet I don’t think they even noticed he wasn’t there.
“Such is life.
“The press called the hotel the Jail of Glamorgan.
“Rules are rules and it was poor judgement on my part.
“I should have just admitted what had happened, but I didn’t and you learn as you go along. It was a mistake but everyone makes mistakes. While I missed the game against Canada on the Saturday, I was back for the New Zealand match a week later.
“But I still question the fairness of it all, that I was the one who was singled out.”
A DIFFERENT WORLD
IT is easy to knock James over the episode now.
But back then Welsh rugby was still coming to terms with professionalism and all its demands.
A number of players genuinely couldn’t understand the benefits of being cooped up in a hotel when they lived just minutes away.
Consider the thoughts of Michael Owen, writing in his book, My Story: “Hansen wanted players to spend time together, but so much time in hotels is empty time anyway.
“Players often find themselves whiling away their time on Play Stations, at the cinema, playing cards or whatever. I just wanted to pop home occasionally for a few of those spare hours.
“Loads of players were sneaking out, but Dafydd was unfortunate enough to be caught.
“I’d just sneaked back into the hotel from a visit home... when a meeting was called. “When it all came out about Dafydd, I felt really bad. We all did.”
RESPECT FOR THE COACH
FOR all that, James respected Hansen as a coach.
The Kiwi came into Welsh rugby with the game here at a low ebb — professional in name only. He changed the national team culture, stopped cliques developing, introduced a dress code and encouraged players to show humility. “He shot the patient and started from scratch,” commented one New Zealander writer.
“He instilled an edge in the camp and underlined the value of humility,” says James.
“Players cleaned the changing rooms after them. It is too easy to peel off tape, say, throw it on the floor and forget about it.
“Hansen would tell us to put stuff in the bin and he introduced a rota so we took it in turns to clean up. “That was really good.” Nonetheless, after the 43-17 defeat by New Zealand, he didn’t play for Wales under Hansen again.
THAT HENSON CLASH
HE was still trying to win back his place when he memorably crossed swords with Gavin Henson on a day when the former Swansea RFC man never played better for the Ospreys. It was an afternoon when Henson helped himself to 26 points against Harlequins at The Stoop and played with swagger and no little arrogance – too much arrogance for James’s liking.
“It wasn’t a great day,” says James. “I was playing for Quins and had been looking forward to the game. I wasn’t in the Wales side at the time and wanted to prove myself.
“I remember trying to get stuck into him.
“But there was a moment when we pushed out and he cut through for a try.
“It was a good try, fair play, but he turned around and went to shake my hand.
“He’s lucky I didn’t drop him. “He was a good player and he didn’t need to do that.
“But, hey, you live by the sword and die by the sword.
“What I will say is that I never tried to rub anyone’s nose in it. You play on the edge, but it’s sport and respect is important.
“He sometimes let himself down with the way he acted.”
There was a postscript to that game. “The Ospreys later on asked me to join them,” recalls James, “but I decided to go to the Scarlets.”
GREAT REDEEMER’S MIRACLES
IF it wasn’t all wine and roses under Hansen for James, he enjoyed his time under Graham Henry. The Kiwi used him in 27 of the 36 Tests he oversaw with Wales, while capping him three times with the Lions.
“Graham was probably the best Wales coach I played under,” says James.
“He was able to get results quickly. “We had conceded 96 points to South Africa in 1998, remember. But within a year we had beaten England, France and the Springboks and won a series in Argentina.
“That’s decent going by any standard.
“Mike Ruddock was a good coach. “Some players felt he was oldschool and, yes, he was different from the Kiwis, but he coached Wales to their first Grand Slam in 27 years so he must have been doing something right.
“Maybe he was undermined by several players, as has been suggested elsewhere.
“He was a nice guy and went out of his way to congratulate you if you’d played well.
“People said he wasn’t innovative enough, but maybe that was in comparison with the New Zealanders.
“I still have a lot of respect for him.”
ON THE MOVE
JAMES rarely stayed in the same place for long at club level. “Maybe I didn’t help myself by moving ship too many times. It made it hard to develop consistency,” says the former wing and centre, who these days is a sales representative for medical device company Clini-supplies, while also keeping busy as a pundit and with work in the areas of fitness and motivation.
“But I played 48 times for Wales and scored a try in a Lions series in which I played in all three Tests. “So it was a blast.
“The best rugby I played was at Pontypridd from 1997 to 1999 and at Llanelli for the following two years. My glory days were out west.
“I should have stayed at Stradey Park instead of moving back to Bridgend in 2001, but hindsight is a wonderful thing and I wanted to move around and pack different things into my career.
“The Lions in 2001 was special, as were my Wales caps.
“But it goes quickly.
“My old man used to say: ‘Enjoy it because it will fly by’. And it did.
“That would be my advice to any young player today: Savour it because it doesn’t last for ever.
“I enjoyed pulling on the jersey wherever I played.
“I don’t have any major regrets.” Case closed.