Having already been compared to his childhood hero Shane Williams, 17-yeaold Rhodri Lewis has issued a warning to the Ospreys senior players that he’s ‘here to push you to take your spot.’
When injuries hit Aberavon, the Ospreys academy scrum-half was sent out on loan and became the Welsh Premiership side’s youngest ever player in the semiprofessional era at 17 years and 81 days.
Lewis said: “I got called into the squad in November as they had a bit of an injury crisis.
Becoming the club’s youngest player was a huge honour but I knew I couldn’t let that be what I’m known for as I needed to make an impact as well.”
Lewis went on to make quite the impact as he scored a wonder triple sidestep try in December in Aberavon’s victory over Swansea.
The video quickly went viral among the Welsh rugby community and Lewis immediately drew comparisons to one of the games all-time greats.
Lewis said: “They started giving me more minutes to prove myself and the best part was scoring the try of the season. At the time I didn’t really realise what I’d done because I’d scored those tries playing junior rugby, but I wasn’t expecting to do it in a senior game and it’s given me lots of confidence. The coaches have really worked well with me and the environment at Aberavon is top notch considering they’re a semi-pro team.
“My rugby idol is Shane Williams as I’ve always been pretty small. Watching him being able to beat defenders inspired me and I based my footwork around him.
So, to have that comparison makes me happy but it’s not just that now, I’ve scored a good try, but I now need to prove other parts of my game. I’ve got good pace, I can beat people, but can I do my basics right and can I keep pushing forward and getting better?
I hope so.”
Lewis represented Wales at this year’s U18s Six Nations tournament in France and despite enduring three convincing defeats to England, Ireland and the tournament hosts, he sees it as an important learning curve in his career.
He said: “At the moment it’s the biggest honour I’ve had. The results were unfortunate, we didn’t win a game and we did take some pretty big defeats, but it’s made me realise how much I do want to be a pro player. I loved my time in France, it was a completely different environment to here and to see the best players in Europe at my age has made me realise how much harder I’ve got to work if I want to be the best player in my position.”
Lewis has enjoyed a successful year, having reached his goals of making the Ospreys academy and the international U18s but now has new targets to reach.
He said: “I ticked all my goals this year, so moving on the goal is to make the U20s squad this summer and hopefully I can try and make it into the Six Nations camp and get into the Ospreys A team. It’s important that I tell the older boys at Ospreys that I’m not just here to sit around, I’m going to push you to take your spot.”
