Shattering end to Iestyn’s dreams
PETER JACKSON
THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW
Iestyn Harris had only just started to run with a rugby ball when two very large Tongan boys landed in his little corner of the Rhondda Valley, a village synonymous with mining disaster.
In Wattstown, where they had long learnt to count the terrible price of coal in lives lost to underground explosions, nobody had ever seen the likes of the Vunipola brothers, embryonic giants at the age of eight and six respectively.
They still talk about them now, a quarter-of-a-century later, of their impact on what had been Wattstown’s mini-section prior to their arrival. Best of all, they remember their appetite.
“They used to have a tray of hot dogs each at the end of the session,’’ says Ian Swannack, former head coach and Wattstown stalwart. “One tray for Mako, one for Billy. The rest of the team shared the last tray of hot dogs between them.’’
Iestyn Harris would have been almost old enough for primary school when the younger Vunipola appeared like a colossus in the East Wales U11s which was about as far as he got to playing for the country adopted by his father, Fea’o.
Just as his sons took up where Vunipola, senior, finished, so young Iestyn decided that he, too, would follow his dad, Kim, Wattstown’s No.8 whose long service included a junior cup final at the Millennium Stadium when the entire village decamped to Cardiff.
Harris, junior, worked his way up rapidly from the minis. A specialist hooker, he joined Cardiff ’s academy at 16 and played for Wales U20’s in the junior Six Nations. “Rugby is my life,” he would always say. “Has been ever since I was a kid.”
The Rhondda is mighty proud of all its sons, none more so than those, during times long gone, who found professional sport an alternative to a life underground. Tommy Farr went from Tonypandy to the Yankee Stadium where he almost relieved Joe Louis of his world heavyweight title after 15 rounds. Some 20 years later Jimmy Murphy from Pentre did more than anyone to ensure Manchester United’s rise from the ashes of the Munich air disaster in February 1958.
Maurice Richards from Ystrad signed off from Rugby Union with four tries against England. He and fellow Lion John Bevan from Tylorstown shall stand forever among the greatest of cross-code rugby wings.
Roy Paul from Ton Pentre raised the FA Cup aloft at Wembley as captain of Manchester City in the 1956 final. His nephew, Alan Curtis, is among the most revered of Welsh footballers.
All Iestyn Harris wanted was to make rugby his career. He made his Cardiff debut on December 11, 2021 in exceptional circumstances against exceptional opponents. Toulouse in the Champions Cup meant sharing the stage with the Gallic galaxy headed by the incomparable Antoine Dupont.
Cardiff, with more than 30 players in quarantine due to Covid regulations, had no option but to throw their young brigade into action. Like the rest, Harris rose to the challenge without fear in a team that kept running the ball from deep defence after taking an early lead.
Towards the end of that season he had joined Exeter’s formidable Welsh colony. Rob Baxter, the Chiefs’ director of rugby, could hardly believe his luck at signing ‘a guy who has the ambition, dream and desire to be the best player he can be’.
That the boy from Wattstown had been suffering from a damaged shoulder made not a blind bit of difference. He recovered in time to make his Premiership bow against Harlequins in the final match of the season.
When the Chiefs won the Premiership Cup final against London Irish after extra-time 15 months ago, Harris was part of their squad. His time would surely come, if only the shoulder would stop interfering.
In search of precious game-time, Exeter sent him to Cornish Pirates for the closing rounds of the Championship. He played against Hartpury College on April 14 and against Cambridge seven days later.
Ten days ago, at the end of May, the Chiefs announced that their ‘gifted’ hooker had been forced to retire ‘on medical grounds’. Iestyn Harris’ rugby life, like those of countless other players, had been cut cruelly short at the age of 25, shattering his dream of following Cameron Winnett and Keiron Assiratti from Wattstown minis to the Six Nations.
“Iestyn is obviously devastated but quite upbeat about the future,” says Ian Swannack who stood down recently as Wattstown’s head coach. “He’s quite tough mentally which he’s needed to be to cope with the setbacks.
“I’ve known Iestyn all his life. He and my son are the best of friends. Iestyn was always one of the standout players at every level and I can’t remember him missing a game. “When he joined the Blues (Cardiff) I thought he had a great chance of breaking into the Welsh team. Then, with the change of scenery and Exeter’s reputation for developing talented players, I thought it would be the making of him.’’
It won’t be easy but, in one respect, Iestyn is lucky. He has the family and friends, he has Wattstown and the whole of the Rhondda to help him adjust to life without rugby.
