My Life in Rugby: Hugh William-Jones –former Wales & Llanelli prop

I was the first ever temporary blood replacement for Wales – against Italy in 1994 in a World Cup qualifier in Cardiff when Ricky Evans came off. I remember there was a discussion afterwards about whether my cap should count.
But it was pointed out that if someone came on as a blood replacement in a World Cup final and scored the winning try you could not say the cap didn’t count. It’s my little bit of history.
I’d played for the Wales youth team growing up. My first match was for the U19s and we went and won in France.
It was a great team, there were the likes of Lyn Jones, Phil Davies, Adrian Hadley, most of who have gone into coaching.
Later in the senior team, I played against Scotland in David Sole’s last game.
We had a really good tussle and it was maybe in that game I got the better of him. I made the break that put Richard Webster in under the posts and we won.
Another highlight was the game against England in 1993 where we won 10-9. They were odds on favourites. But it all just felt right from the start. I remember it being 10-9 at half time and we kept the game scoreless in the second 40. It was a real battle.
My association with the Wales team started early. I first got into rugby when I was at Ynysawdre Comprehensive School and at the time John Lloyd, the captain of Wales, worked there.
Back then we used to watch Bridgend or Cardiff play on a Wednesday and the guys that you were watching, would then be coaching you at school the next day.
It was the way it was before professional rugby, but it was a great environment to be in.
I then played for my local side Bryncethin before joining the South Wales Police.
At the time we had about eight or nine internationals there, people used to joke that if anything kicked off in a game, there was no need to call the police – we were already there.
I played 350 games for the police and during that period I got my first Wales cap.
I moved to Llanelli for the 1993-94 season when the police team got relegated, but continued to work for the police.
I was fortunate in that I got to play some European games with Llanelli when the competition kicked off in 1995.  I had three or four seasons travelling to places like France.
It was a great experience and a bit of a change from just playing games in the UK.
I retired from the game in 1999 at the age of 36, and did a bit of coaching and management at Bridgend.
A lot of my time now is taken up with charity work for a close friend of mine, Colin Hillman, who died of cancer in 2009.
He was a hooker with the police and we played 300 odd games together.
Last year the charity did the Three Peaks challenge and raised £8,000. Next year there’s a bike ride from Boston to New York to raise money for Velindre Cancer Care, the hospital in Wales which looked after Colin.