My life in Rugby: Bleddyn Bowen – former Wales captain and Swansea centre

Captaining Wales to the 1988 Triple Crown was a huge honour. Not only was it Wales’ first for nearly a decade but we achieved it playing a thrilling style of rugby. With players like Jonathan Davies, Mark Ring and Ieuan Evans in our line-up it would have been foolish not to have given it a go. Even with 40 per cent possession we backed ourselves to score tries which we ultimately did.
Although I had played against England before, I was nervous. Before the game there were Press conferences, interviews and all that goes with the captaincy. You cannot train for it or rehearse a team talk, it’s something you take in your stride.
I was fortunate to have Robert Norster in the second row who shared that responsibility with me and was a great motivator. Adrian Hadley scored a couple of tries and we won 11-3.
Ieaun side-stepped his way past several defenders and Jonathan scored that marvellous grubber kick try in the next game against Scotland before the Triple Crown was sealed in Dublin after Paul Thorburn kicked a last-minute penalty to defeat the Irish. Unfortunately we blew several chances to complete the Grand Slam against France at the Arms Park on our final game and lost 10-9.
I finished with a career record of four wins and one defeat as captain, my first game as skipper having come against the USA towards the end of 1987, an occasion I marked with a brace of tries. I’ll definitely take an 80% win ratio!
As a small boy growing up in a small mining village called Trebanos I dreamt of playing for Wales. But to actually do so and captain my country was beyond anything I could’ve hoped for. That said, Trebanos does have an excellent sporting pedigree for a place with a population of just 1,500. Myself, Robert Jones, Arwel Thomas and, more recently, Justin Tipuric all hail from the village, as does former England and Glamorgan fast bowler – and boy was he fast – Greg Thomas.
My first taste of international rugby came while I was playing at Trebanos Rugby Club. It was for Wales Youth against the Junior Springboks at Newlands in Cape Town, a curtain-raiser for the first Test between South Africa and Bill Beaumont’s 1980 British Lions. I think we were the first Welsh team to beat a South African side on the international stage. Apartheid was very apparent on that tour. The locals jumped for joy whenever our two black players, Glen Webbe and Phil Ford, scored a try.
On my return to the UK, I joined the Police. Players like Martyn Morris, Stevie Sutton, Phil Davies, Ritchie Donovan, Mark Perego and Richie Collins all combined playing with their jobs in the force and we travelled all over the country. We had that much time off we surely must have been classed as professionals.
My first Wales cap came in 1983, against Romania in Bucharest. I think I was one of six debutants and the game definitely didn’t go as planned. Romania were a tough and uncompromising side and had run New Zealand close a few weeks earlier. They fully deserved their win.
As well as the Triple Crown, it was great to be involved in the first World Cup. A hamstring injury restricted me to three matches – a pool game against Canada and England and New Zealand in the knockout stages. The quarter-final win over England was brilliant: it meant we could stay on in Australia for another 10 days!
I only played a few more times for Wales after the success of ‘88. I had a poor final game against Ireland in the 1989 Five Nations, when my chip kick downfield was caught by Noel Mannion who ran a try in from 80 yards.
I don’t think the national team selectors ever forgave me for that! My club rugby came to an end not long after, too, after I tore my cruciate ligament for a second time while playing for Swansea. That was the end of it for me at the grand old age of 29.
*As told to Jon Newcombe