My Life in Rugby: Jason Strange- former Ebbw Vale Newport, Bristol and Leeds fly-half

I look back fondly on my time at each club I played for but my second spell at Ebbw Vale, and four seasons at Bristol, were probably the most successful and enjoyable years.
A strong team ethic can take you a long way – as the Wales U20 team I recently coached to the Grand Slam proved – and we had that by the bucket load at Ebbw. Pretty much 90 per cent of the players lived within a stone’s throw of the club.
To beat Toulon by 50 points at home and then win away, in the 1999/2000 European Shield, was remarkable. Luckily I had my kicking boots on that day and contributed 33 points to the victory. Graham Henry was in the stands and I got a call-up into the senior squad, however I never quite managed to add a senior cap to the Wales A and U19s ones I won under Allan Lewis, who has been a major influence throughout my playing and coaching career.
Having come through the Ebbw youth system, it was Allan who took me down to Scarlets, aged 19, where I enjoyed two great years. To represent the club in Europe and against the Springboks was a real honour. South Africa won 30-12 but it was a long way from kicking a ball around the back lanes in Brynmawr!
After leaving Scarlets I had a one-season stopover at Newbridge before returning for that golden spell at Ebbw. As well as doing well in Europe, we were regular challengers at the top of the league and reached the final of the 1998 Swalec Cup against my former club Llanelli. The game was played at Ashton Gate in Bristol because the National Stadium was being rebuilt and Scarlets won 19-12.
Former England scrum-half Richard Hill took over at Ebbw for my last two seasons. He was an outstanding coach and a really good man-manager. Like Allan, he played a major part in my development both there and at Newport, where I was privileged to be a part of a star-studded squad that included players like Percy Montgomery.
My first experience of the English Premiership with promoted Rotherham was tough. I didn’t play after Christmas because of injury and the club was relegated. So I jumped at the chance when Hilly asked me to be part of Bristol’s promotion push.
To clinch the title with open, expansive rugby in putting 60 points on Exeter stood out for me.
We beat Bath at ‘The Mem’ in front of a sell-out crowd in our first game back up and things just seemed to get better, culminating in a third-place finish and Heineken Cup qualification.
I finished as the league’s highest points scorer with 244, after our forward pack earned us a shedload of penalties. Our teamwork ethic was a major reason why we did so well, and laid the blueprint as to how I would coach teams in the future.
I won my second promotion to the Premiership with Leeds. We were fit if nothing else under Neil Back and Andy Key. As a Rugby League fan it was great to be able to learn from the fantastic culture that our sister club, Leeds Rhinos, had created.
By then, I was also coaching Wales U16 & U18 RL sides. I’m a firm believer that you can have all the certificates you want but there’s no substitute for miles on the clock.
After Leeds, and a brief spell coaching at Wharfedale, I returned to Ebbw to teach PE at Glyncoed Comprehensive. I also fulfilled a lifelong ambition to coach my hometown team. Sadly, Ebbw had just got relegated when I took over and it took four years to return to the Premiership because the league had been ring-fenced. Since then, we’ve  gone from strength-to-strength.