page revision date : Sunday 28th june 2009
Matthew’s making his presence felt
At 16 years of age Matthew Richards has shown real resilience in fighting back from a dreadful knee injury to carry on his achievements in both rugby, where he is hoping for a call into the Scarlets’ squad for his age category, and athletics, where he is known as a sprinter of great potential with the Pembrokeshire Harriers squad.
He sustained his injury two years ago when he was playing rugby as a pacy winger and stepped out of a tackle – but his studs stuck and as he was hit by another tackle twisted his leg so badly that he snapped not only the cruciate ligament but the medial ligaments at the side and knew immediately that he was in trouble because of the immense pain.
It meant that he was forced to wear a brace after his operation and only a few weeks ago finally had the pins, which stuck out of the sides of his calf, removed. It also meant that when his rehabilitation took place he really had to grit his teeth and get back to full fitness because his enforced inactivity made it very hard to get back into the swing of things. Not only that, but Matthew had to endure further set-backs since he broke his shoulder in his very first game back from injury and also broke his wrist in an accident in school!
Working hard in
his comeback
But a measure of how well he has recovered can be gauged from the fact that Matthew now attends athletics training every Tuesday and Thursday but does weight training three times a week and manages to slot in training sessions for the County Schools’ squad on Monday and at Haverfordwest RFC at least one other evening in the week. It goes without saying that this demands a great deal of family support and Matthew is quick to praise parents Andrew and Beverley for their support in terms of time and encouragement for him and brother Morgan (aged eight) who is already doing well at rugby and football. Also deserving of a mention are Andy Barlow and Phil Viol for helping him develop at county rugby level and Dai Llewellyn, Jim Fryer and Mark Baker as coaches with the Blues, and all being praised by Matthew for their endeavours.
County rugby and football success
Matthew has scored his share of tries since he started out at under 11 level and not only represented his county but was a regular in the West Wales’ ‘A’ team and awarded his West Wales ‘cap’ at Stradi Park.
He also played football as a central midfielder with Camrose Juniors and was offered trials at the Swansea Academy after representing Pembrokeshire but when he damaged his leg he decided to give football a miss for a while so that he could focus on rugby and athletics.
Speedy start to his running
He set out with his sprinting when he joined Sir Thomas Picton School and found that he could run faster than most and was encouraged by teachers Med Richards, Jonathan Dodd and Gelly James to take part – and as a 12 year old his times at 100 and 200 metres meant that he was the fastest boy in Great Britain. He duly won the county sports at both short distances and went on to reap further success at the Dyfed and West Wales Championships held in Brecon and Carmarthen.
He also joined the Pembrokeshire Harriers and is now back running very quickly as reward for all his determination in getting back into action. Matthew runs regularly for them at meetings and demonstrated the fact that he was back to something like his best by winning the county school sports at under 15 level in both the 100 and 200 metres – and achieved another win double at the West Wales Championships where he recorded personal best times of 11.4 seconds in the 100 metres and 23.1 seconds over the longer distance.
Another step up – and further success
He was then invited to attend the English League Meeting at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham, where he was the only 15 year old taking on 23 others who were up to 17 years of age and although he was naturally very nervous in such a huge arena he demonstrated his competitive edge with a very creditable 6th place out of 24 runners there.
This was followed by a similar invite for the Welsh League at UWIC in Cardiff and again he finished well in fifth place against others who were 17 years of age. Selection followed with a place in the Welsh team for the Celtic Games against Scotland and Ireland, again held at UWIC, where Matthew fended off the challenge of some very good runners to achieve first place in the 200 metres and helping the Welsh relay team earn a gold medal in a record time.
A real boost for future aspirations
All these provide great encouragement for Matthew and were just the boost he needed to carry his training even further. Ask him about ambitions now and he would simply say he wants to win more Welsh vests for his sprinting prowess and to gain a place in the Scarlets junior rugby squad – and although he is a modest, likeable young man there is no doubt that he has that steely determination so necessary when linked to natural talent that someone can go far in their chosen sport. At the moment Matthew Richards has these two targets which he has set himself and there is no doubt that if he can steer clear of further injury we will hear a great deal more about this talented young sporting all-rounder in the future.
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