At 16 years of age Rhys Davies can rightly be proud of the fact that he already has a Welsh rugby cap under his belt and is showing the sort of promise as a young prop that he can be hopeful of adding to his cap collection now that he has moved up into the under 18 age group.
 
Rhys played for the Welsh under 16s against their counterparts from England and although they lost the match at the new development centre in Ystrad Mynach it is something that he is rightly proud of and will never forget, especially the playing of the national anthem as the teams lined up before the match.
 
He played the first hour and received his coveted cap in the clubhouse afterwards - and it was an especially moving moment because keen onlookers were his parents, Heather and Mark, older sister Molly and his grandparents.
 

Climax of interesting time

 
It was the climax of an interesting time for Rhys because when he was playing earlier for the Scarlets he came on to replace his friend Cole Barry in the front row and played well enough to retain his place in the front row as they went on to beat Cardiff Blues - before jetting off for a family holiday in Hong Kong.
 
“Whilst I was out there my father Mark, who has always been my inspiration and mentor, who had to stay home because of work, contacted me to confirm I had been invited to a Welsh trial,” Rhys told us.
 
Rhys and Co had to attend training sessions at the WRU's headquarters at the Vale of Glamorgan every Saturday for six weeks and played in a win over The Dragons under 17s in a friendly.
 

Played for Celts at Wellington College

 
“From there, 50 of us were selected to go to Wellington College as part of a squad which was divided into the’ Welsh Celts’ or the ‘Welsh Druids’ for a tournament and I played for the Celts as we beat Scotland 48-0 and after losing narrowly to England North we did well to beat a strong England South West team by 17-12.
 
“Then came the long wait to see who was selected for the full Welsh squad and I was thrilled when my name was called out – and even better came the news that I was in the starting line-up to play England!”
 

Other sports

 
Outside of his rugby, Rhys used to swim for Milford Tigers at one stage and also played football for Milford United from under 11s to under 14s teams that were coached by Gary Jones and Andrew Burgoyne.
He played either goalkeeper or centre half and his involvement must have pleased dad Mark because in his younger days he was a very good player at Marble Hall and with Hakin United at The Obs.
 

Young Mariner to start in rugby

 
But eventually Rhys asked about playing rugby and so dad took him over to the Milford RFC junior team coached by Roy Hadley.
“Roy was another major influence on my career,” Rhys admitted, “because he was a naturally aggressive coach and some of that rubbed off on me as I started out in the centre
 
“At under 13 level Milford joined forces with Neyland because neither club had enough players and at that time I was also lucky to be coached by Peter Hughes and Johnny Mayhew, who switched me to the back row a year later.
 

County and Scarlets (West) as a prop

 
“When I was selected for the county, Johnny Llewellin and Lloyd Phillips asked me to play prop and now I can play at either loose head or tight head, which is helpful if there are injuries in the front row.
 
From there it was on to play to play for the Scarlets (West) team, which was made of players from Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion and parts of Carmarthenshire.

“It was a good team that had Ryan Conbeer as a star winger and other players of the calibre of Romeo Colella and George Evans, Kyle Hamer and other really good front row men in Jonathan Clout, Kemsley Mathias and Lee Griffiths.
 
“We beat RGC (North Wales) at Narberth plus three wins over our main rivals, Scarlets (East), which we enjoyed more than any others because they were always saying they were the better team.
 

Wrong result on a down day!

 
One of the games was memorable for all the wrong reasons as far as Rhys was concerned because he had just returned from holiday and was only given the final stages as replacement – where he was penalised six or seven times for scrum offences and then shown a yellow card by an impatient referee to effectively end his short involvement.
 
Fortunately, it had no bearing on the result because the Scarlets (West) won comfortably, but he had his leg pulled afterwards by his team mates – and learned a lesson he won’t forget in a hurry!
 
That team was coached on the grass inside the running track at STP School by Barry John, Jonathan Evans and Graham Harries, another trio Rhys rated highly and with Barry singled out as a real help with advice, on and off the field.
 

Good start to this campaign

 
This season saw Rhys training and playing with the County under 18 squad and although he is a year younger than the majority of his colleagues he is very positive about using the campaign to gain more front row playing experience as well as building up his strength in the SAW gym before pushing on again in the following season as one of the more experienced players.
 
Pembrokeshire’s programme was something of a mixed bag in terms of results but Rhys really enjoyed his involvement alongside his old pals Jonathan Clout, Kemsley Mathias and Lee Griffiths, plus Kyle Hamer and Jack Parkinson.
 

Back again now with Scarlets

 
Then the season’s emphasis switched to playing under the Scarlets’ umbrella again and he has been involved in what is known as the ‘pre-academy squad’ who are building up experience with a view to battling for a contract next year.
 
To reach that squad he had to attend training for four days a week in Llanelli, training for an hour in the barn and another hour each day in the gym, plus two days devoted to basic skills.
“It was hard going,” Rhys told us, “and again my parents were brilliant in chauffeuring me there.”
 
The Scarlets had three pre-season matches, starting against RGC (a good win after meeting half way at Llanidloes), a narrow defeat against London Wasps at Gloucester and another success against Gloucester where he didn’t play but was asked to travel as part of the squad, which was nice.
 
He also came on in the latter stages of a 17-13 win over The Ospreys and aims to continue to be as involved as possible until the season ends with the under 18 internationals.
 

And finally . . .

 
So what of the future for Rhys Davies?
 
Having already enjoyed international recognition with Wales he is eager to repeat the experience.
He knows just how hard it will be but there is one thing for sure – if commitment, high skill levels and willingness to learn are important criteria then we are confident we will hear a great deal more about Rhys’s rugby involvement in the future!