Regan Grace's long road back to rugby: two codes, four clubs and 979 days

The Guardian

04-04-2025

Regan Grace's career – and life, in many ways – changed on the last day of July 2022 in the final minute of a Super League game between St Helens and Salford. Returning the ball inside his own half in the dying seconds of a shock defeat for the league leaders, Grace collapsed on to his chest, untouched by another player. His left achilles had ruptured. His St Helens career was over, having scored 300 points from 75 tries in 128 Super League games.
Three years later, he's been at four clubs in three countries and two rugby codes. No wonder he's not the player he was. Yet. But last Saturday night in the Italian city of Treviso, he completed a competitive rugby match for the first time in 979 days. The last time Grace had completed a game, in July 2022, his try helped St Helens come from behind to beat Wakefield by a single point. This time, Cardiff let a lead slip and lost by a point in Treviso. But there was more at stake for Grace than the result.
It has been a turbulent few years for the Welsh winger. He had already signed a pre-contract with union club Racing 92 when he ruptured his achilles playing for St Helens in 2022. Six months into rehab in Paris, he ruptured the same achilles again. After spending 2023 grinding his way towards recovery, Racing released him so he could move closer to home, with Bath giving him a short contract and a chance to return to fitness. He had played a couple of cup games for Bath last year when an opportunity arose at Cardiff, 45 minutes from his home town of Port Talbot. He took it.
'The one positive I can take personally is that's my first 80 minutes for a long time,' said the 28-year-old on Saturday night as he reflected on the 20-19 defeat to Benetton. 'My last was for Saints, so that's something I've got in the bag. The first 10 minutes was a bit of a blowout as I've not played a lot of rugby in recent times but, once that was out the way, I was OK. You can push yourself as hard as you like in training but it's not the same as a game, when the ball is constantly moving and there's a lot going on. Now I know I can do a full 80 minutes and am getting back to nearly normal. I just need that ball in my hand.'
After two years in the gym, his athleticism has been replaced by squat strength, his power increasing as his body shape has transformed from that of a 200m flier to a 60m sprinter. Achilles and hamstring injuries are often the death knell for agility and explosiveness. Only time will tell if that is the case for Grace.
Matt Sherratt, the Cardiff head coach who stepped into the Wales job during the Six Nations following the departure of Warren Gatland, used Grace in his familiar position against Benetton. He started on the left wing and dropped back to be a second full-back, covering the left half of the pitch while the Wales full-back Cameron Winnett took the right side.
It's early days at Cardiff but there was very little of the old Grace on show against Benetton. He took a couple of high bombs and returned the ball without threatening to break the Benetton line, spending the rest of the game defending. No one watching would have any clue as to what a thrilling, world-class winger he was earlier this decade.
'It's definitely frustrating as I like to help the team by doing what I do well, but in these games it all becomes quite narrow and there's a lot of kicking and you've just got to stick to the plan. I was hoping the game would start to break down in the last 20 minutes and the ball would start to shift.'
Up against the Argentina star Ignacio Mendy on Benetton's right wing, Grace had one of the toughest jobs of the night. Mendy is electric, evasive and hugely positive. It took him 69 seconds to show Grace what he was going to have to deal with. For much of the night, he was left scrambling to join a ruck after a break, diving to snatch a fleeing ankle, or diving to grasp at thin Trevigiani air. It was like watching Regan Grace of 2025 playing against the 2019 version of himself. 'He [Mendy] went really well and caught me a couple of times, which hurt. On the back of a loss too, that was hard to take. It wasn't a great performance by myself.'
Grace has never been a defensive bulwark winger like Ryan Hall or Tom Johnstone. His playing style lived up to his name. Scrambling around to smother attacks or snatch a piece of a ball carrier flying past him is not his forte. It's probably why he was 'never considered' by the GB coach Wayne Bennett for the last Lions tour despite being in his exhilarating prime. Bennett used halfback Blake Austin on the wing against New Zealand when five other wide players were injured.
In contrast, the Wales RFU is so keen to get Grace in its ranks that, despite him not having played a competitive senior game of union in his life, Wales took him on their tour of Australia last year. Grace scored a try on his debut against Queensland Reds only to injure a hamstring and miss the Autumn Test Series. He is determined to show what they are missing.
'Cardiff needed a winger and it was a chance to play on home soil as I'd never played in Wales really,' says Grace, whose social media posts regularly feature positive stories from his beleaguered home town Port Talbot and his junior club in Aberavon where a mural of him adorns a wall. 'I was excited. I always thought: if I ever go back to Welsh union, I'd want to go to Cardiff. The plan now is to play as much as I can until the end of the season.'
'People ask me which I prefer, league or union. I say I've not done enough union to make a decision. I need the full range of different types of games, positions, involvements. I need to learn Cardiff's systems too, which is hard as even in the Premiership teams play differently to the URC.'
After six years crisscrossing the country along the M62 from St Helens, and another two years in gyms in Paris and Bath, Grace is enjoying the unique challenges of the URC, where almost every fortnight sees a flight to another country. This Saturday they are in Ireland to play Connacht in the European Challenge Cup.
'It can be quite difficult but it's also quite exciting, getting to play against new players, going to different places and seeing new things,' says Grace, who shares a car-ride in from Bath to training every day with Blues teammates. He is happy to remain in the city until his rental home and playing contracts both expire in June. After that, a return to league remains a possibility.
'My agent is working behind the scenes, but I just want to show that I'm fit and firing. There's always interest from league and it's an option but at the moment I still feel like I haven't cracked union and I want to do that. I wish it was still like when you could swap codes at the end of each season - I'd rather play all year than have an off season.'
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