Latest news with #Cwmtwrch
The Guardian
27-07-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
‘Jac's changed the game': a view from second Lions Test with Cwmtwrch RFC
A way along the Great Western mainline, a way up the Swansea Valley, a way off Heol Gleien Road, is Cwmtwrch RFC, where Jac Morgan first learned his rugby. They have turned out a handful of Wales internationals in the 135 years since they were founded, but Morgan is their first British & Irish Lion. He is also the one and only Welshman left on the tour and when he comes on to the field, 54 minutes into Saturday's second Test at the MCG, the atmosphere quickens inside the clubhouse. There is a swell of quiet pride and a little anxiety, too, as he latches on to the pack for his first scrum. The scrum wheels, the Lions break downfield and all of sudden Morgan's carrying the ball forward. Someone cries out in all the excitement: 'Great scrum, Jac.' And someone else: 'See. He's changed the game already' – and everyone breaks out laughing. There are about 30 people in here watching and there are about 30 out there watching. 'Some people were saving up two years for this trip,' says the club's chair, Tom Addey. They started putting money aside when Morgan was made Wales's co-captain in 2023 and the prospect of his being picked for this began to feel like a real possibility. Addey points out the spot they saved on the wall where they are planning to hang his Lions jersey, next to the TV screen, and shows off the little Grogg figurine of Morgan in his Lions kit, which came in when Morgan was named in the team on Thursday morning, 'a gift for the Cwmtwrch clubhouse'. It is a new building, Addey's pride and joy, two storeys with a gym and a physio room. The club moved up from the bottom of the hill five years ago. They're strictly amateur. 'We don't pay, we're adamant about that,' says Addey, and they put out only two teams, one's in the bottom division ('and by God are we trying to get out of it') and the other's an occasional XV. 'We're not the wealthiest club, but we have massive heart,' Addey says. Most times, I guess, he would use the Welsh. Calon. The word was given to Cwmtwrch, and all of Welsh rugby, by Clive Rowlands, who captained, coached and managed Wales in the 60s, 70s and 80s. There never was a prouder Welshman. 'Clive would pace the room, fag in hand, ranting and raving,' wrote Phil Bennett, who played under him. 'He would demand you performed not just for yourself, but for you father, your mother, your long-lost aunt, the miners, the schoolchildren – in effect the whole Welsh nation'. Rowlands lived his life here. His son, daughter and wife still do. His grandson used to play in the junior team with Morgan. Rowlands's own boy, Dewi, is here watching, on a stool at the back of the barroom. His dad managed the Lions team that beat Australia in 1989; Dewi, who was 22, went along with him. 'That was a proper amateur tour,' he says. 'The guys were making their own T-shirts to sell to raise money for the beer kitty.' Not Dewi, he pinched his from the old man's hotel minibar. There are a lot of good stories about his dad. I ask him which of them are true. 'All of them,' he says. His favourite is the time Princess Anne asked Clive which part of Wales he came from. 'A little place called Cwmtwrch.' She replied, without missing a beat: 'Upper or Lower?' The village was split in two by the old railway line. 'I always like to say we're the first regional team,' says Addey. 'The Lions meant everything to Dad,' Dewi says, before pausing for a moment. 'Well, not as much as Wales. But everything else.' Ian McGeechan will tell you it was Rowlands who taught him how to run a Lions tour. 'He'd have the beers poured for us, ready and waiting at the end of the day.' Sign up to The Breakdown The latest rugby union news and analysis, plus all the week's action reviewed after newsletter promotion Rowlands is keeping one eye on the game, the way old salts do, but down in the front the younger club members are glued to it. One of them is leaning forward on the edge of his seat, though he is so big it may be the only way he could fit into it. His name is Morgan Morse and if you don't know him already you will soon. Morse is on the books at the Ospreys, where he plays alongside Morgan. He has played 24 games for the national age grades and will break into the senior team any day. Like Morgan, he grew up here at Cwmtwrch and still comes back to carry the water bottles for the first team when he is not playing the region. 'My favourite memories of this place are all of the feeling of winning games with my mates,' he said. 'We'd all be in school talking about the game on the Monday morning, which made the week a hell of a lot more enjoyable.' A lot of the lads are decked out in Morse's spare Ospreys kit. When the club switched ball manufacturers, he snaffled a bunch of the old ones to bring here, only to get a call, a few days later, from someone at the club saying that they all had tracking devices in and could he please bring them back. These are hard times in Welsh rugby. Morse has a year to run on his contract, but given the WRU's recent proposal to cut the number of regions, cannot be sure if he will have a team to play for this time next year. But wherever he ends up, he will always have a club. It is the 80th minute and in the clubhouse they are waiting for the final whistle. The referee is just checking to see whether Morgan has committed a foul by going in for a clear-out in the run-up to the match-winning try and everyone is shouting at the ref through the TV. His voice comes back over the loudspeakers. 'No foul.' The camera closes in on Morgan, who flashes a big thumbs up, and the place erupts. 'Fucking brilliant.'
BBC News
22-06-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Protein film actor Craig Russell 'lucky' to see film after brain tumour
A Welsh actor has said there was "a very real chance" he would not see his latest film finished after he was diagnosed with a brain tumour following Russell, who grew up in Cwmtwrch in the Swansea Valley, said in hindsight he realised he experienced symptoms of the tumour while the thriller, Protein, was in production."A couple of weird things happened, I was walking into stuff, I was getting lost in our own house," he film, which tells the story of a gym-obsessed serial killer who murders and eats a local drug dealer for their protein, inadvertently sparking a turf-war between rival drugs gangs, was shot in south and west Wales following Russell's suggestion. He told writer and director Tony Burke there was "nowhere like Wales" for talent, "both in front of and behind the camera, scenery, everything you might need"."He took my advice and luckily it paid off," he said speaking to Lucy Owen on BBC Radio Wales."As he says himself now, 'Wales is the most important character in the movie'." Russell admits "self-preservation" led him to downplaying the initial symptoms of his tumour."The back of my head started really hurting," he said."I hadn't even realised I was losing the sight of my left eye, the hearing in my left ear."His wife Kate persuaded him to go to see a GP, and an MRI scan revealed a brain tumour that had been growing for about 15 days later, Russell had a seven-hour surgery to remove it and was told he "might not survive".The back of his skull was taken away and then rebuilt after surgeons removed the tumour."The NHS are brilliant, aren't they? They saved my life," he is an ambassador for Brain Tumour Research to help raise awareness. The actor said he did not mind playing a cannibal in Protein, but admitted some scenes could be difficult to watch."I drink a lot of what appear to be protein shakes in the movie. But for the viewer it looks like I'm drinking these flesh drinks," he said."I remember finishing one take, looking across and two members of the crew had their backs to me and were retching over a bucket which was quite amusing. But actually it was just watermelon, porridge, almond milk, it was delicious, I really enjoyed it."He continued: "I ate raw beef. I would fry a steak and eat that. So it looks horrible because the audience thinks I'm eating a bloke, but for me it was fine. I did really enjoy the cannibal stuff."Protein is being shown at selected cinemas across Wales first, before being rolled out across the UK next week.
Daily Mirror
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Wales rugby star missed glitzy British Lions announcement due to delayed flight
The O2 Arena was hired as a venue and decked out in scarlet red, a live audience invited for the first time, a show put together featuring former players, Q&As, appearances from head coach Andy Farrell and chairman Ieuan Evans The British & Irish Lions threw everything at the 2025 squad announcement. The O2 Arena was hired as a venue and decked out in scarlet red, a live audience invited for the first time, a show put together featuring former players, Q&As, appearances from head coach Andy Farrell and chairman Ieuan Evans, and the unveiling of 2025 Tour captain Maro Itoje. To complement the occasion, dozens of players huddled around TV screens, waiting for news: some at home, some at their clubs' training ground, some even walking the dog, waiting to hear if they were about to realise their dream of becoming a British & Irish Lion. Meanwhile, somewhere over South Africa's Gauteng province, Jac Morgan was 39,000 feet in the air, oblivious to what was going on below. A flight delay from Durban to Johannesburg, where he was on club duty with Ospreys, meant he missed all the drama and only discovered his fate when the plane safely touched ground. Fortunately for him, loud applause erupted around the plane. 'I found out as soon as I landed,' he said. 'I was able to get my head down a little bit but soon after there was a lot of clapping and cheering, and everyone came up to me to congratulate me. It is a surreal thing to be picked for the Lions.' Surreal, perhaps, but undoubtedly justified. And, after a rollercoaster journey that has taken him from an engineering apprenticeship to national captain within six short years, a fitting way to find out. Speak to those who know Morgan best and they will tell you he has always had a mature head on young shoulders. A quiet personality, he comes from Brynamman, a small village in the Brecon Beacons, where Welsh is the first language and started playing rugby at local club Cwmtwrch, where he stayed from under-8 to under-16 level. Even then, some predicted he would reach the top. 'As the boys got a bit older, they'd like a crafty pint here and there, but not Jac. He was always on the water. He was so dedicated. He didn't drink beer,' Bertie Roberts, Cwmtwrch age-grade coach, told Rugby Pass. Morgan then went on to play for Amman United Youth and the Scarlets academy, but he was released at 17 and joined Welsh Premiership team Aberavon. Mature and head-strong, he made contingency plans for a non-rugby career and enrolled on a mechanical engineering course, and worked as an apprentice for Morgan Advanced Materials in Swansea. Rugby remained his dream, however, and after making great strides at Aberavon, he was quickly parachuted into the Wales U20s set-up – leaving him with a dilemma. 'So the first year when I was playing for Wales Under-20s I was working all the afternoons and the evenings, it was quite hard,' he said. 'We went to Argentina for the Under-20s World Cup during the summer of 2019, and then around October time when the Under-20s started up again with a few training camps, I was weighing up if I could do it all again and combine both jobs. 'I spoke to the Scarlets academy manager, who was also the coach of the Under-20s, and I just asked him if I would be allowed to come into training if I finished work, and he said yes. 'So I decided that October to try and give the Under-20s a shot more than anything, then I joined up with the Scarlets again, and yeah, the rest is history. I think I made the right decision." Morgan took the plunge. He quit his engineering job and threw himself at rugby again, with Scarlets swooping back in to sign him. He then captained Wales in their 2020 Six Nations U20s campaign, and was man of the match in the 23-22 upset win away to England. A senior debut soon followed but Scarlets released him again, and he ended up with Ospreys. He has not looked back since. Wales have a strong history of creating world-class openside flankers. Martyn Williams, Sam Warburton and Justin Tuipuric have all shone in the No.7 jersey in the past 25 years, and many believe Morgan belongs in that company. 'I see him as a sort of Welsh version of the former Australia flanker George Smith,' former Wales teammate Scott Baldwin told Rugby Pass. 'It's a big comparison to make and Jac obviously has a long way to go, while what also marked George Smith out was the amount of time he spent at the highest level. 'I don't think he realises how good a player he could be.' Morgan's Wales debut was a matter of when, not if. And he first earned selection for the 2022 Six Nations, playing from the start and completing all 80 minutes against Scotland. 'It's hard to explain the emotions that I felt while singing the anthem,' he said afterwards. 'I was nervous, my nerves were terrible whilst singing it and what with it being my home anthem and being a Welsh speaker I nearly forgot the words halfway through what with everyone being so loud.' He'll be glad to know there is no anthem to learn this summer. Morgan's introduction to Test match rugby was one of the highlights of an otherwise disappointing 2022 campaign for Wales. Head coach Wayne Pivac was replaced by the returning Warren Gatland, who spent 12 years in charge between 2007-2019, ahead of the 2023 World Cup. Gatland chose to look to the future and installed Morgan as a co-captain ahead of the tournament in France, just 18 months on from his debut. "What I think Jac does brilliantly is he leads by example," said Wales prop Gareth Thomas in France. "Just in training, I was speaking to Mike (Forshaw) about it. He puts a tackle in and it makes me want to put a dominant tackle in. A lot of the boys feed off his example on the pitch. In that way he's been brilliant." While Wales have struggled on the pitch for the past few years, Morgan has been a constant ray of light. Videos of the moment he realised he had earned Lions selection might have done the rounds on social media, but it's perhaps incomparable to the relief felt in the head offices at Principality Stadium. Amid a torrid time for Welsh rugby, there were fears the national team's ineptitude might cost Morgan a place on the plane. And even though he made it, it's a stain on the nation's rugby reputation that – in a squad of 38 players – only two are Welsh, with scrum-half Tomos Williams the other selected. It's a pitiful return for a nation that is perhaps most synonymous with the Lions. Morgan, whose international career has cruelly overlapped with such a bleak era, is the one bright spot in a team at its lowest ever ebb and must be chomping at the bit to show how good he is in a squad of players at a similar level. Not that he's ever likely to admit that. 'He's an incredible player. He is a class bloke, very humble, and someone I love playing with and playing for. You always know he is going to give everything,' Wales teammate Dafydd Jenkins said. 'You always know he is going to be one of the best players on the pitch, whoever we are playing against. Having people like that does help the team forward. He is above everyone else. For me, he is the best seven in Britain at the moment.' Morgan now has an excellent chance to prove it.
