Michael Owen. Michael Owen
Australia. Gethin and Matthew Rees may have missed out at Under-16 level, but I was really pleased that we had all made the team against Australia at Bridgend. The Australians had thrashed Scotland 54–12 and made short work of us too, winning 56–10. It was a devastating result. Although it was true that we just hadn’t been good enough, Australia were awesome and George Smith was incredible. David Lyons was captain of that Aussie team as well, but missed our game through injury. I had reason to revisit my experiences of this game recently in the light of the Wales Under-20s drubbing at the hands of the Baby All Blacks. A resounding loss of 92-0 in the Junior World Cup is unacceptable and painful reading for anyone involved in Welsh rugby. Many questions have rightly been asked about how such a result can come about. It is important to remember, however, that sometimes these early losses can shape you as a player. After our thrashing at the hands of Australia, our coach told us that we could all forget about being professional rugby players and that we just weren’t going to make it. In retrospect, that team consisted of four future Welsh captains, Dwayne Peel, Gethin Jenkins, Mathew Rees and me, who have all become Lions and Grand Slam winners.
Around this time, the first of a lifetime of mentions of the footballer Michael Owen got aired in the media. ‘Meet the Michael Owen who wants to play for Wales’ was the headline in Wales on Sunday. As a Liverpool fan, I knew all about Michael Owen and I realised that I would just have to get used to it. According to my parents, I idolised Daley Thompson as a two-year-old and once recognized him in Cardiff on a day out. He was promoting Fabergé aftershave. A photographer was there who overheard me shouting his name and the next day I was in the newspaper with my hero. That was my first media appearance. I realised that I would get different ones now and that all I could do was my best on the pitch to get the good ones.
I got my first game with the Pontypridd first team on 27 January 1999. I will always remember that day because it was my father’s birthday. We took on Georgia at Sardis Road in a WRU Challenge Cup match. The Georgians were in Wales to gain experience and we won 69–7 in a floodlit match. I remember getting a 20-yard pass from Kevin Morgan and being really pleased to get my first touch until I got completely smashed by a big Georgian and the crowd let out a collective ‘Ooooooh!’
When the Wales team for the final warm-up match before the FIRA World Cup against Italy was announced, I was on the bench. Missing the start of the season had not helped and I was really frustrated, although probably not as frustrated as Matthew Griffin, who got injured the day before we played the Italians in Frascati. I replaced him in the team and took my chance when the pressure was on to perform. We won a really tough game – one that was significant for me because it was my last chance to impress before the World Cup – 13–5. I also managed to avoid getting into a scrape after the game. We went out for a few drinks and then I got in a cab back to the hotel with Jamie Robinson and Ceri Sweeney. Ceri decided to jump out before we got back as a few of the other players were staying out. While they were out on the town, an Italian tried to knife Michael Price, another player from Ponty Youth. When Michael tried to protect himself, he got knifed across the face and hands and some of our boys got locked up for the fight that started afterwards.
The FIRA World Cup was an incredible experience. Even now, I think that if this had been the peak of my career it would have been absolutely brilliant. Welsh rugby had been on a real downer since the summer of 1998, when the national team were thrashed 96–13 by South Africa at Loftus Versfield. If it hadn’t been for a late knock-on, we could even have gone down by 100 points. What everyone in Welsh rugby needed was a real lift and that was what the FIRA World Cup gave everyone. For Wales, because of the changes to the age barrier, this was a different group of lads to the Schools XV. We were all put up in a hotel in Cardiff together for twelve days. Adam Jones, the second row, was captain. Gethin missed out, controversially in our eyes, but Damian Adams, Ceri Sweeney, Jamie Robinson, Rhys Williams, Ryan Powell and Dwayne Peel were all in the squad and we just clicked.
The first game was against England at the Gnoll. The Welsh public supported the tournament from the first match and, although the match was live on television and it was just an Under-19 international, we still got a crowd of 5,000. That was one of the biggest crowds that I’d played in front of. The day before the match, England had lost fly half Andy Goode when his club side Leicester called him up to sit on the bench. Two minutes into the actual game, England lost their number eight, Jon Dunbar, who was sin-binned. Our pack was far better throughout, we were 27–0 up by the break and ended up scoring five tries to England’s one in a really good 39–7 win. Richard Johnson scored a few tries and played well and, reportedly, signed a big money professional contract with Neath during the tournament … and was given a car too. I think everyone was quite envious of him.
There were two other teams in our section: Argentina and Poland. Argentina had beaten Poland 55–11 in their opening pool three match and we had to play them next. When the game started in Bridgend, the gouging and general dirty play soon followed. We were being riled throughout, but were in front of our own crowd – there were 2,800 people at the Brewery Field, although it felt like a lot more – and we didn’t want to let ourselves, or the supporters down. One newspaper described the Argentines as ‘mean-spirited, negative and at times disgraceful’. None of our players retaliated and we won comfortably enough, 29–5. I felt like I was really starting to play well.
We were into the semi-finals and would have to go back to Bridgend to play South Africa, who had beaten France 33–24. This time, even though the game was again live on S4C Digital, the Brewery Field was sold out. A crowd of 8,000 was the biggest I had ever played in front of and the game was really memorable. The atmosphere was incredible: it would have been a career highlight for any player. Jean de Villiers and Schalk Brits played for South Africa, but we were awesome. Rhys Williams had an excellent game and both teams scored one try each. We were losing until, at the very end, we won a penalty. Ceri had hit an upright with an earlier conversion. The silence was incredible, but he scored this time. The match finished 10–10, which meant that the type of kicks that had been converted were used in a count back. Ceri’s penalty was ranked higher than South Africa’s drop-goal as it was considered that conceding a penalty meant a foul had been committed. We were through to the final. Years later, Schalk Brits would dispute the validity of the decision with me at Saracens.
We had matched Wales’ best-ever effort in a FIRA World Cup by reaching the final. Now, not only were we in the final, but we were also at home. The only problem was the opposition: we had to face the All Blacks, who had beaten Ireland 21–15 in the other semi-final. I had played really well in the semi-final and on the day of the final there was another big story about ‘Rugby’s Michael Owen’. The paper mentioned how much the other Michael earned at Liverpool and the £3,000 bursary I received from the Dragons Rugby Trust. However, the newspaper reckoned that I was better than Liverpool’s version! There was another write-up about me in the Daily Express.
Going to the final on the bus was unbelievable. Stradey Park was packed and the cars were parked up for miles outside the ground and the fans were cheering for us and singing. The New Zealand team for the final at Stradey Park included Rikki Flutey, Jerry Collins, Richie McCaw, Aaron Mauger and more stars of the future. The semi-final had been our pinnacle, a great one, but we were exhausted in the final and lost 24–0. The crowd of 12,000 there had little to shout about. Afterwards John Bevan said that we’d done our best and it was just one of those things: they were simply better than us. He was right, but we gave everything. Adam Jones told the Western Mail, ‘They were a credit to their nation. I couldn’t ask for any more.’ We couldn’t have given any more. To a man we had done our best.
It had been the most incredible 12 days of my life. We had gone from being in school or at work to having articles written about us in all the papers and our faces appearing on TV. Players got professional contracts; we had played against the best youth players in the world and we all felt ten feet tall. After the FIRA World Cup, Rugby World magazine named an all-star side of the best players in the tournament from Britain and Ireland. It was a sort of Junior Lions side and, although it was only a paper exercise, I was one of the fifteen players selected. After the World Cup, I got a few more first team matches at Pontypridd as injuries piled up. At the end of the season, I took my A-levels and applied to a do a maths degree at the University of Glamorgan. I