LONG READ 'For Tips, it’s never about him. It’s always about the team.'

Years after Colin Charvis had packed away his boots and stored them in a cupboard beneath the stairs, a middle-aged man stopped him outside a café in the Swansea Enterprise Park to impart the news that he had once been allowed to choose the name of his daughter’s cat. “I called it Charvis,” the chap said proudly, before adding that the former flanker had been his favourite player.

A local legend was Charv. Occasionally contrary, yes, but also misunderstood by many. Swansea RFC supporters and fellow players revered him.

What of Justin Tipuric? Can we feel confident there may at some point be a feline running around the Swansea area answering to the name of ‘Tips’? We cannot be sure, but what is certain is that the man himself is ending his playing career with his own iconic status assured, particularly among Ospreys followers.

He would undoubtedly wince at such a line, for he is anything but comfortable when praise is thrown his way. “He’s happiest when not talking about himself,” laughed his ex-team-mate Scott Baldwin. “For Tips, it’s never about him. It’s always about the team. You’d be pushed to find a more humble person.”

But it’s all ending for him as a player now, with retirement beckoning at the age of 35. He is finishing at the end of the campaign and a pectoral muscle injury has rendered him off limits for the past three weeks. Maybe there won’t be any more on a rugby field from the man with the Trebanos blue hat. Certainly, the wistful look on his face as he left the pitch early against Lyon on April 12 suggested the thought had crossed his mind, too.

How would you describe the essence of Tipuric the player?

After Wales defeated Australia in 2018, a London newspaper described Tipuric as ‘a show pony doing the donkey work in a dogfight. Three animals at once’. Meant to be complimentary, for sure, except Tipuric has never been a show pony. A thoroughbred, perhaps. But never a show pony.

What a career he has had: 229 appearances for the Ospreys, 93 caps for Wales, selection for three Lions tours, four Six Nations titles with his country, including two Grand Slams. In 2017, he was named Welsh rugby’s player of the year, the fifth award he picked up that year after he walked off with four accolades at his region’s annual dinner.

Let’s agree that he has travelled a long way since being told early in his career he wouldn’t make it as a top-end back rower, with the schoolboy Tipuric passed over for early honours and even left on the bench as an unused hooking replacement for one Plate final.

He just liked tackling. I think with tackling you need good technique but you also have to want to tackle. Justin wanted to tackle.

Justin Jones, Trebanos juniors coach

But there was something about the kid of Croatian heritage that set him apart. “I first came across him when he was eight years of age,” said Justin Jones, who coached the youngster at Trebanos throughout the junior ranks. “I took my two sons, roughly about Justin’s age, down to the park with a ball. I didn’t know Justin then, but one of my boys said: ‘Dad, look at this boy on roller blades here. Send one of your up and unders high into the air and see if he can catch it’. The ball duly went skywards. Justin had to chase it a bit, but he caught it with both hands. You thought: ‘Well, that was a bit different’.

“He started playing properly for us and we didn’t have to teach him to do much. What really sticks in the mind is that he could defend. I dealt with a lot of kids over the years as I went from coaching the under-9s to the under-16s and then back round. In all that time, I saw only about two who could tackle properly. Most tried to use their hands, but Justin used his shoulder first, then wrapped.

“I remember we played in a tournament with the pitch surrounded by adults, so it was hard to see over them. But I could just about see a boy on the pitch who was bigger than all the parents and he was running through all his opponents.

“But we played them and I can see him running down the line now, then – bang! He went down like a tree. When I checked, it was Justin who was underneath him. He just liked tackling. I think with tackling you need good technique but you also have to want to tackle. Justin wanted to tackle.”

But representative accolades remained out of reach in those years. “I think people saw him as a bit small for a flanker,” said Jones. “Maybe a lot of boys were over-developed while he wasn’t. He was born in August, so he was pretty much the youngest in his year all the way through. But he caught them all up from the age of 16 or 17. With the Ospreys academy, he just took off.

“He used to get up early on a Saturday morning to watch Super 12 rugby on TV and he followed Swansea RFC down at St Helen’s, but back in those early days with us, the player he looked up to most was the Saracens and England flanker Richard Hill. He just used to like the way he quietly went about his business, doing things without any fuss and not seeking out praise.”

Even at the Ospreys, not all were initially convinced about the kid from the Swansea Valleys, among them the region’s elite performance director at the time, Andrew Hore, who let it be known he didn’t feel the newbie would make it as a senior starter at the region, underlining his point by pledging to eat two raw eggs if proved wrong. “The following summer Tips returned personal bests across the board and made it into the side,” recalled Baldwin. “If I remember correctly, Horey ate the eggs with the shells still on them.”

When the then teenager made his first start for the region, against Bath in 2009, [Jerry] Collins took him to one side before kick-off and said: “I have got your back. You just go out and do your thing.” Tipuric later revealed the words from the All Blacks superstar had made him feel as if he had wings.

It was Tipuric’s good fortune to emerge in an Ospreys set-up that had back-rowers of the calibre of Marty Holah, Filo Tiatia and Jerry Collins, all of whom were only too willing to help the youngster. When the then teenager made his first start for the region, against Bath in 2009, Collins took him to one side before kick-off and said: “I have got your back. You just go out and do your thing.” Tipuric later revealed the words from the All Blacks superstar had made him feel as if he had wings.

Memorable days followed for the Ospreys and for Wales. Rare was the game when Tipuric’s performance level dropped below a seven out of 10. Often were the matches when he appeared a cut or six above.

Should he have started more games for Wales? His admirers will answer in the affirmative, doubtless bringing into the argument Tipuric’s all-court game, but Warren Gatland often preferred the bigger, more physical Sam Warburton, himself a great player.  The pair teamed up to wondrous effect in the Six Nations title-winning clash against England in Cardiff in 2013, but the suspicion was Gatland generally had issues over the back-row balance when the two started in the same side and so didn’t go there as often as many would have liked.

Writing that media interviews were never Tipuric’s thing is akin to suggesting that staying at home was never Marco Polo’s thing. Once, after learning a European Challenge Cup match against Newcastle Falcons was not going to be televised, Tipuric ribbed the Ospreys’ then media man Peter Owen that he was happy to cover all broadcast duties after the game, saying: “Right, then, Pete, what time do you want me for TV? I’m here whenever you want me.”

Then he went and scored an extraordinary try that saw him pluck the ball out of the air some 65 metres out, charge through several tackles, kick ahead, gather and touch down. Cue countless interview requests from the written press coming in after the match.

It goes without saying that as a social media refusenik, he values his privacy. He is also a hugely popular presence in the Ospreys squad. And those who have played alongside him or followed his career have never doubted his worth as a player.

“I could talk for ages about his skills and his instinctive ability, but there’s also his commitment to the cause. He’s been a one-club man and every time he has gone onto the pitch he has had that will to do well for the team.

Roger Blyth

“He’s the best forward I’ve played with,” said Baldwin. “His skill levels are extraordinary, but maybe it’s his ability to read the game that sets him apart. He just knows which lines to run and where to go next. It’s something only a few have.”

Former Wales and Swansea full-back Roger Blyth, as well qualified as anyone on Ospreys matters after filling countless positions in the region’s hierarchy over the past two-and-a-bit decades, watching almost every game, said: “He ranks right up there with the best of the best Ospreys players.

“I could talk for ages about his skills and his instinctive ability, but there’s also his commitment to the cause. He’s been a one-club man and every time he has gone onto the pitch he has had that will to do well for the team.

“We’re delighted he’ll be one of our coaches next season. He’s such an important part of our region.”

Doubtless, those who deal in perfection would have wanted him to reach his century of caps and been able to make one final home appearance for the Ospreys, to receive a proper farewell from supporters.

But such matters don’t always go according to plan.

Like Sinatra, Tipuric has long maintained he’s not a man for regrets, saying only last year: “I wouldn’t change anything. I always feel things happen for a reason. It’s all been pretty special.”

It’s been pretty special to witness, too.