FEATURE The human cost of Welsh rugby's austerity drive

Once, back in the dim and distant past, a query about a player released by Neath RFC was met with the words: “He’s between films.”

Sure enough, the man in question did secure a role elsewhere, extending his playing career at a time when Welsh rugby offered no shortage of options for those looking for new teams either because they wanted, in time-honoured tradition, a fresh challenge or simply because they had been told there was no longer room for them at the clubs where they had been playing.

That was then; this is now.

Now, a rugby player released by a professional team in Wales finds himself in a market where around 50  are moving on this summer amid cutbacks that can fairly be described as dramatic. Not all of those are economic casualties of a scene blighted by austerity, with the four regional teams operating to significantly reduced budgets. Some have finished because of injuries, while a few have chosen to hit the road of their own choosing.

But there are also unfortunates who may well have secured contracts had Welsh rugby been in better shape financially but now find themselves without deals and wondering what the future holds.

They are the human cost of the retrenchment that’s taking place in the oval-ball game on the western side of the River Severn.

Cut to Ben Fry, a former Wales U20s openside who has spent the past five years on the senior scene with the Dragons.  He is a player others like having on their side, one who can often be found at the bottom of rucks, doing the unglamorous work that every team needs but not everyone sees. He is tough, physical, effective at the breakdown and not averse to spending much of his time in harm’s way. Those of a certain vintage might say he has some of the qualities of Richard Webster, the teak-hard former Wales, Lions, Swansea and Bath flanker of the 1980s and 1990s.

Thirteen months ago, Fry was being mentioned as a possible option for Wales. One ex-international reckoned it was “just a matter of time” before the forward from Radyr in Cardiff won a cap.

A lot has happened since, not all of it positive for the 24-year-old.

He had only four starts for the Dragons in the 2022-23 campaign and was on their list of departures when it was recently released. When the club gave him the news that they were cutting ties, he was taken aback.

“I’d just finished training and they said: ‘Can you come up to the office?’” he says.

“Dai Flanagan, the head coach, and Rob Burgess, the head of recruitment, were there. They just said: ‘We can’t afford you for next year.’

“What can you say? I liked Dai.

My little boy [Lorenzo] is coming up for one and the main priority now is to help provide for him.

“I don’t know if he just didn’t like my style of play. Rugby’s a game of opinions – one coach may think a lot of you while another may have a different view. Maybe I just didn’t suit his style of play. The feedback I’d had during the season was largely positive, so it did come as a surprise when I was told I wouldn’t be there next term.

 “I didn’t go for food after being given the news. I went straight home.”

Fry continues: “It was something I didn’t think would happen for a few years, so in that respect it was a bit of  shock and hard to take.

“My little boy [Lorenzo] is coming up for one and the main priority now is to help provide for him.

“It’s probably one of the worst years to be out of contract. There’s no certainty anywhere and it isn’t easy. “

It’s to Fry’s credit that he resists the temptation to personalise the events that have turned his world upside down. But he is less than impressed by the circumstances that have confronted players in Wales this season, with those heading towards the end of deals operating in a hellish limbo for months on end amid an embargo on contract negotiations, as Welsh rugby’s power brokers attempted to set in place a new framework for the professional game in Wales.

“None of it has been the players’ fault, “ he says, “and the thing is there’s a lot of lower-end boys who are taking the hit. There are players who don’t play internationals who are around the regions giving everything all year, yet they find themselves being released and having to find other jobs. It’s something that’s out of your control. It’s taking the dream away from you, really, because of Welsh rugby’s circumstances.”

Despite all that’s been thrown at him, he wants to carry on playing: “I want to stay in rugby because it’s all I know and I think I still have a fair amount to offer.

“There are options outside the game.

“One of the Dragons’ sponsors is Dragon Studios, in Bridgend, a firm who have companies that do work involving carpentry for film sets. I’ve gone down there to have a look and been offered a job from July onwards if nothing happens on the rugby front. It’s brilliant of them and I can’t thank them enough.  In the meantime, I’m still training in the gym every other day and I’m doing four running sessions a week, so I’m ready to go if anything comes up in rugby.

“There was a potential option with Jersey, but, with the little one and stuff, it’s quite far for me to go. I was grateful for the interest – of course I was – but I wasn’t really willing to move that far away from my boy. I’m based in Wales, I like playing rugby in Wales. I know the game isn’t in the best state here at the moment, but I’d love to stay if it’s possible. That said, if I have to travel a bit further afield, I would. “

I didn’t have a job for four or five months after it. I spent my life savings just to survive. I needed money for my house, my family, my car and just to live and without an income I had to use the cash I had put away

Ex-Ospreys scrum-half Tom Habberfield

Turbulence in Welsh rugby isn’t new, of course. It has been with us pretty much from the get-go, what with Neath RFC famously not attending the momentous meeting at which the Welsh Rugby Union was founded – in Neath.  But the past decade has been notable for the worry that’s been the lot of many, and especially the players. Numbers have to add up, but for some at the sharp end, it’s been beyond tough.

Four years ago, Tom Habberfield found himself unexpectedly released by the Ospreys during Project Reject, the name given to the programme set up to restructure regional rugby.  “I didn’t have a job for four or five months after it,” he recalls.

“I spent my life savings just to survive.

“I needed money for my house, my family, my car and just to live and without an income I had to use the cash I had put away.

“It took me a full year to come to terms with leaving pro rugby.

“I felt like I lost my whole identity and everything I knew.”

But Habberfield counts himself as one of the fortunate ones. He has since secured a job he likes, as a manager for Apollo Teaching Services, a company that provides supply teachers. The quick and skilful scrum-half also plays semi-pro rugby for Cardiff.

“It’s all going well,” he says.

“I really enjoy my job and the rugby with Cardiff.

“I feel like the pressure and stress is off me now. My partner said the other day that I seem to have enjoyed playing rugby more over the past three years than I did during my final campaign at the Ospreys.

From July last year to March this year not one contract could be negotiated. If you were a couple of months away from the end of your contract, you’d want to know where you were in terms of your future. The lack of transparency between July 2022 and January 2023 was horrific

Derwyn Jones, rugby agent

“To players coming through now, I would say: ‘Don’t put off thinking about the future. Make sure you’re ready because any day could be your last day in the sport.’ I came through at the Ospreys with the likes of Ben John, Tom Grabham and Eli Walker, who all retired in their mid-20s because of injuries. There are so many boys finishing unexpectedly these days. Rugby’s great, but you need a fall-back. “

Maybe the last word should go to Derwyn Jones, a man whose work as a players’ representative over close on two decades has seen him witness multiple storms that have affected players, but none greater than the events of this season.

“It’s been the worst year I’ve encountered in terms of player management and I’ve been in the role for 18 years,” he says. “More importantly, it’s been the most difficult year for players, a lot of whom have had uncertainty hanging over them for pretty much the whole time.

“From July last year to March this year not one contract could be negotiated. If you were a couple of months away from the end of your contract, you’d want to know where you were in terms of your future. So the lack of transparency between July 2022 and January 2023 was horrific.”

Jones says players are assets who should be treated as such, adding: “People need to understand that this is a business where you are dealing with human beings – people who have families and financial commitments, such as mortgages and car payments. They have lives.

“There will be some who’ll have to move their families and there will be others who have to wait and see what opportunities do come up. But at least now we are in a position where the majority of our players are going to be contracted.

“One lesson to be learned by the Professional Rugby Board in Wales and the Rugby Management Board is that they have to respect and consult with players in the future and they have to show them far more compassion than they’ve been shown this season.

The uncertainty goes on for the likes of Ben Fry. It would take a hard heart not to feel sorry for him and for others who’ve been similarly affected by the chill winds blowing through Welsh rugby.

“I just hope we never see anything like this again.”

Plenty will echo those words.

Meantime, the uncertainty goes on for the likes of Ben Fry.

It would take a hard heart not to feel sorry for him and for others who’ve been similarly affected by the chill winds blowing through Welsh rugby.

All deserve better.