Dai Bennett a Saint through and through

 


In local rugby circles there are few players who could say that they had played for two decades for their home club, especially when their particular rugby skills would have been very welcome at any of the more ‘fashionable, clubs which made him offers but were politely rebuffed!
 
Dai Bennett was the player in question, with St Davids RFC, a giant of a second row who dominated lines out for The Saints and Pembrokeshire as he stood tall at 6” 5’ and weighed in at 17 stone when he was just a bit fitter than he is now, all those years later.
 

Unusual form of motivation for a ‘gentle giant’

 
He was something of a gentle giant and stories are still told about fellow forwards in the county team used to appoint someone to give him a ‘tap on the jaw’ in the early stages of inter-county matches to make him angry since he naturally thought it was an opponent doing the dirty deed and would respond with a fiery performance.
 
I’m still not sure if that story is true but I can vouch for the fact that he is still a pleasure to meet at matches because although he not quite the physical specimen he was then he still has that presence - as I witnessed  in a recent match when I saw The Saints lose a league match and had the pleasure of standing alongside this ‘Ambling Alp’ throughout the game and his comments showed that his tactical awareness is still there.
 

Parents couldn’t find rugby boots to fit

 
That huge frame was always an asset in senior rugby but wasn’t quite the same in schools rugby at Ysgol Dewi Sant, where he was forced to play in trainers since his parents couldn’t find any SIZE FOURTEEN boots anywhere in the county.
 
He played in a useful school team that included very good players like  Martin Walsh, Nigel ‘Gus’ Cartwright and Paul Sage but considered calling it a day because he was fed of opposition teams asking him why he wore such unusual footwear - but then mum and dad heard about an ‘outsize shoe’ shop in Northampton and eventually, at the age of 17, he became the proud owner of his first pair of rugby boots!
 

Unusual start in senior rugby

 
He immediately joined St Davids youth team and was chosen as the first-ever ‘Youth Player of the Year’ as they only lost two games that season - and then made his first-team debut at Furnace in unusual circumstances as winger Raymond John got injured.
 
Dai was the only replacement available, so he still has the record of being the tallest winger ever to turn out for the club in games!
 
Within a year, Dai was a regular in the first team, where fellow second-row Keith Jones helped smooth off some of the rough edges before Dai Owen became his partner and they enjoyed over a decade in the club’s ‘boiler room’ - with prop John James as the major influence in his long career because although John was a gentle character off the pitch he taught Dai all the little tricks of the trade so that he could look after himself!





 

County selection – and hard lessons learned

 
Dai’s performances soon attracted the attention of the county selectors and after missing out at youth level found himself, at the tender age of 19, taking on Glamorgan B at Pembroke - and it wasn’t a great start because they lost 52-0 in front of a big crowd which included a large number of supporters from Ty Ddewi.
 
Closer to home, the closest he came to silverware came when The Saints reached the semi-final of the KO Cup but lost 12-6 - and when he had a pint with opposite number Ossie Boswell (now coaching at Tenby) he mentioned how sore his nose and other facial features were and quick as aa flash Ossie pointed out that because Jack was jumping so high in the line out a few odd Quins’ fingers might have accidentally found their resting place in Dai’s nostrils...It was a hard lesson but Dai says he learned from it!
 

Delighted with selection against Japan and The American Eagles!

 
A great deal of training in 1983 paid dividends when he was selected for the prestige Pembroke County match against the Japanese touring team at Haverfordwest - a shock result that showed the quality of rugby in our county.
 
“My opponent in the lineouts was only 5’10’ and although I was much taller, he pushed me all the way - and I put that down to hooker John Griffiths’ throw-in,” he said with a typical chuckle!
 
In sharp contrast, when Dai was selected for Pembrokeshire against the visiting American Eagles, alongside team mates Jack Dudley and Gerwyn Richards, where his second-row opponent was 6” 7’ but he gained far more possessions in a narrow defeat, which was disappointing but another honour for Big Dai!
 
Great tour to Germany – and Welsh caps late in his career
 
In 1982, Dai was also part of a successful tour with the County team to West Germany and amongst their successes were terrific wins over very strong teams representing the British Army of the Rhine and the 7th Royal Horse Artillery.
 
But the absolute pinnacle must have come very late in his playing days when he had helped out with the seconds and was contacted by late Junior Union stalwarts Dai Miller and Jeff Harry about his availability at that level for Wales and he was delighted when he was selected for home and way internationals at Aberavon and then Stockholm, both of which Wales won.
 
“It was a thrill to walk onto the pitch and sing our national anthem - I eventually played in nine matches, the others coming against Welsh clubs celebrating special occasions like their centenaries.
 
“It was wonderful to receive my coveted cap and I was also allowed to keep my shirt, which I presented to my club, along with the shirts from the Japan and the American Eagles’ matches, which are great for me to see hanging now on the clubhouse wall.”
 

A special spectator tour – and family matters . . .

 
As well as being involved on the field, Dai has always enjoyed watching rugby, especially players performing at the very top of the game - and one highlight in this sense was a five-week trip to New Zealand to watch the British Lions take on the All Blacks.
“The whole trip was magic,” admitted Big Dai as he recalled the event with a huge smile!
 
Dai hails from a sporting family because his brothers also played a range of sports to a high level, with Jonathan playing county badminton and golf whilst Nicholas played football, squash and golf in Suffolk. Amazingly, though, his dad Howard was 5’8’ tall and mum Gwenfil was another inch shorter!
 
Dai himself was a useful basketball player and won the county sports’ high jump as he almost stepped over the bar at 5”8. He is also a very strong swimmer and for ten years he was a voluntary lifeguard at Whitesands Beach. Add his Friday night game of darts and it is easy to see how Dai spends his spare time, with a regular Christmas Day dip as another option.
 

Playing for Llanelli – and strong views about violence in rugby

 
Back on the rugby front, the only time that Dai left St Davids was to play for a season with Llanelli, mainly in the second team and with a single first-team match against Maesteg at Stradey Park, which was a great experience for him. His dad used to ferry him to matches but then he decided to return to play for The Saints, where he always enjoyed the playing, but also the post-match ‘hwyl’ which included the best singing from any team in West Wales!
 
Dai accepts that a criticism of his play might well be that he wasn’t really aggressive enough and he is ready to say that there were others who would push to win games by any means, including acts of violence, which he was definitely against because he would say that he wanted to enjoy games that were as physical as anyone wished, but not at any cost.
 
He is rightly proud of the fact that he never received a yellow and was never sent off - and was never admonished by any referee for foul play.
 

Loads of friends made and a lesson given to a teacher!

 
“I am proud of the number of friends I have made throughout the county and much further afield, which to me is worth all the silverware I could have had if I had moved elsewhere. I still love going to watch St Davids play because I generally bump into old playing friends and opponents.
 
“Then there are others like Bill Carne, who I have not only chatted about rugby to but also taught him something about local history and geography, like the time we chatted about the rock formations that look down on the pitch and I told him one was called Garn Llidy and he gasped with astonishment because his wife’s family had unsuccessfully tried for years to discover where that name originated from!”
 
He is also delighted to see the way the club is developing and praises the current coaching team of Bruce Evans and Jack Dudley - and the compliment is repaid by Jack, who told us,
“I played for almost ten years with Dai, who was a great playing asset over so many years and when he was playing for the seconds, we were all thrilled that he was capped for the Welsh Districts’ team in international matches at Junior Union Level.”
 
We could pay Dai Bennett no better tribute but can only agree with another St Davids giant’s  words - and it is very true story about discovering the rock’s name after our family looking for over 30 years, so if you bump into me, ask and I’ll explain!