The London Welsh Rugby Club Podcast

Our guest this week is Aled Thomas.  Aled came to London Welsh in 2007 after a few years at Newport Gwent Dragons.  Still a young lad at 22 and wanting regular rugby at 10 for a club that was going places; and he chose right in London Welsh as this was their first season as a professional squad.  During his first season at the club, he also went on to win the World 7's in Dubai with another club stalwart in Lee Beech.  Three seasons for the club and he was offered a contract to go back to Scarlets to play Pro 12 which he took as World Cup cover for some of their Welsh Internationals, but played in the majority of their games. Phil Davies took him to Gloucester so he had a season in the Premiership, before going back to Scarlets to finish his professional career. You really get to appreciate the ups and down of being a pro player, when you hear how Aled's professional career came to an abrupt end.  We hear about life as a Semi pro player in the Welsh Premiership and how he is still playing and recently been at the Principality playing for Aberafan. Enjoy.

Our guest this week is former Chairman Bleddyn Phillips. He takes us through how he was invited to join the Board when he hosted a St David's Day Dinner in Moscow!  Once on the Board, he was made Chairman immediately and helped the Board make some big decisions in the Spring of 2012 as we were aiming for Promotion to the Premiership.  Bleddyn takes us through what he is doing in retirement to keep himself busy with his work with the Scarlets and Swansea University.  We hear about how he met his wife and all the glamorous locations he has worked around the world.  London Welsh still has a special place in his heart and we hear why he felt he had to step down as Chair in 2016.  A fascinating insight into a key character who was instrumental in ensuring we had the right to play in the Premiership.

Our guest this week, is current squad member and prop superstar Sam Mahoney.   Sam has played prop since his early days at Colchester RFC when he joined them at U11.  We get to learn about his journey in rugby and why he took a gap year to wait for the love of his life to join him at University and when he made the transition from Colts rugby to Senior rugby for Clacton.  At University he bonded with a fellow student and became best mates with Tom Baldwin, which you hear quite a bit about their rugby journey, through Uni to London 1 North and then to London Welsh together. Who was the London Welsh member who encouraged Sam to join the club?  Sam loved his first 3 seasons at the club and became a popular player with our supporters as he was the basis for our strong scrum and he also got over the whitewash a fair few times.  A few concussions prevented him getting a run of games in our second season and work and injury hampered his availability in the third season, but he has still made 39 appearances for us since project reset.  We hear he is desperate to come back and play once he can come back and train more often.  A top guy. Enjoy.

Our guest in this weeks' episode is Terwyn Williams, Life member of London Welsh.  London Welsh has been a second home for Terwyn for over 50 years, from when he landed in London in 1970 and where he has made so many life long friends. We hear about where in West Wales he was brought up and started to play rugby and then where he went to College.  He didn't go straight into education, but found his way to his real passion of teaching History, Geography and Games across three schools in West London for over 30 years.  His passion for sport shines through and we discuss his involvement with the Welsh Exiles and the players he found for the WRU over the years.  London Welsh has been a massive part of hie life and we hear about how he has been involved with the club, primarily helping with the kit for 30 years and most of the time with Pete Lowe.  A fantastic trip down memory lane for our listeners.

Our guest this week is Nathan Trevett.  In this episode we get to understand Nathan's journey from Youth rugby to Senior pro player in South Wales.  He played senior rugby at 18 years and 4 days for Cardiff RFC and played for them and Glamorgan Wanderers, before getting his chance at Cardiff Blues as injury cover whilst some of the players were at the World Cup.  Cardiff kept Nathan on for another season, so he got some game time in the Pro 12, before Justin Burnell signed him for London Welsh, were he stayed for 3.5 years.  When London Welsh were expelled from the Championship, clubs in the Welsh Premiership were after Nathan and he ended his career playing for Merthyr RFC.  We get to understand what life after rugby is like, plus an update on what his son is achieving in rugby.

Our guest this week is former London Welsh prop and captain Julian Davies.  This Barry boy came to London Welsh in 1980 and played for the club for over 12 seasons.  He had to bide his time and literally fight his way into the first team by demonstrating his scrummaging prowess in those legendary Thursday night training sessions.  He led the club on many occasion, appointed for a couple of seasons as club captain, but also took over the reigns when others got injured.  We discuss his captaining style, the many club tours that happened during the 1980's and the friendships that last until this day.  We look back at his time at the club through the many stories Julian has of being a proud player of this club.  Julian left London Welsh and went on to make 150 appearances for Esher and retiring just before his 40th birthday.  We discuss what he is up to now as President of the Voyagers and scrum coach at Reeds Weybridge. A fascinating insight into club life by one of London Welsh's most colourful characters.

In this episode we hear from the many characters from around the club who enable match days's at London Welsh.  Saturday 18th March was the first league fixture for the Men's 1st XV since Feb 2020 and everyone was excited for the match.  We hear from the following at the club

Pre Match

Michael Talbot - Operations Director

Natalie Smith - Women's Captain

Pete Lowe - Director and Team Manager

Terweyn Williams - Life Member

Rocky Hudson - Druids Coach

Joe Jones - Chair of LWRFC Choir

Matt Mcclymont - Owner of School House London

Crone Du Rand - Head Coach of London Cornish

Tom Hunt - London Welsh player

Will Taylor - S&C Coach at London Welsh

Paolo Peschisolido - London Welsh player

Our guest this week is Rugby Commentator and Content Producer, Nick Heath.  Whilst London Welsh were in the Premiership, Nick was the club's stadium announcer and VIP match day host.  Nick moved from London Welsh to announce at Harlequins when his Commentating career took off. He currently works for Talksport, Channel 4, England rugby and commentator on International rugby, Premier 15's and The Premiership.    During lockdown Nick had no work as a freelance journalist and found interesting ways to publicise his craft an his social media following increased substantially and led to some interesting new working opportunities for him.  Nick loved his time at London Welsh and mentions that the Match Day announcing is in good hands at the club.

Our guest this week, is current Bath RFC and England International Josh McNally.  Josh was recently capped by England during their Summer matches with USA & Canada after displaying some great form during the last Premiership season.  He grew up in Hereford and always wanted to serve in the forces and didn't really think about having a career in rugby.  His journey started with the Colts at Luctonians and then he moved to the Royal Air Force, where his rugby developed over a couple of years and he went on to represent them, as well as playing for Henley Hawks.  It was at Henley where he was spotted by London Welsh and was signed by the club as they were then promoted to the Premiership under Justin Burnell's stewardship.  Josh had three seasons with the club, before he moved to London Irish and then on to Bath RFC.  This is a fascinating insight into someone who found a career in rugby a bit later than most and has blossomed into an England International. 

We also include some post match interviews in this episode with from the Battersea Ironsides match on 4th September with Tom Baldwin, Liam Chennells and Ben West.

In this weeks' episode we hear from many people across the club as excitement builds towards the start of the season.  Our Director of Rugby, Cai Griffiths takes us through his thoughts on pre season; the matches the squad have played, plus what he expects over the first few months.  There are a couple of interviews with players post the Cardiff match and this is something we will look to continue to do throughout the season; where we hope to get use to using the different microphone!!! We catch up with Head coach of the Women's team, Michael Griffiths, who introduces their new backs coach,Lee Irvine to us.  They tell us about their Inner Warrior Camp and the new teams they will be playing this season.  We then hear from Nell, one of the originals from the Girls rugby squad players about the anticipation of our first ever U15's girls team.  Brendan takes us through the excitement of the Minis season starting and what enjoyment the parents and players of some of our U9's had when they went on tour to Cardiff for the weekend.  Finally, Andy Evans our Colts coach, chats about the pre season the Colts have had and what we should be expecting from them this season.