It’s been ten years since my first rugby match for the National Assembly for Wales and I’m one of only two survivors from that match who still represent Welsh Assembly Rugby as we have since come to be known.

My rugby playing career started as a fifteen year old for my local club, Aberavon Green Stars in Port Talbot and despite not being a particularly good player, my enthusiasm for the sport hasn’t waned in the slightest since my first match against BP Llandarcy, a team which sadly no longer exists.

As a man approaching his fortieth year I have to come to terms with the fact that I am inevitably coming to the end of my ‘competitive’ playing days, able now to give only an average showing on the field for my senior rugby outings with Cefn Cribwr RFC. Fortunately however, Assembly Rugby allows me the opportunity to prolong my love affair with rugby union for what I hope will still be a good number of years yet.

I’ve been captain of the Assembly Rugby team since 2007 where, at Teddington Lock, we played the Commons and Lords in the return fixture from that first ever match at Glamorgan Wanderers in 2006.

My first four matches as captain against the Commons and Lords were unfortunately not very fruitful. We drew two and lost two of those first four games, results which could be put down to many different factors, but perhaps the most important one being that we never seemed to have the same players from one game to another! We played a variety of fixtures in those first five years against local teams such as Sea View in Barry; British Airways – who used our match as a pre-tour trial – bring 40 players with them and also played a few friendly matches at Heol y Cyw RFC. The best result we ever managed there was limiting them to a 15-0 score line on a pitch which was more like treacle than grass!

We did get the occasional win, most notably against Ribolitti Firenze 1931 from Italy who were on tour to watch the Azzuri playing Wales in Cardiff. They were a ‘proper’ veteran side, a team made up of men in advance of their forties. What they lacked in physical fitness they made up for with brute strength and cunning skulduggery. It was an important win nonetheless and we needed a win to lift our spirits in those early years.

Our team though was starting to take shape by that point. We knew which players were suited to which positions, we knew who could be counted on to show up and play and we knew who could last the full eighty minutes of a match and who would be glad of an early shower!

It was in 2009 that we first played another Parliamentary team other than the Commons and Lords, when the Assemble Nationale came over from France to play us at the Diamond Ground in Whitchurch.

This was another team of ‘proper’ veterans whose years of experience were obvious from the first. It was also a chance for us to become acquainted with some new “Parliamentary” rules such as not taking conversions after a try was scored and the importance of playing with French rugby balls which they had brought with them rather than using our own inferior Welsh ones! We also learned that slapping a player in the face didn’t constitute anything other than a penalty! It may not have hurt fellow Assembly Rugby original Gavin Burns receiving such a slap but my sides were close to splitting from laughing at his shocked face after he received it!

We returned to Paris the following year on what was a real whistle stop tour. We left Cardiff at 5am on a Friday Morning and were back in Cardiff at 11pm on the Sunday night, travelling by coach and ferry. We were saddened to discover that we were not playing the same Assemble Nationale team that travelled to Cardiff the previous year but instead, due to a schism which has fortunately now since healed, we played the civil servants who were a much younger, better organised and far superior team to the one we had beaten by three tries to two in Cardiff.

The match started with an amazing sixty metre interception try by Robert Bailey which put us ahead 0-5 but after losing a few players to injury (a shoulder dislocation, a broken nose and a “hurty” cheek) we eventually lost by the narrow margin of 60-5! Great French al fresco hospitality around the back of the changing rooms over a barbecue (in February!) ensued and the score line was forgotten almost as quickly as the vin rouge was consumed.

Nobody regretted making that journey however, and I hope that one day we can return to Paris to make amends for that abject display. The camaraderie which is always found on away trips involving an overnight stay is what cements any team together and that French trip worked well to help us get to know each other that little bit better.

By now our matches against the Commons and Lords were the most hotly anticipated match of the season. We were however still playing catch up in those early years, losing back to back games to them both at home and away. At that time, the media attention for these matches wasn’t huge but it did still help to get that little bit of public interest around our team, which in turn helped us fill our buckets a little fuller for our match day collections for Bowel Cancer UK. In fairness to the Commons and Lords team, they contributed well to the match day collections and have remained generous with their donations to the present day. Lots of raffles at work in advance of our matches were key to the charity benefitting from our games. Staff at the Welsh Government and National Assembly for Wales have been good supporters for the charity and to reflect that we have now raised in excess of £20,000 in ten tears is very satisfying. I hope that we can continue to add to that figure as we continue to raise both finances and awareness for the campaign.

The past five years has been a period of rapid growth and improvement for the squad. We have had more input from our Welsh Government players and within that intake we have unearthed a huge amount of rugby talent. Gone are the days where I would be found on most Fridays wandering round the office trying to fill a couple of jerseys for the following day’s match. We now have a reliable, enthusiastic and close knit squad who love the sport and don’t bat an eyelid when asked to meet at some unearthly hour for a long bus ride to London. With this added enthusiasm and quality we have now turned a corner with regard to our success on the field. The Commons and Lords haven’t beaten us since 2011 and long I hope may that barren run continue!

The players and officials of Commons and Lords team though have become great buddies over the years and we look forward to our matches against them knowing that regardless of the score line or result, we can share a good laugh and a beer after the match with our nearest Parliamentary rugby rivals.

We have also developed some regular friendly fixtures in our rugby calendar, playing Cardiff Harlequins on a fairly regular basis and playing fixtures against both Caldicot Veterans and Magor Veterans. Our close fought victory at Cardiff Quins in 2015 was for me, one of our finest team efforts, giving us a win against a team with real Welsh rugby pedigree. It is sad for me personally that there are so few local teams that run a thirds or a veteran side so that we can enjoy more regular social rugby. Technically, whilst we are not a veteran team, the standard of our rugby is well matched against such teams and unfailingly produces some entertaining rugby.

We’ve also played fixtures against the Cardiff Lions – South Wales’s first Gay Rugby team – although I am ashamed to admit that I have yet to personally play against them as on both occasions I was unavailable for selection. I hope to put that right soon as my Stonewall rainbow bootlaces are still in place on my boots in readiness!

The most momentous year in the Club’s history and for me personally had to be 2015. It was without doubt a truly tremendous year for Assembly Rugby.

2015 started with our first visit to Caldicot, a competitive game played in freezing conditions at the Leisure centre in front of a crowd of three people! The following month we hosted the Commons and Lords at the BT Sports Cardiff Arms Park in front of around 200 people – a proper rugby ground which is steeped in Welsh rugby heritage. We gave an excellent account of ourselves as a team, albeit with a slight blip in the third period which allowed the Commons and Lords to get a couple of well worked tries under their belts and make for a thrilling climax to the game.

Ultimately though we won our fourth match in a row against them and secured the Parliamentary Rugby Cup for another year. We followed that victory with that notable win against Cardiff Quins and went into the summer looking forward to our first appearance at the Parliamentary Rugby World Cup which was held both in Rugby School and Richmond, London.

My proudest moment as captain was to take to the field at The Close, at Rugby School, where all those years ago William Webb Ellis… “took the ball in his arms with a blatant disregard for the rules and ran with it”. Our opponents on the day were the reigning Parliamentary champions from the New Zealand Parliament.

As a child, I had seen the Haka performed at the Gnoll, Neath in October 1989 when the Welsh All Blacks played the New Zealand All Blacks. That match was one which still lives vividly in my memory, with my childhood idols going down 26-15 to Wayne Shelford’s touring team. To even imagine that twenty six years later I would face down the Haka myself would have been ridiculous, but to have faced it on the green and pleasant grass of Rugby School is a memory that time will never erase.

It was a match that we were not optimistic of winning, but despite conceding early and being hit by the human missile that is Jack Tarrant, the former Japanese International centre, who rendered me incapable of finishing the match, we made a good account of ourselves and left the field with our spirits high. It was a good job too as we were hastily reorganised to play in the guise of the Parliamentary Barbarians against a very strong South African team who brought us swiftly down to earth with a bump!

We reconvened in Richmond a few days later to take on the French in our second pool game, this time registering a hard fought win and again, immediately following on from that match, we played again as the Parliamentary Barbarian side against the Australian Parliament side that went on to win the overall tournament on points difference, much to the dismay of the defending Kiwi team!

Our last pool match was against the Argentinian Parliament which really was a game to remember. We went into it with an ambition to play open, enjoyable rugby and I am immensely proud of what we produced that day, showing real solidarity in our squad against an Argentinian side which was huge in both numbers and physicality. Between us we provided a hugely entertaining encounter played in the true spirit of the game and many friendships were forged and hugs were plentiful before and after the match!

The World Cup experience is one which is still talked about fondly among our players and we yearn to rekindle that fire of international rugby fraternity in Japan in 2019.

Looking back over the last ten years is something which has taken me some time to consider. I realise that I am getting longer in the tooth and that the aches and pains following on from playing a game of rugby are not as easy to shake off as they once were. However, my desire to play and to enjoy my beloved national sport remains as strong today as it did twenty three years ago when I first made my debut for the Aberavon Green Stars.

And after a decade of both playing for and having the honour of captaining the Welsh Assembly Rugby side, it is my sincerest hope that I can continue to contribute on the field of play and enjoy the unique brotherhood of rugby union with my Assembly rugby team mates, for a few more years yet.