When you remind Andy Powell it’s now 16 years since he made his Wales debut against South Africa, his reaction reflects just what a special memory it is. “Ooh, I tell you now, the hairs are going up on my arm when you say that,” he declares. “It’s crazy how the time just goes.
Hey, we are all getting older. But where has 16 years gone? “It seems mad when you look back on it.” Powell was no newbie when he won his first Welsh cap on that November afternoon in 2008.
He was 27 and had already had spells with Newport , Llandovery, Beziers, Leicester, the Scarlets and Cardiff Blues. He’d first been called up to the Wales squad as a 21-year-old by Graham Henry ahead of the 2002 Six Nations . But his career hadn’t quite kicked on as his youthful talent had suggested it might and caps had eluded him.
“I was a good player, but maybe you could look back and say I didn’t help myself along the way,” he admits. “Some coaches said I was uncoachable. “But perhaps they didn’t have the time to push me on further.
Plus, I had a few setbacks with injuries, which doesn’t help.” So, as he moved through his 20s, it was a case of life in the international wilderness for the back row boy from Brecon . That was until a certain Warren Gatland arrived in Wales.
“I was playing well at the time for Cardiff,” recalls Powell. “We played Gloucester in the group stage of the Heineken Cup at the Millennium Stadium and had a good win. “I can remember having a phonecall .
