Lucky Man without a care in the world

JAMIE ROBERTS INTERVIEW: GERRY THORNLEYtalks to the youngest member of the Lions' team who'll be running out to face the Springboks with a huge grin on his face

AN ENGAGING, easy-going and bright lad, Jamie Roberts will resume his medical degree in Cardiff University next September when attempting to complete his third- and fourth-year studies over the next four years. As the youngest member of today’s Lions team, the 22-year-old smiles a lot and conveys the impression of someone who can’t quite believe what is happening to him but is happy to go along with the ride.

Worrying and fretting, that’s for the older guys, as Phil Vickery conceded yesterday. The theory that experience brings an inner calmness is, the tight-head veteran maintains, bull****, and he reckons he’ll be worse than ever today.

By contrast, like Tommy Bowe, Roberts brings a certain carefree youthfulness to the party, and says he’s here to enjoy the experience as much as anything else. Pressure can be helpful, but not if it gets you down. “I’ll run out on Saturday with a huge grin on my face I’m sure and just have a real good crack at beating South Africa. That’s what it’s all about. It’s 80 minutes of rugby and you only bring pressure on yourself.”

It’s still hard to credit that he’s only been a professional rugby player for the last two seasons, bursting onto the Cardiff Blues team and then the Welsh team last season as a winger, before his strong, gain-line-breaking game took off at inside centre this season.

“It’s pretty crazy that it’s come this early for me,” Roberts says of his first Lions’ foray. “But it’s come at the right time. I’ve been playing well this year. I played my first game at 12 last summer out here, ironically, and it’s gone really well and here I am, finding myself starting on Saturday.”

He admits the magnitude of what he has achieved hasn’t sunk in and won’t do until today. “This is the type of tour that I don’t think some of the boys, myself included, will appreciate until 10 or 12 years down the line. We don’t appreciate how big it is back home. I find we’re in a bubble here. It’s lovely coming out of the bubble. I was down on the beach earlier and seeing flocks of people coming here from Britain and Ireland for the Test week is pretty special. This is where it all begins.”

Warren Gatland believes Roberts can only become even better when he adds more handling subtleties to his game and this tour can only facilitate that process.

In his tour debut alongside Brian O’Driscoll, following an apparently inspiring pre-match address by the Irish captain, Roberts looked visibly energised by playing alongside the great one. And it’s not an impression that he is inclined to refute.

“Any centre will tell you that the guy is world class. He’s a great communicator, and training’s been going really well. It’s great to have two guys in Stephen (Jones) inside me and Brian outside; highly experienced. We’re talking 80 and 90 caps apiece.

“It’s absolutely fantastic and they communicate so well, which is great for me as a young player.”

Roberts says he has never played with someone who talks so much, or offers so much advice, on the pitch. “I’ve played with guys who are quite quiet and it’s quite hard as a young player to really give your tuppence worth,” says the youngest member of today’s Lions’ team. “He also reads other players, his support lines, his running lines, his handling skills and his running – he’s still got the old legs,” says the young Welshman a tad cheekily, “albeit he got chopped down the other week. But he’s still really evasive and quick. He’s got it all really.”

The rapport between the two is palpable. “He’s a great guy, he likes a joke. He is quite old, isn’t he?” Roberts chuckles. “No, it’s a great contrast, isn’t it? A guy that old and someone as young as me, and hopefully it’s an inspiration to other young players.

“Lee Halfpenny and Keith Earls, these guys have made the tour on the back of one or two professional seasons, and I think that’s an inspiration to any young player out there really aspiring to big things that it can all come quite quickly and they’ve just got to take it in their stride.”

Four years ago, when O’Driscoll was being beaten up in New Zealand, Roberts had just finished his A levels and was travelling around Europe with his schoolmates. “I watched it in Paris I think, in the morning while I was travelling.”

As for O’Driscoll’s wonder try in the first Test against the Wallabies four years before, he hasn’t a clue. “I was probably in kindergarden or something; that was ancient years ago.”

Save for his father’s uncle having captained Newport, there was no rugby in the family bloodline. “My dad’s an avid fan, and my brother played until he was 11 but broke his collarbone and never played again. Besides that, nothing. Crazy.”

He began playing at six for a local, Welsh-speaking club in Cardiff called Cricc until he was 13, as well as with his Welsh-speaking school Glan Taf, where Nicky and Jamie Robinson also graduated from. “I’ve got a lot to thank them for. There are PE teachers who gave their all to make sure I made the grade. Dai Williams coached me from the age of seven all the way through the grades and he’s a great guy.”

Roberts has also been doing “an inter-collated degree this year for a BSE in Sports and Science”, for which he has exams in August, not that he has been of a mind to bring his books with him on tour. He’ll be cramming.

You wonder what the experience has been like for this first-time Lion.

“Everything and better,” he says. “I was quite nervy at the start, just meeting new people. But that’s the beauty of the Lions, meeting new players that you’ve played against and just getting to meet guys off the pitch. On the park you’re the worst of enemies during the Six Nations, then you come together and try and play as a team, but actually getting to meet the guys off the pitch has been fantastic.”

The way Roberts describes it, this tour has been a laugh every day, although the intensity would assuredly have picked up hugely in the last two days. “Every day the boys are cracking jokes every minute nearly. It has been more fun than I thought it would be.”

Uppermost amongst the funnymen is his compatriot, Andy Powell. “He’s been great craic; the boys really thrive off him. He’s a great character. Donncha is pretty funny as well and I think most of the boys are a great laugh. We have different fine systems and the fine kitty is growing pretty big at the moment, so there’ll be a big blow out after the final Test I think.”

The way they talk up the momentous size of this game themselves, you’d almost fear they’ll be too hyped up. Attaining the right emotional pitch is a delicate balancing act.

“I haven’t experienced anything like it before. Hopefully it will be similar to match day, just get the I-Pod in and listen to some music on the way to the ground, and just really focus.”

Roberts always listens to The Verve’s Lucky Man on the coach to the ground. “That’s my favourite song; it get the hairs on my neck standing up.”

He expects adrenalin will take care of the nerves he’s bound to experience today, and is preparing himself for something unlike any game he’s experienced before.

“It’s going to be the most physical game I’ve probably ever played. It’s going to be huge. Jean de Villiers and Adi Jacobs are world-class centres in their own right, and the majority of South Africa’s breaks are going to come from those two, so myself and Brian have got a huge defensive duty for the team.”

Doesn’t look like it’s going to faze him though.