Lloyd Ashley has been a stalwart of Ospreys rugby. Playing over 150 times for the Welsh region since 2011, he has seen it all, from the heights of Ospreylian rugby, to some of its darker days with strings of poor results and rumours of a merger with arch-rivals the Scarlets.
Unlike many of the stories this season of Welsh players being hung-out to dry with last minute contract expiries and disingenuous conversations, Ashley was lucky enough that he had honest conversations with the Ospreys throughout.
“I had a conversation early on with the club and said ‘look, are you likely to sign the plus one option on my contract?’ and the club were very honest and said at the moment from a budget point of view, from the players we’ve got, we’re probably unlikely to sign that. It’s not a definite no, it’s not a definite yes”. With the door closed and his retirement announced, it took Ashley just days to announce that he would continue playing, moving to Merthyr RFC.
Alongside his rugby career, Ashley has made a move into the wellbeing space, being announced as WRPA (Welsh Rugby Players Association) Mental Health and Wellbeing Lead, as well as setting up his own initiative, Living Well with Lloyd Ashley.
Talking of his interest in wellbeing, Ashley could not pinpoint it to anyone event, but instead mentions a few.
“A bit of interest sparked when you used to go into the physio room, and everybody would give you the same answer. Somebody could have a 12-week injury, somebody could have a potential career ending injury, somebody could have just been missing out on one game and you’d say, ‘How you doing pal?’ and they’d say ‘Good, you?’, but it’s like, I know you’re not”
“From a rugby environment, when you’ve shed blood, sweat and tears with each other, you think, why are we still not able to have these conversations?”
Indeed, it’s not just the usual trials and tribulations of injuries and rugby that Ashley and many of his peers over the years have gone through, for Welsh rugby is a peculiar place, and whether its talks of closing down teams, of pathways not working, or of mergers, there are seemingly always complications around the corner.
“When the merger [with the Scarlets] came in the first time and it looked really close to being signed off, as a team we really didn’t know what was going on, so we went down to Paul James’ café in Neath, and all sat in watching for things coming up on Twitter, waiting for news”
“From my point of view, I had some brash conversations with people higher up, just reminding them that these are people’s livelihoods that are being affected”.
Despite these challenges, when Ashley first came into the set-up, he was surrounded by a star-studded squad, with the likes of Jerry Collins, Filo Tiatia, Ian Gough, Alun Wyn Jones to mention a few, as well as regular boxing day sell-outs and a real competitive edge to the team.
“There were so many unbelievable players, characters. It was an unreal place to be. I remember the first day All Black Jerry Collins walked into Llandarcy (Ospreys’ training facility), and he walks in, an absolute specimen of a man who blocks out the sunlight. He walks in and introduces himself, ‘Hi, I’m Jerry Collins’ and it was like ‘Yeah, I think I kinda know who you are!”
Having a team full of quality players also had its perks for the up-and-coming talent at the time.
“Guys like Ashley Beck, Dan Biggar stepped right up to the first team, and it made you realise that not only were these unbelievable rugby players, but they were very good people who were willing to help young people who were committed to what they were doing”.
“Just because you’re an unbelievable player, doesn’t mean that you don’t help everybody around you and you support everybody and you realise the influence that you can have on somebody, especially in those first couple of months, first couple of seasons”.
The affect that had on Ashley and his peers is tangible.
“Now you look at someone like Justin Tipuric and he had that as soon as he came in with someone like Marty Holah, and he’s willing to do exactly the same. I’m not saying he wouldn’t have done it if he didn’t have that, but I’m pretty sure he knows the influence and support he had and now has all the time in the world to do the same. That means we’re going to have future generations of quality players, because quality players are helping them”.
Though many of those legendary Ospreys have since moved on, it is clear that the support and squad of that time have passed that mentality to the younger players of that era, who encourage the same throughout the squad today.
“Danny Lydiate at the Ospreys is an unbelievable person who is very open about if he’s got stuff going on or he’s busy, he’s very open and he makes people feel comfortable. I know people feel safe enough to go and speak to him and have really honest conversations. Just because I have a title (Mental Health and Wellbeing Lead at the WRPA) doesn’t mean I’m the only one having these conversations”.
Ashley believes that although there is still work to be done, the culture is beginning to shift.
“In such a competitive and elite environment, it’s not always easy to create a safe environment where people feel like they can bring everything to the table, but we are going that way slowly”
“I think there’s a lot of work that needs to be done on understanding, on letting boys feel safe enough to have these conversations, but when people say it’s a macho environment, I’d love you to sit in some of the conversations I have and tell me it’s not a caring environment”.
“As a society we’re saying ‘men have to speak’ but where do men go to speak? Where are we safe enough to speak? Where can we vulnerable, because if I go into my job and say some of the things that I’m going through, they’re going to be worried about that, so where can we go? I don’t think it’s just rugby, I think that’s societal and we’re just trying to do our best.”
With over a decade at elite level, with his ‘Living Well With Lloyd Ashley’ Resilience training being rolled out for the Welsh regional academies, Ashley seems well placed to draw on this wealth of experience to help build the structures and spaces for the next generation.
Many thanks to Lloyd Ashley for taking the time to sit down and chat.
The Scribbler, 30th July 2022
Twitter: @RugbyScribbler
Facebook: The Rugby Scribbler
RugbyScribbler.co.uk 