Whitchurch RFC Under 15s
Ioan plays at hooker with his heart firmly on his sleeve, and the shirt has never once looked like it was doing the work for him.
Some players play with their head and some with their legs. Ioan plays with his heart. Every carry, every clear-out and every lineout is delivered with the kind of passion and commitment you cannot teach, and you can see it from the far touchline. When he is involved, you know about it. So does the opposition.
Hooker suits him. It is the one front row job where you throw the ball in, win it back off the floor and then go and tackle somebody twice your size, all inside about eight seconds, and then go round and do it again. Ioan thrives on it. Against Penarth he earned forward of the match for hard carries on an afternoon when going forward was genuinely difficult, which is exactly when a front row forward earns his keep.
And then there is the attendance record, which borders on the suspicious. Ioan never misses a training session. He never misses a game. Wet Wednesday in October on a pitch that is mostly water? Present. Floodlights doing their best against the Hailey Park gloom? Present. Away at Ferndale on a Sunday morning? Present, and already warming up. Coaches dream about players like this, and he has earned his place in the leadership group by simply always being there.
Away from the rugby, Ioan has big plans. By his own account he intends to become chess champion when he is older, which tells you everything you need to know. Here is a lad who spends his Sundays running headlong into things, and who has decided that his true calling is a game where the pieces are not allowed to move quickly and nobody is permitted to shout.
We think there is more overlap than he realises. A hooker spends the whole game reading the opposition, planning three moves ahead and sacrificing himself at the breakdown for the good of the position. That is basically chess, with more mud. The only difference is that nobody ever says "check" at a scrum, they just say something much ruder.
#uppachurch
Backing our players, one season at a time.
Ioan is proud to be sponsored this season by Dr Ted Hair Transplants, a private hair restoration clinic run by surgeon Dr Ted Miln. They carry out hair transplants using both FUE and FUT techniques, along with beard and eyebrow restoration and scar repair.
Ioan is genuinely grateful for the backing, and would like it noted for the record that he hopes he does not need to make use of their services for a good few years yet. He has been assured the shirt sponsorship does not come with a consultation, and he is taking that at face value.
In fairness to him, a hooker spends a fair amount of time with other people's heads very close to his own, so he is perhaps better placed than most to appreciate a specialist in the field. If it ever does come to it, he knows exactly who to ring.
Sponsorship like this is what keeps this team on the pitch. It covers kit, tournament entries and the travel that gets the boys to games, and it means every player gets the same chance whatever is going on at home. Our thanks to Dr Ted and everyone at the clinic for getting behind Ioan and the Warriors this season.