By Gareth James
Ellis Bevan has become the latest Welsh scrum-half to have been produced by Cardiff Met, following in the footsteps of some of the very best No 9s in the business.
Where Clive Rowlands, Gareth Edwards, Clive Shell, Brynmor Williams and Gareth Cooper went before him, three of them going on to become British & Irish Lions, Cardiff scrum-half Bevan took his first tentative steps on the international stage in Wales’ defeat to South Africa at Twickenham.
Now he is heading to Australia to try to help Wales win against the Wallabies on their own patch for the first time since 1969 – when Edwards was the scrum half in a 19-16 win at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Scrum-half Ellis Bevan says he was “true to himself” by following his rugby dream of playing for Wales.#BBCRugby #Wales
— BBC Sport Wales (@BBCSportWales) June 24, 2024
Bevan spent three years at Cardiff Met, featuring in their Welsh Championship and BUCS Super Rugby side. When COVID hit, he was released on a 16-week programme with Cardiff along with flanker Tom Pearson.
Pearson went on to sign for London Irish and has since become an England international. He helped Northampton Saints reach the semi-finals of the Investec Champions Cup and to win the English Premiership title last season,
Bevan, meanwhile, graduated from the Welsh Exiles programme into the Wales U20 side, played for Cardiff Met and then graduated into the Cardiff RFC and then full Cardiff Rugby teams.
“It was obvious from the day he started at Cardiff Met that his sheer will to get things right, and the intensity he brought to training and playing, was going to give him the chance to progress in the game,” said the former Cardiff Met director of rugby Danny Milton.
“He played for us in his first two years and then when COVID hit was given the chance by Gruff Rees, along with Tom Pearson, to train at Cardiff Rugby. Cardiff obviously liked what they saw, realised his potential and we were all delighted to see him win his first senior cap against the world champion Springboks.
“Our role at Cardiff Met has always been to play a part in developing young players. It’s nice to have been involved in helping to create another Welsh international – one of many over our near 75-year history.
“Aaron Wainwright was another player who spent time in our programme and benefitted from that, while two other alumni, the Harlequins duo of Alex Dombrandt and Luke Northmore, are currently in New Zealand on the England tour.
“We are very proud of our record, our facilities, our coaching team and our rugby programme. We get measured on developing good people, not just good rugby players.”
Gatland on the inclusion of Ellis Bevan: “We see a huge amount of growth in him and we wanted to find out about someone else in that position to give us some more depth.” https://t.co/Pnza0eL70X pic.twitter.com/sHSMMHgnWV
— WalesOnline Rugby (@WalesRugby) June 18, 2024
Ellis Bevan with Warren Gatland after receiving his cap
Already a poster boy for the Welsh Exiles programme – the 24-year-old was born in Solihull and went to Bryanston School – Bevan fulfilled not only his, but his Swansea-born father’s dream by playing for Wales last weekend.
Two days later he was named in the 34-man squad to play two Tests and a third tour game in Australia. The hard work starts now as he battles with Gareth Davies and Kieran Hardy for the NBo 9 shirt
“When I went to Cardiff as a 20-year-old I was still at university. I had Tomos and Lloyd Williams to learn off and I could not have asked for better people,” said Bevan.
“What an occasion it was to win my first cap against the current world champions. I was looking forward to playing against their double world cup winning scrum half Faf de Klerk and wanted to embrace that on my debut.
“He is a good guy on and off the field. He was kind enough to give me his shirt and we had a photo in the changing room.
“If I want to get to where he is, I have to come up against the best. We had a game plan, stuck to it and in the first 50 minutes we executed reasonably well.
“There will be missed opportunities we can look back on but we can be proud of enforcing our own plan and being just one point down at half-time.
“We’re never going to be pleased with losing but we can be positive with some of the things we showed out there.”
Gareth Edwards 1972 try.
Scotland v Wales matches are always special and exciting and here's one of the greatest individual tries you'll ever see. What an iconic moment!
Can't wait for the weekend! pic.twitter.com/N6YtUvRCnD
— 218 Events (@218Events) February 11, 2021
Only the fourth new scrum half used by Wales in the last decade, and the first since Kieran Hardy in 2020, Bevan knows he now has to build on his Twickenham performance down under.
“There are three of us in the squad and the other two guys are quality scrum-halves. If I can have a career half as good as Gareth and Kieran, I will be doing all right,” he added.
https://twitter.com/WelshRugbyUnion/status/1380122530892161024