I've been lucky to learn from the best coaches

COMING from Trimsa-ran, the same village as dual international Jonathan Davies, there was no short-age of inspiration growing up. And then when I moved to Felinfoel RFC, as a 19-year-old, another Welsh legend Phil Bennett was our fitness coach.

- BARRY MADDOCKS

To have someone of that calibre doing 200 metre runs alongside you in his Adidas Welsh red tracksuit— the one with three enormous feathers on it —was something else. He was such a brilliant bloke, and so humble. I have been lucky throughout my coaching career, in being able to learn from some of the best rugby minds around.

While I was at Felinfoel RFC I got picked up by Dunvant RFC, who were in the Welsh top division at the time. I had two seasons there before moving on to Aberavon, where I spent the majority of my playing career, playing over 120 games. I'd already got quite a bit of coaching experience at that stage, initially in 1999 as an RDO for the WRU, at Newcastle Emlyn RFC in west Wales, and then seven years in Swansea in a similar role. The late John Schropfer was very good for me there, he was very good technically and gave me a fresh insight into the finer details of the game.

Former Llanelli coach Allan Lewis gave me the opportunity to broaden my horizons and coach outside of Wales for the first time when he offered me a job at Hartpury College. I started the first women's national academy and then I took over as junior academy director for the boys team; we won the U18s AASE Championship three times. I also continued to play for the Saturday team whenever required until I was 36. Sean Lynn, the Wales women's head coach, was our scrum-half and we had a young Jonny May on one wing and Alex Cuthbert on the other, so my job was to just give them the ball as much as possible. When Allan left to go to the WRU in 2011, Alan Martinovic came in and he was very good coach and allowed a lot of autonomy in my role.