Hardest job was getting ‘Dommers' off cakes!

Whenever the pandemic permits, Alex Dombrandt will be asked to dine with a galaxy of Welsh veterans headed by Sir Gareth Edwards.

- PETER JACKSON

The invitation requesting the presence of England’s newest No.8 will arrive in due course for a landmark occasion, 70 years since the foundation of a teacher-training college in Cardiff where the assembly line remains in full production at the same campus suitably perched on the capital’s highest ground.

At Cardiff Met, they love ‘Dommers’ as one of their own for a whole host of reasons, almost every single one reflecting the devotion to their cause of ‘this big teddy bear of a bloke’ with an unhealthy appetite for cream cakes.

The love is mutual, its survival extending beyond the grim acceptance during three student years that he could not always have his cake and eat it. It has also been reinforced rather than diluted at his having to endure more than his share of pain and suffering.

“I wouldn’t be where I am today without Cardiff Met,’’ he says. “Their whole rugby programme, their professionalism, quality of coaching, nutritional advice – everything was first-class. You had all the tools at your disposal to be the best player you could be.

“To be perfectly honest, I went to the university with the ambition to get my degree and play some rugby and cricket. At that point, I’d never played much competitive rugby. It was all just for fun.

“I never really had an ambition to play rugby professionally. I’m a big cricket fan but I found out soon enough that to play cricket as well as rugby and do justice to both simply wasn’t going to be possible.’’

The conversion of Dombrandt from overweight student into a Premiership tour de force began on a late summer’s day six years ago in Taunton where he put in a late appearance off the bench against the local Titans in a pre-season friendly.