21-year-old Rowland Kaye from Maesteg currently plays for As Carcassonne in the French Elite One Championship. He made his debut for the club last weekend, scoring a try in his side’s 46-16 victory over Palau XIII Broncos.
Kaye has previously been offered trials in Australia, but due to COVID he couldn’t go, as a result he decided to look closer to home.
On how his move to Carcassonne came about Kaye commented, “I’m signed up with Srama Rugby League Recruitment agency and they were able to get me an offer from an Elite Two club Lescure. At the same time, I was approached by the coach of Montpellier Sharks who offered me a deal to fly out In December but due to COVID that wasn’t able to come through.
“I then messaged Carcassonne directly and luckily was able to sign under medical grounds where a previous player had been ruled out for the season, so they were able to offer me a train and trial contract for a month. Just under two weeks in I was offered a full contract until the end of the season.”
On how he’s handling the language barrier he said, “Trying to make conversation with other teammates is difficult but not impossible. I’m trying my best to pick up the language with online learning, however It’s been helpful that there are a few English speakers from Fiji, Samoa, England and Ireland.”
Kaye spoke about his time with West Wales Raiders, “I never regret anything or look back on my experience as a negative, although I played 37 games in League One and only won the one, I can still look at it as a positive as from the age of 18 I’ve played 37 games at Semi-professional level.
“I always used to ask myself why I wanted to play. People have said in the past to just quit, but it came down to a personal thing, people said you’re not good enough, you should throw in the towel and it crossed my mind far too much throughout the two and a half seasons I was there. But I wanted to prove to myself that the next week I would perform better.
“Coaches like John Ellis and Kim Williams were huge inspirational leaders for myself as I understood them, got where they were coming from and I was able to form a very close player coach relationship, which I think is hugely sought after if you want an individual or a team to succeed. “
Speaking about how he got into Rugby League, “I turned up for South Wales trials in 2016, having not played much rugby league before and fell in love with the game. I was selected in the team and then the same season went on to play for Wales U’16s followed by U’18s, Students and GB pioneers up until todays date. I feel I suit rugby league better with the bigger tackles, high intensity skill-set and majorly high fitness levels.”
The Maesteg born player who used to play Rugby Union for Tondu spoke about how he took aspects from his game in Union to League. “Angles of running is so heavily focussed on in Rugby League and I was able to grasp it quickly due to Union. Also, in all sorts of Rugby it’s the same, you want to hurt your opposition on the field but afterwards you have a pint together.”
The forward is hoping for a Wales cap soon, “A senior Welsh International cap is what I’ve dreamt of since putting the Wales U16’s jersey on. Remembering how great it felt back when I was 15 to represent my country, it would be amazing to get a call up to the first team. I just need to keep pushing on, learning off experienced players and hopefully my time will come.”
by Tobias Hunt
Tobias' Sports Journalism Blog 