The Dunedin day was just breaking when work started 12,000 miles from home.
It was 7am on the other side of the other world and a bleary-eyed Huw Sutton found himself up on a roof picking up bricks.
There were no thoughts about training and packing down with Wales stars Alun Wyn Jones, Justin Tipuric and Adam Beard at that stage — far from it. The 19-year-old was just content to earn a few pennies to pay for his lodgings and pick up what knowledge he could from a campaign playing rugby on South Island in New Zealand.
“It was my gap year and I was with Alhambra Union RFC down in Dunedin,” said Sutton, who is these days breaking through with the Ospreys.
“I had been put in contact with them by the Welsh Exiles and went down there when I was 19.
“Luckily, the club put me up and I stayed with the captain and his two sons, who looked after me. From day one, the captain said to me: ‘You’re not living here with free board. You’ll have to get a job.’
“I did some pretty nasty jobs all around the city.
“The worst one was picking up bricks off a roof all day, from seven o’clock in the morning until three in the afternoon. It was the only way I could look forward to doing what I wanted to do down there.
“Living there by myself changed me quite a bit, because all of a sudden I had to become an adult.”
The rugby also developed the England-born lock who qualifies for Wales via parents born in Newport.
Suddenly, Sutton found himself playing in an environment where the odd Super Rugby player might drop in or another such sort might line up in opposition ranks. Sutton came up against the former All Black Liam Squire in one game, quite an eye-opener for a player whose age-grade career had seen him play for Old Ethamians, Blackheath and Kent U20s. But he enjoyed every minute of it.
“It was a great experience,” said Sutton.
“And I will always look back on it.
“It gave me experience of a different style of play and there were different opportunities, a bit like the Welsh Premiership. Just like you can get guys from the Ospreys dropping in there, so you get guys from the Highlanders dropping in to the league I played in. You get to play against really high-class players and have to make the most of it. It taught me a lot more about my open play rather than the set-piece. You have to front up and get into it.
“I managed to play against Liam Squire. That was an interesting one.
“Super Rugby guys just drop him. We had one guy who used to train with us and he taught us a lot.”
The experiences helped equip Sutton for his Ospreys debut last year in the Heineken Champions Cup against Sale. There have been nine outings this year, including starts against Ulster, the Bulls, the Sharks and Munster. He is still learning but there are promising signs. This weekend, he lines up alongside Alun Wyn Jones in the home derby against the Dragons.
He linked with the Ospreys via a spell in Swansea University, where he came under the wing of Ospreys academy coach Hugh Gustafson. But matters have kicked into gear since upgrading to the senior Ospreys side. “I still sometimes walk on the pitch and think: ‘What’s going on here? How have I ended up here?’” said Sutton.
“But it makes me more excited and want to take every opportunity I get.
“Hugh helped me massively. When I met him, he said: ‘I don’t care if you’re first year or fourth year, if you’re good enough, you’ll play.’
“And it’s endless what I’m learning from the likes of Alun Wyn Jones and Adam Beard every day. I’m always grateful, just chatting to them. Even the slightest of things, at the lineout, can improve my game.”
The Ospreys feel Sutton is an upwardly mobile player with a high ceiling, a start in a derby against the Dragons will be a further opportunity to prove his worth.
How the young giant develops will be intriguing.
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