How much would Wayne Pivac give to have the James Hook of 2010 teleported to the modern day to fill Wales’ troublesome No. 12 position heading for the World Cup?
“Quite a lot,” laughs Sean Holley when the question is put to him.
“They are crying out for a creative 12, a second kicking option, and James of a decade or so ago would be perfect for the role.”
It’s not going to happen of course. Hook bowed out as a player in 2020 and that is that, his work done after 16 years in the senior game.
But there will be one final chance to catch him in action when a testimonial match takes place for him at The Gnoll this summer. He will feature alongside some of his best mates in rugby for a James Hook XV versus a Classic Lions XV. Shane Williams and Mike Phillips have already signed up to play.
It will be the chance for Hook to clear up some unfinished business. “You could put it that way,” he says when we talk over the phone. “But, really, I had always wanted to say a proper goodbye to supporters because they've been so good to me over the years, but it didn’t happen because I announced my retirement well before the end of the 2019-20 season and then the pandemic kicked in,” he says.
“It was a tough time for everyone. Matt Sherratt was coaching at the Ospreys and we were due to play the Scarlets towards the end of the season. He told me I’d play at 10 in that game and that would have been a nice way to bow out. But it didn’t happen with everything stalling. It was a shame my career came to an abrupt end, but I don’t want sympathy. Millions of people were going through difficulties, I just didn’t get to say goodbye on a rugby pitch.
“The testimonial gives me a chance to tick that box. I’ll be able to thank the supporters and some of my old team-mates. I’m looking forward to it.”
Hook is holding the game at The Gnoll rather than the Swansea.com Stadium as he feels it’s the right size and there are also the not insignificant truths that he started his senior career with Neath, played his first game for the Ospreys at their ground and also his final regional match there.
And, as a club, the Welsh All Blacks are still close to his heart. “I really enjoyed the couple of years I spent with them,” he says. “I was part of the Ospreys’ academy, but it was the weekends playing for Neath that I loved, the big games against the likes of Pontypridd, Newport and Cardiff, with 3,000-odd people in The Gnoll. For me, a youngster coming through, that was a huge crowd — I’d never played in front of that many people before.
“There were also the little things. The groundsman, Roy Evans, used to open up the club for me to practise my kicking. When I finished, I’d go and have a cup of tea and a Pot Noodle with him and chat for an hour. It’s stuff like that you remember as well as the matches and all that went with them.”
A journalist once told how pleased he had been that his own career had aligned with Shane Williams’ as it had been such a pleasure watching him play over a period of years. It’s a sentiment that a lot who covered Hook throughout during his playing days will presumably endorse.
He offered something different at a time when the game was becoming power-based and more regimented. As with Williams, supporters who went to watch Hook play knew they would come away with something to talk about. For a 10 or a 12, he had something quite precious — an imagination.
He took risks. If he wasn’t quite the dragonfly on the anvil of destruction, as Dai Smith and Gareth Williams so colourfully said about Barry John, he was bold and an entertainer with a penchant for the unpredictable. Sometimes things came off, other times they didn’t.
And so we must cut to a snowy morning in Watford in early April 2008. Two weeks after hammering Saracens 30-3 in an EDF Energy Cup semi-final in Cardiff, the Ospreys met the same club in the Heineken Cup. It didn’t go well, with Richard Hill back for the Londoners and virtually beating the visitors on his own.
As the first half unfolded Hook attempted to catch a kick behind his back in a startling moment that remains tattooed on the retina. I mean, WTF — as in what the flip was that all about?
“I don’t know what prompted me to do it,” Hook laughs. “It’s not as if I went into the game saying to myself: ‘I’m going to try to catch the ball behind my back during this match.’ It was a spur-of-the-moment thing. I remember it was a long kick downfield and I had bags of time to deal with it. The ball was going just behind me, and instead of just turning to catch it I thought I’d try to take it behind my back. I’d done it plenty of times in training, so I thought I’d give it a go. But it dropped backwards.
“When I went into the dressing room, Lyn Jones gave me a rollicking. He went berserk, saying: ‘If you are going to do something like that, at least make sure you catch the ball.’ I didn’t try it again, that’s for sure. I think we were all complacent that day, having put 30 points on Saracens two weeks earlier. But it didn’t happen for us.”
There were plenty of things that did work out for Hook as a player. He was on the scene for three titles in the Celtic League and its various different guises. He won 81 Wales caps and toured with the Lions.
If he didn't spend as much time as he might have liked playing at fly-half for Wales — he won only 20 of his caps wearing the No. 10 shirt — he did so much to restore confidence to the Welsh game, helping to inspire the win over England at Twickenham in 2008, which proved the launchpad for a Grand Slam.
The likes of Hook, Gavin Henson, Mike Phillips, Lee Byrne and Williams, who benefited from playing alongside some world-class overseas players at the Ospreys, injected self-belief back into the national side after the ignominy of Wales' World Cup pool-stage exit in 2007.
Perhaps Hook found his niche when he played at inside centre and was named Welsh rugby’s player of the year in 2010. He kept moving around, however, with both Gloucester and Perpignan trying him in different positions, including full-back. There are very few regrets, though.
He says: “When I go to dinners I’m often asked if I wished I’d told coaches who played me in positions other than fly-half: ‘I’m a 10 and I’m not playing any other position.’
“But if I'd said that I would have missed out on a lot of the caps I won by being able to play in other roles. I was in the Wales squad for the majority of my career. If I pigeon-holed myself as a 10, Warren Gatland, for example, may have said: ‘Stephen Jones is our 10, or Rhys Priestland is our 10, or Dan Biggar’s our 10 — we don’t want you.’
“I’m happy with the career I’ve had.
“Everyone who’s had a long time in the game will look back and think there are one or two things that could have been done differently — beating France in the World Cup semi-finals in 2011 would have been nice — but the reality is no career is perfect. Rugby is a rollercoaster and you just have to go with it.”
Hook featured for Warren Gatland during successful years for Wales, but when asked who’s the best coach he played under he looks elsewhere for an answer.
“Lyn Jones and Sean Holley were great to play under at the Ospreys. Lyn put things across in a unique way, but when people talk about knowledge of rugby, he's right up there. He got a lot out of his players, won two league titles and an EDF Energy Cup, and while we could have done better in Europe, those margins are fine. He gave me confidence and put me out on the pitch from a young age. His understanding of the game was second to none, and if you ask a lot of ex-Ospreys players they would say the same.
“Sean and Lyn worked well together, with Sean leading the defence as a young coach coming through. The blitz was quite new and the Ospreys used it and backed it and had a lot of pay out of it. You could see Sean knew his stuff even then. They complemented each other.”
Hook continues: “Lyn was a character. I remember he turned up at my house in Neath on his moped, parked it outside my house and randomly knocked on the door, with his helmet on. He just wanted a chat about rugby.
“Some of the stuff he did was outstanding, if different. I remember we played Gloucester in the Heineken Cup. The week before that match they were playing Bath at The Rec and Lyn said to me: ‘Me and you will go to Bath to watch Gloucester.’
“So just me and him went in the pouring rain. We sat in the stand, he bought me a pork pie and as the game unfolded, he was talking me through the following weekend’s match and how he wanted me to play. There were some brilliant insights which helped when the Gloucester match took place in Swansea a week later. It’s that level of detail that you can’t put a price on.
“Gatland’s record speaks for itself. His messages were very simple and everyone was on the same page. He wasn’t as personal as other coaches. I found it difficult to get information out of him and find out what I needed to do as a player to improve. I mean, Lyn taking me to Bath and talking me through the game — I would never have had that with Gatland.
“But he’s the most successful Wales coach. For some players, it worked. He had his players and his game-plan. For much of it, I didn’t didn’t fit into it, particularly in the latter part of my career. That said, there are no hard feelings.
“Other coaches who influenced me early in my career were Rowland Phillips and Patrick Horgan at Neath. Rowland has a reputation as a joker and it’s deserved, but he’s a quality coach and he and Pat made for a great team. I also want to mention Mike Barrett, who brought me to Tata Steel when I was a kid. He was a really positive influence.”
These days Hook works as a skills coach with the Ospreys and also as a pundit, which he enjoys: “If you do your analysis and watch all the games, it’s no problem,” he says. “You just have to tell it as it is and be true to yourself. There’s a lot of knowledgeable players and supporters out there and if you are not telling it as it is, they’ll see through you. I try to be constructive.”
Of all the world-class players he’s featured alongside he picks out two as being apart from the rest. “There’s definitely Shane Williams,” he says. “If you were down by a couple of points for Wales or the Ospreys, as a 10 you’d look around and think: ‘Where’s Shane?’ You knew he’d create, so the challenge was to find a way to bring him into the game.
“Justin Tipuric is also a phenomenal player who’s right up there. Those are the first two to come to mind. They are both great blokes as well.
“Tips is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet in rugby. Grounded and a perfect player.”
Generous praise from someone who has no ego himself, a point confirmed by Holley: “He conducts himself well in any company, always has time for people and is down to earth. He was also a heck of a rugby player.”
Assuredly, his testimonial deserves to go well.
James Hook’s XV v Classic Lions XV takes place at The Gnoll on Friday, June 10. Tickets can be purchased from April 1 at NeathRFC.com
