It was one of the most eventful periods in the history of Welsh rugby and Rob Sidoli was there every step and jump of the way. You had the departure of Graham Henry, the Steve Hansen-Scott Johnson era, the 2003 World Cup turning point, the first Grand Slam in 27 years, Ruddockgate and the move to regional rugby.
Second row Sidoli experienced it all during a 42-cap career that took in spells at Pontypridd, Celtic Warriors, Cardiff Blues and the Dragons. But he could have missed the whole shooting match had he taken up an offer to throw his lot in with Italian rugby when he was just 21.
READ MORE: The inside story of the remarkable day Wales won the 2005 Grand Slam
His full christian name of Roberto tells of his roots, with his father Primo having come over from Bardi in the north of Italy, going on to own the Busy Bee fish and chip shop in Merthyr, with other family members running the famous Sidoli’s ice cream business.
“Where they are from, the culture is very much based around eating and socialising, so when they came over, they turned their hand to things they understood,” explains Rob. “The Sidolis in Ebbw Vale went after the ice cream route, some of my cousins went after the coffee route and others went after the cafe business, the fish and chips.”
Primo met and married a girl from Cardiff, Barbara, and along came two sons, Rob and Peter, both of whom were to make their mark in rugby. While the Italian side of the family was football-focused, there were strong rugby connections on their mother’s side, with cousins Tim and Simon Crothers having played for Cardiff RFC, Tim captaining the club against the All Blacks in 1989. Born and bred in Merthyr, Rob took up the sport at Bishop Hedley School and progressed through the ranks at his home-town club before joining Pontypridd in 1999, with his natural strengths clear from the outset.
“I was always tall and I was very much the athlete, able to jump and catch. I was good at that. I was quite co-ordinated for my height which was a bonus. Throw the highest and I would be fine. The catching and passing was something I had to learn. I couldn’t pass off my left hand. I was taught that by Paul John at Ponty.”
Steadily developing his all-round game, he became an established figure in the Sardis side by the 2000-01 season and international honours beckoned - yet not with Wales initially.
“The new coach of Italy, Brad Johnson, had a strategy of scouring the leagues of the world to see who was Italian qualified to try and strengthen the national squad. They were on a worldwide recruitment drive. Obviously being a Sidoli playing in Wales, my name came up, along with my brother’s because he was at Ebbw Vale.
“We were approached and asked if we would be interested in an opportunity to play for Italy. To do that, we would be required to go and play for an Italian team. So they flew us out to Treviso and we met all the coaches and saw the set-up out there. It was a hell of a compliment, but, as tempting as it was, I was just really happy at Ponty.
“I was intrigued to go out there and explore my options. If it had been the season before when I was trying to cut my teeth and earn my stripes, I might have been more tempted. But because I had established myself and was starting to play regularly for Ponty I was of the mindset to stay local. I was in Ponty, doing well, I was in Cardiff university studying computing, it just wasn’t the right time to be going out to Italy.
“I opened the door, I got the contacts and I knew if things didn’t work out at home, I could pick up the phone a year or so later and say is the opportunity still there. But, as it happened, I went on to Wales A and then Wales and that opportunity just kind of shut its own door.”
Having impressed for Mike Ruddock’s A-team, Sidoli was selected to go on the senior tour of Japan in 2001, only for fate to take a hand: “The phonecall came when I was in the waiting room to have surgery on my shoulder. I always remember that call. It was hugely disappoiting.”
But he was in the eye of the coaches and the following summer he was to make his Wales debut out in South Africa, coming on as a replacement in both Tests against the Springboks.
“That was a phenomenal experience. To get capped for the first time is special, but it was particularly special that day because it was such an intimidating place to be, Bloemfontein. James Dalton, the hooker, was playing for them. I had a bit of a mix-up with him. We had an altercation on the pitch. It was great!
“The moment I am fondest of is I remember looking up into the stand and there was a group from Merthyr RFC that had come over and they had a banner with my name on. I saw them during the game and managed to meet them afterwards. My abiding memory of my first cap is being able to share it with that group of people.”
By now, Steve Hansen was Wales’ head coach, with fellow Kiwi Graham Henry having departed earlier in the year.
“I had a really good relationship with Steve,” said Sidoli. “He was a very strong, open-minded coach. He changed a lot of things for the better. He put a lot of faith in us as youngsters and he saw potential in me. We argued once or twice, as you do. He would want to try something and I would say I’m not sure if that will work. But he was very much of a view that if you are not prepared to try you never know.
"At the time, I didn’t really understand that, but now I understand it a lot. Whenever we had those differences, it was honest and open and it moved on the next day. That was phenomenal for me.
“He made it fundamental that if you were going to be part of the Wales team, you had to commit 24 hours, seven days a week. So the hotel - the Jail of Glamorgan - became home. If we wanted to see family, they had to come in on Wednesday evening. We weren’t allowed to go out and visit. He wanted to lay a benchmark about how special it is to play for Wales and you have to earn that privilege.
“He also protected us. We were educated on press protocol. That never happened before. If a question was asked that you didn’t want to answer, you were under no obligation to answer it.”
Assisting Hansen was larger-than-life Aussie Scott Johnson, with the pair forming a contrasting double act.
“I thought that coaching partnership was superb. It was an amazing education for me as a young player. Hansen was the bad cop if you like and Scott was the good cop. Scott always had the philosophies about the skill he wanted to apply to the game. Hansen was the bad cop because his focus was the mental attitude you needed to bring to the game. That can only come from a bad cop element. Between them both, it worked really well.”
Sidoli made his first start against Fiji in the autumn of 2002, with another to follow against New Zealand a couple of weeks later. So his main memory of that first meeting with the mighty All Blacks?
“The Haka! It was phenomenal. I found it inspiring. I know it motivates them, but as a player it motivates me as well. Jonah Lomu was playing for them, so that was pretty special.”
Sidoli soon established himself as a key figure in the side, producing a Man of the Match display in defeat against England during the 2003 Six Nations.
“I played really well, up against Martin Johnson, someone I had always watched and admired. So to be better than him on that day made me realise I could be a decent Wales player.”
Yet while Sidoli was impressing, Wales were struggling for results, suffering a Championship whitewash amid a ten-match losing run, including a humbling 43-9 loss at home to an English second string in a World Cup warm-up. Things reached a head with Hansen being told he would be out the door if the final warm-up fixture against Scotland resulted in another reverse.
“Looking back, it was regarded one of the worst eras for Wales rugby, but we didn’t fully realise the pressure he was under at the time because he protected us from all that,” said Sidoli.
“Steve and Scott had a vision about what they wanted for that World Cup. That vision was we needed to be fitter and more skilful. We weren’t going to be as physically big and strong as some of the teams there, so we had to have a huge emphasis on skill.
“All our training was gym, fitness and skill. What they set aside slightly was rugby organisation. We didn’t do a lot of set-piece or phase plays, whereas the Graham Henry regime was very regimented. What caught us out when we played those friendlies is we were rugby rusty. We were pushed to the limit physically, we were tired.
“But everything was about using those games for fitness and to try out different combinations. When the results didn’t go our way, the pressure from the public and media was we’ve got to get a win. But Steve’s attitude was if we change things now just for a short-term outcome, it’s going to compromise the long-term vision.
“He was under pressure to change his team for the Scotland game. For him to turn around and say I will do it my way and if we lose that’s me, that shows you what strength is at the top. That was another level. Looking back, the preparation for that World Cup was phenomenal in terms of the work we did and, in the end, it paid off massively.”
Fruition came out in Australia, amid unforgettable games against New Zealand and England.
“The group matches against Italy, Canada and Tonga were such pressure games. Our mentality was just win and that’s what we did. The New Zealand game was an opportunity to say ‘Let’s see what we are like as this group of people’. That game was the clicking moment.
“My abiding memory is of New Zealand scoring within the first couple of minutes and Garan Evans getting injured. We came together and there were some key conversations among the boys on the pitch. We have conceded within a minute, a friend of ours we had spent a lot of time with had just got hurt.
“It’s hard to explain but, in that moment, all the pressure just released. We just started playing and everything came to life. Apart from a couple of real soft moments, we should have won. It’s one of the best games I’ve ever been involved in and, without that game, I don’t think we would have won the Grand Slam two years later.”
Next came the quarter-final against England in Brisbane.
“But for Jason Robinson and the tactical change with Mike Catt, I am convinced we would have been beaten them that day, especially if I hadn’t have dropped the ball over the line! Jonny Wilkinson did a cover tackle and hit the ball out of my hand from behind. It was a good tackle mind!
“When I came home from that World Cup, I was walking round Merthyr and the first person I saw said ‘Why didn’t you score that try?’ It’s a very honest place.”
Hansen moved on after the 2004 Six Nations, which saw Mike Ruddock come in as head coach.
“When Mike took over, he brought in a bit more focus around the set-piece, but he understood really well what had worked for us and he kept that. We had continuity with Scott Johnson.”
What happened then is the stuff of history with Wales winning the Grand Slam in 2005, their first since 1978.
“The most emotional memory is the end of the first game against England. I just remember there were a lot of people in the crowd crying. It was the first time we had beaten them in Cardiff since 1993. We were quite dominant in that game. Our set piece was excellent.”
Then came a thrilling demolition of Italy in Rome, with Sidoli among those to touch down.
“To score my first try and for it to be out there, that was a huge moment. We played particularly well that day. The week before against England had been set-piece and defence focus. This is where our attack came to life.”
On Wales marched, rounding things off with a Slam-sealing victory over Ireland in the Cardiff sunshine, a match remembered for many things, including Sidoli’s second half dust-up with his opposite number Paul O’Connell.
“That was old school. It was never captured in full by the cameras. We had a lineout in our own 22 and I won the ball. What flared the incident up was Paul came running in and caught me with his head on my head. Whether it was deliberate or accidental, I don’t know, but that’s what sparked it off. I reacted and we had an exchange of punches. Within that exchange, he grabbed hold of me to wrap me up and we fell over.
“As he landed on top of me, everything stopped and Paul was actually getting up to carry on with the game. Then a little voice in my head said ‘You owe him a head-butt here’. It’s not right, but I exchanged what he had given me. As I did that, rightly so he’s taken offence and retaliated. So he is trying to get punches in on me and I was grabbing hold to try and nullify him. That was the point the cameras caught us up, as we were grappling on the floor. On the TV commentary, Brian Moore said we were like Greco Roman wrestlers!
“I like to think it was a professional draw. I won the exchange of punches on our feet, he won the exchange on the floor. So it was 1-1, a draw overall! In my mind, he got one on me early, I squared it up, we had a little bit of a get-go wrestle, it was all sorted.
“But it could have been devastating. We were well in control of that game and if the TMO had only captured the end of it, it could have been a red card for me. As it was, the referee, Chris White, gave us an old school telling off and thankfully left it at that. Looking back, I was very pleased there were no consequences and we were able to carry on with the game.
“It had just been the emotion of the occasion spilling over really. Paul and I have spoken about it many times since over the years. We would both look back and laugh about it. I teach now and if ever I’m giving the pupils a lecture about discipline, they bring that up. That’s their comeback!”
As for the game, well of course that ended with a 32-20 win for Wales to round off the clean sweep.
“We had just won the Grand Slam with a very similar side to the one that picked up the wooden spoon in 2003. We had been together for a long period and there was a huge sense of satisfaction and relief.
“It had been a tough end to 2004 for me with difficult groin injury, so to play every minute in that Championship was a big thing. Mike put me in charge of the set-piece for that campaign. Each week, the management used to organise an excursion, to get out of the hotel and go to a restaurant and have food together.
“The week leading up to the Ireland game, I asked if I could not go because I hadn’t done enough homework on Ireland. I stayed back to do the analysis. Our set-piece went particularly well that campaign which was a big relief for me. After the Ireland game, I was very, very pleased, but absolutely mentally drained.”
A year later, it was to be a very different story for Wales as Ruddock stood down midway through the Championship.
“Things just didn’t go right for us. We lost to England and the announcement was made that Mike was leaving. Then all the stuff started to come about player power and that bit always confuses me.
“There was no element of the players wanting to see someone lose their job. There would have been conversations about what happened against England, what’s going wrong, what could be done better. That’s what you have your senior group for. We were a Grand Slam-winning side and we just wanted to be able to find that form from the previous season. But there was no directive from any player to say ‘we want him out’. There was no grounding for that.”
In response to all the speculation, Welsh skipper Gareth Thomas appeared on a now infamous ScrumV programme, where he became embroiled in a heated exchange with Eddie Butler.
“Alfie was a brilliant captain, so he decided to step in and sort it out. It got so emotional for him that night, it was a nasty one for him in the end. He ended up unwell.”
Sidoli was to remain part of the Wales set-up for another 18 months, winning the last of his 42 caps against England in August 2007. So what word springs to mind when he reflects on his Test career?
“Pride. You get the opportunity to do something you love, to do it with friends and in a country were rugby is passion for Wales. I gave it my all and I think I played well.”
Sidoli spent the latter years of his playing career with the Dragons and that’s where he first moved into coaching thanks to one Danny Wilson.
“Danny had been the lineout throwing-in coach with Wales and he was the first guy I met that had ability to manipulate lineout formations on a computer. He taught me how to use the computer when I was leading up the Welsh lineout.
“At the Dragons, he was in charge of defence, lineout, scrum, kick-off. He said it was too much for him, so he asked me to lead the lineout. He trusted my ability to bring it all together and worked on my presentation skills. He also got me involved with coaching the Dragons U18s and I did that for three years as well as playing. I actually played some of the best rugby of my career during that period.”
Sidoli finally hung up his boots in 2014 and then focused fully on coaching, spending three three years with Ponty and the last three with Merthyr, who he is moving on from at the end of this season. Since 2013, he has worked at Newport High School, teaching PE and Welsh Baccalaureate to sixth form pupils, while running an Academy-style rugby programme. Now 42 and a father to two girls, he lives with his family in Barry.
“Looking back, I had 16 years as a professional, which is a good old stint, and I’ve spent the next seven or eight years coaching.
“You asked me earlier about the influence of Hansen and Johnson. Everything I try and promote now on and off the field with the Academy is based on their philosophies. I’ve met some great people along the way and have some fantastic memories. I have been very fortunate with the rugby life I have had.”
