When they travelled down in their hundreds from Maesteg to watch a Christmas or Easter derby against Bridgend they knew the afternoon would be a hard one if they saw the name of Ian Stephens on the home team-sheet.
Those days of decades ago saw the then in-their-pomp Old Parish able to field packs that included granite-hard campaigners such as Gary Howe, Billy Howe, John Morgan, David Williams and John Thomas, but Ikey, as Stephens was affectionately known, always stood his ground.
He would front up for dates with Neath against formidable opponents such as Brian Williams, Stuart Evans and Phil Pugh. Others might have developed Neath flu for such occasions, a mystery virus that struck every time a date with the relentlessly physical Welsh All Blacks of that era beckoned. Ikey didn’t. One game saw him bang on the front line, tussling ferociously with the 20st Evans, who, most with long memories would agree, was not a man to tussle with.
