Three years ago a former Wales international who still has a big interest in the game spoke about the best young openside flankers coming through in Wales.
“There are some outstanding ones in the pipeline,” the ex-forward said at the time.
“ Tommy Reffell and Jac Morgan are two. Underneath those you have Harri Deaves and Ethan Fackrell.”
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Reffell and Morgan have gone on to become senior Wales internationals, while Deaves has featured for the Ospreys and is being tipped to eventually follow the pair onto the big stage.
But what of Fackrell?
He will be playing for RGC 1404 in the new season, having impressed while on loan from Cardiff last term. A fully-fledged switch was arranged in May, with the youngster from the Rhondda moving back to Colwyn Bay to live and play.
When he headed north for the first time, making the four-hour trip from one side of Wales to the other, he admitted in a later interview with the Welsh Rugby Union that the initial trek wasn’t without misgivings. “Two and a half hours up, I was, like: ‘Where am I?’ I was in the middle of nowhere and thinking to myself ‘this is mad’.”
But he quickly adapted, settling in his new surroundings and making an impact on the field.
Over two months, he banked 503 minutes of rugby and made the game-time count, with 84 hits and a 99 percent tackle completion rate. There were also 17 carries, a try and turnovers.
Fackrell isn’t the biggest.
But he is fearless, skilful and energetic and on the pitch and can appear to do the work of two players.
RGC will hope for more in the new season, and the omens are good. One seasoned observer, who followed Wales in the U20 Summer Series campaign in which Fackrell starred, told WalesOnline: “He has the ability to tear up the Welsh Premiership.
“My guess is someone will pick him up by the end of the campaign.
“He’s a quality operator.
“Whatever the opposition or the state of the game, he doesn’t stop tackling or competing for the ball. If he has complementary players around him, he can be an outstanding asset.”
Fackrell’s first challenge up north was to adapt to life away from home comforts.
“Without anyone around you, you have to take responsibility,” he tells WalesOnline.
“There’s no ‘Mam, can you do this? Mam, can you do that?’
“It’s a growing-up experience and there’s cooking to do, shopping, washing, making sure the house is clean. It took getting used to, but now it’s normal. There’s four of us living in the house and we do it as a group. Maybe on a Wednesday, a day off, we’ll clean the place and get it done between us.”
He enjoys the rugby RGC play, saying: “It’s open and expansive and suits me.
“When I first came here I didn’t understand the concept of it all. I travelled on the Tuesday and played on the Saturday. Being on loan, I didn’t have to be up here. I was there because I needed to play. That was harder than it is this time. Now, I know my role and I know what’s required.
“A lot of the boys still live with their parents, but I’m four hours away from home, so the challenge is to mature quicker.
“But it’s been really good. I’m enjoying the extra responsibility.”
Welsh-speaker Fackrell, a product of Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhondda, hopes to push on as a player.
But he already has much going for him.
In the U20 Summer Series, team-mates Christ Tshiunza, Dafydd Jenkins, Joe Hawkins and Mason Grady deservedly attracted much attention. You can read more about Hawkins here.
But the team’s No. 7 was outstanding as well, fronting up in those parts of matches when Wales were up against it. At other times, he showed a penchant for operating in the wide channels.
“I like to have the ball in my hands,” he says. “I like to use a bit of footwork to try to beat people.
“I also enjoy the breakdown part of the game and the tackling. If you haven’t got the mindset to tackle…well, I just don’t see it.
“You have to learn as you go along and I am trying to pick and choose which breakdowns I attack because it’s easy to burn yourself out of the defensive line if you compete for turnovers all the time. Sometimes, there’s more to be gained from being patient and waiting a couple of phases. You can’t just go into every ruck.
“As a schoolboy, I looked up to Richie McCaw because he was a No. 7 and brilliant in all areas, but Martyn Williams was another one. People saw the creative stuff he did, but I used to think he didn’t get the credit he deserved for the unglamorous work he put in. He was a team player and one of Wales’ best.”
Fackrell has ambitions to play professionally but his first goal is to do as well as he can for RGC. “They’re a great bunch of boys and Ceri Jones, our coach, is doing all he can to develop us as a team and as individuals,” he says.
“So I want to play as well as possible to help us have a good season.”
Of course, the problem for any up-and-coming No. 7 in Wales is the sheer depth of quality available to the regions and the national team. It prompted Justin Tipuric to once say: “There must be about 10 different players who could play there for Wales.
“If we had nine injuries, the 10th openside picked would still do an outstanding job.
“Before, everyone used to say we had loads of outside halves. But, for me, the crazy strength in depth in Wales now is at seven.”
For Fackrell, though, it’s about trying to be the best he can be: “I'm happy to play in other back-row positions. It would just need a few tweaks to my game and I've told Ceri I’m happy to fill in. That said, seven is my position. That’s where I want to play first.”
Let’s see how this season goes.
Fackrell may not be operating in the capital city glare any more. But expect to still hear a lot about him.
Good things, as they say, come in small packages, and he has the potential to be very good for RGC, indeed.
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