When Ellis Mee made his Wales debut last weekend it was his first representative team rugby.The 21-year-old former Nottingham Trent University and Nottingham wing came within inches of steering Wales to a famous victory over reigning Six Nations champions Ireland in Cardiff as he stretched for the corner.
“It was close, very close. My first thought was I was in touch because I thought my feet were out, but looking back at the video, I could see my feet weren’t out, but I was that tiny bit short,” said Mee, who was plucked from the English Championship to join Scarlets at the start of the season.
“It was an unreal experience from the start to the finish really. I’d obviously been to the stadium as a kid to watch games with my dad, but being out on the pitch was just a different feeling.
“It’s gone so quick since I started playing rugby. I only played level two Championship rugby a year ago, so to pull on the Welsh shirt was an unbelievable feeling.
“I’m happy with how it went and it was definitely a step-up in intensity. Going from Nottingham to the Scarlets, the game was quicker, and from Scarlets to international level was another step-up.”
Born in Nottingham Mee’s mother Karen is from Newport and his dream was always to play for Wales. His late father Tony, who died in 2022, introduced him to the game and he used to watch his dad play for West Bridgeford as a No8.
After starting his rugby journey in Australia while the family were living in Adelaide, Mee also played for Keyworth RFC as a youngster and progressed to West Bridgeford, Nottingham Trent University and then Nottingham.
He was signed by the Championship side for the 2023-24 season and ran off with the ‘Coaches Player of the Year’ as well as ‘Players Player of the Year’ and ‘Supporters Player of the Year’ titles after playing 20 games for the club.
That’s when the Scarlets came calling and set him on the road to a dream first cap. After two games at Llandovery RFC and 10 for the Scarlets he was drafted into the Wales squad by Warren Gatland and given his first shot at international rugby by interim head coach Matt Sherratt last weekend.
“I’d always watch Welsh teams growing up and I went to more Wales games than English matches. My mum’s Welsh and she was a big influence on my dad,” added Mee.
“Shane Williams was my idol growing up and then Liam Williams. Coming in on my first day and seeing all the players that I’d watched on TV was surreal – now I’m mates with them all.
“I’m obviously still quite young at 21, so coming into the camp I thought it would just be a good experience for me. With Liam Williams coming in as well I thought I’d be able to learn off him.
“I never thought I’d get a chance, but I got it and I’ve taken it. If you’d told me 12 months ago when I was at Nottingham that I’d be playing for Wales this year I wouldn’t have believed it – it’s just surreal.”