The 21-year-old from Cross Hands, who has featured for Wales U20 and Wales Sevens in recent seasons, has been providing the team with the perfect pick-me-up from a converted horse trailer. Y Bocs Coffi, Rogers’s new business, has made a couple of welcome appearances pitchside at Parc y Scarlets this season.
“I started the business around January of last year,” he says. “We picked up a run-down old horsebox from Cardiff, stripped it all out and started from scratch.”
The inspiration for Y Bocs Coffi was twofold, explains Rogers. “My sister and brother-in-law have a gin trailer, so I wanted to do something similar with coffee. I’d also noticed how all the Scarlets boys love their coffee, so it seemed like a good idea.”
Rogers felt he had the grounds for a business – if you’ll pardon the pun – and so ensues long days where he’d come home from training to work on the box. “I basically passed the tools to my father,” he admits, “but all our hard work paid off in the end.”
The end goal is for Y Bocs Coffi to become a shop, though Rogers acknowledges that in the current climate he’s onto a good thing with a mobile unit requiring few overheads.
The box doubles as an ideal ‘water cooler’ environment for a Scarlets squad that has been on the road for the past fortnight. “It’s nice to bring the box in and get the boys back together,” says Rogers, who has featured three times for the Scarlets this season.
Rogers played his rugby with local side Cefneithin from the age of eight to 16, when he started progressing through the Scarlets age grades. He’s benefited from stepping up from the academy to the senior team at the same time as backs coach Dai Flanagan. “Dai’s been realty good to me. I work closely with him every day. It makes the transition for the younger boys to the first team much easier because there’s already that pre-existing relationship.”
Since recovering from an injury suffered in the win against Benetton in October, Rogers is knuckling down and playing the waiting game for his next match. “It’s tough when the internationals come back because the backs we’ve got are incredible,” says Rogers. “But I’m learning a lot from them and they’re all really helpful. I take tips from each and every one of them and I’ve been learning a lot this season.”
Scarlets claimed a hugely impressive away win against Bath in the Heineken Champions Cup on Saturday. “That was an amazing performance,” says the former Maes y Gwendraeth pupil. “We know what we can do and we just need to do it again when we go to Toulon on Friday.”
You can visit Y Bocs Coffi website here.
