My First Cap: Nigel Walker

Then again, where else but the fast lane for Nigel Walker, the former hurdler from Cardiff who won medals at European and world championship level?

Walker’s Jamaican parents were part of the Windrush generation, encouraged by the Commonwealth to migrate to the UK to address the post-war labour shortages. “They arrived a few years after the first cohort from the Caribbean. They came here separately but it was in this country that they met each other.”

The four Walker children were brought up in a semi-detached house in Rumney. Whilst a high concentration of Caribbean families famously settled in the Docks area, bringing it a renewed sense of vibrancy, this wasn’t quite the case in Cardiff’s eastern district.

“There were 1400 pupils in Rumney High, but literally only ten black kids,” says Walker, whose school had enjoyed a touch of glamour when it hosted the 1958 Commonwealth Games fencing competition. “It was a decent school and the majority of people there were working class. We weren’t wealthy, money wasn’t plentiful, but I have no regrets about going there. My upbringing shaped me as an individual, alongside my parents’ strong values.”

If money wasn’t plentiful in the Walker household, sporting achievements certainly were. Eldest sister Sonia ran for Cardiff Athletics Club, while younger brother Kevin excelled at cricket, tennis and even won a Wales age grade cap in football. Perhaps inspired by his brother’s successful late transition to rugby, a 26-year-old Kevin went on to take up the sport at a high level, first with Pontypool and then Bridgend.

And Nigel? “I was a good all-round sportsman, school tennis champion. But even when I got involved in athletics at a serious level from the age of 14 right through to 29, I combined that with football, rugby, baseball and basketball.”

It was an holistic approach to sport that is now widely encouraged in any aspiring athlete. “A number of the skills are transferrable,” says Walker. “The more adept and skilful you are, the more likely you are to make it in your chosen sport at the appropriate time.”

Up until his early teens, when the track and field bug truly bit, Walker was a regular on the Arms Park terraces. For him and Kevin, international days were times to savour. “We were both rugby fanatics and passionate Welshmen,” he says.

A scriptwriter would say his Sliding Doors moment came at the age of 18. Walker, already named in the GB Junior Athletics Team, took part in a Welsh Schools trial. He didn’t make it – the team would go on to be captained by another future star, Bassaleg’s Stuart Barnes – and the crossroads became a single lane.

“I was 29 by the time the Barcelona Olympics came around,” recalls Walker. “I’d been to the 1984 Olympics as a 20-year-old, I was injured in ‘88, and in 1992 had to finish top three in a trial to make it. I came fifth.”

The man who came first was Colin Jackson, Walker’s close friend and fellow Cardiffian whose family also hailed from Jamaica. “The rest of the guys were four or five years younger than me, so I figured my athletics career at international level was all but over.”

A fortnight later, a chance encounter with an Arms Park favourite, the maverick Mark Ring, set in motion the most unlikely of career changes. “He’d watched the trial and seen me come fifth. I’d played Cardiff Schools U11s with Mark all those years ago, so he invited me to Cardiff Rugby Club and I was introduced to the head coach, Alec Evans.”

Evans, a canny Queenslander who would later help guide the Reds to Super Rugby glory, evidently recognised potential when he saw it. “I was honest with Alec. I said ‘I haven’t played rugby in 11 years, but I think I’ve still got what it takes,’” Walker says. “He was on board from day one, giving me extra training, telling me what things to work on. Even though the game was amateur at the time, I was training six or seven days a week: fitness, weights, ball skills.

“Alec was an exceptional coach and man-manager. I was checking in with him regularly, and within two or three weeks I’d made my debut for Cardiff in the Nationwide Sevens.” No low-key introduction for Walker: he was named player of the tournament. He still has the trophy in his study.

If Walker was being fast-tracked in a positional and tactical sense, there was always going to be one area of his game where he would be streets ahead of the rest. “It’s fair to say that when I got in the club gym the first time and started lifting weights – cleans, bench press and squats – there were only three or four guys in the entire squad who could lift more than me, and I was one of the lightest in the squad.” That is to say, pound for pound, Walker was incredibly strong.

“I’d been involved in an individual sport,” he explains. “If you come fifth, it’s down to you. There are other people who could take some credit, if you’ve got a coach or fitness adviser, but if you lose it’s down to you because you were not good enough on the day. I was used to breaking apart my technique and all the components of my training, so when I started playing rugby I did exactly the same.”

His teammates were impressed, but so too was the man whose opinion mattered most: the head coach. Even if others may not have been so quick to buy it. “Some of the other coaches remained to be convinced but when they had a vote on selection, Alec simply said ‘Nigel’s playing’ and that was the end of it. I became first choice.”

Barcelona, Los Angeles, Aberavon. All three could be viewed as milestones in Walker’s career, except that the Talbot Athletic Ground marked the beginning of a new one. He’d joined Cardiff at the beginning of August and a month later was making his first team debut against the Wizards.

“I couldn’t believe it. I’d been an international athlete, won medals all over the world, but I could have walked naked down Queen Street and nobody would have paid any attention.” He pauses. “I’d probably get arrested, but nobody would have paid attention!”

Everything came quickly, which suited a man who’d been one of the top 16 hurdlers in the world. “I’d been playing the game for about nine weeks, but already I had a sponsored car, I’d changed my job, and had a radio programme,” says Walker, who had moved from a role in the Civil Service to the Sports Council for Wales (now Sport Wales). “All that happened within a very short period time.

“I was playing in a very good Cardiff side, with very good teammates under an exceptional coach. Crikey, I certainly can’t take credit for everything that happened.”

That Christmas, Walker was invited to Lanzarote to train with the national squad. By February, he had won his first cap.

“I turned up at Cardiff Airport and there was Scott Gibbs and Ieuan Evans – people I’d paid to watch play over the previous 18 months,” says Walker. “I was in awe. Even though I’d been involved in athletics I was still a rugby fan, so I grabbed the opportunity to train with these guys with both hands.”

For Wales head coach Alan Davies, it was his opportunity to get a closer look at the most exciting prospect in the nation’s game. He must have liked what he saw, because come game three of the Five Nations, Walker was in for Wales v Ireland at the National Stadium.

“We’d beaten England in the opening match, then went and lost to Scotland,” says Walker. “It was a little bit unfair on Wayne Proctor in that he was the only player dropped for the next game against Ireland, but it meant that I was in.

“In those days, the team would meet on a Wednesday lunchtime. You’d train on a Thursday and Friday as well, then it was the game. Everybody knows what it’s like in Wales, how passionate everybody is about their rugby, so whatever you imagine making your debut in front of a home crowd is going to be like, it’s ten times more intense.

“When I walked into that changing room and saw the number 11 jersey hanging on the peg, and when I imagined where Gareth Edwards and Phil Bennett used to stand, it was just surreal.”

One of the benefits of winning your first cap when you’re approaching 30 is possessing a sense of perspective only age can give you: foresight rather than hindsight. “I was 29. Don’t get me wrong: I wasn’t defeatist, but I just told myself to enjoy every single moment, and to get involved as much as I can because it could be my first and last cap.”

Walker summarises the day: “We lost, that’s all I remember. But it was fantastic. I just couldn’t believe it, the intensity of it all.”

To fill in the blanks here: Ireland won 14-19, captain Ieuan Evans – on the opposite wing to Walker – scored the only try for Wales, who fell short by dint of an Irish conversion and drop goal. Ireland would go on to beat England in the next match – astonishingly, the only time in the 90s where they won more than one match in the tournament.

“My family were there and I had no problem getting rid of those comp tickets I was given. They were very proud and loved every minute of it.” Remarkable as his achievement was, he was never going to be satisfied with a solitary appearance for his country. “I just didn’t want to be a one-cap wonder,” he admits.

Walker, Wales cap #905, only had to wait a fortnight to put that fear to bed. Selected to play against France in the next match, he scored his first international try. “We were quite comprehensively beaten,” he says of the 26-10 loss at the Parc des Princes. “And that’s the end of the season. I didn’t know what was going to happen the next season.”

What happened the next season was that Walker came back even stronger, scoring consecutive tries against England and France in the 1994 Five Nations. The latter was an outstanding showcase of his talents that paved the way for Wales’ first win against Les Bleus in 12 years. Wales won the title that year, something it would take until 2005 to repeat.

“In the end I played 17 times for Wales. I wish I could have played 70 times. It’s a real privilege and honour to represent your country, especially in a rugby-proud nation like the one we live in. I’d pay anything just to have 10 minutes on the pitch now. It would be quite pointless because I’d be hopeless, but it would be fantastic in other ways.”

His tally of 12 tries in 17 appearances – a strike rate of just over 70% – is wish fulfilment for any international winger.

“It’s amazing how quickly it goes and how long I’ve been retired now,” he says reflectively. “I’m glad I made the most of every single moment, trained as hard as I could and squeezed everything out of it. I had a few injuries which might otherwise have seen me win a few more caps, but I have no regrets about making the switch to rugby. I couldn’t have done any more.

“I loved every minute.”

Whether it be because of his heritage, his sporting background or his high-powered role in sports governance – he now heads up the English Institute of Sport – Walker is well-placed to address an issue that has reached fever pitch this year.

He has spoken extensively about racism in sport and wider society but, suffice to say, he states the bottom line: “People are equal and they need to be treated as equals. There’s no two ways about that. I feel passionately about the subject. This is the point of change.

“There were only a few incidents of racism for me when I was playing, with the occasional thing shouted by a supporter. In terms of racism, I suffered quite a bit when I was growing up and it’s horrible. It needs to be stamped out.”

The late First Minister Rhodri Morgan put it best when he wrote about the retirement of this “true Cardiffian” from the game:

“Some people might say that Nigel Walker will be a superb role-model for young black athletes in all sports. Forget the black bit. Nigel Walker is one of the finest role models you could find for any young athlete, white, black, rugby, athletics, any sport, any country, any race.”