The new life of Nigel Bezani – cult leader of the Valley Commandos

Nigel Bezani was the unsung figure who emerged from nowhere to become a cult hero in the Pontypridd revolution which put them at the heart of Welsh rugby.

Sardis Road became known as the House of Pain as Dale ‘Chief’ McIntosh and his pals knocked lumps out of opponents. But it was the man affectionately known as ‘Baz’ who was club captain during those years when Welsh rugby was full of fierce rivalries, tribalism, intense derbies and big crowds.

Bezani is still a leader of the pack, whether it’s on his beloved Harley Davidson as he motorcycles around the valleys community near his Maerdy home or at work, where he’s in charge of his team at the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station construction site in Somerset.

His was the the Ponty team of Neil Jenkins, Martyn Williams, Phil ‘Gurkha’ John, Paul John, Steele and Jason Lewis and McIntosh.They were remarkable days in the 1990s and ‘Baz’ occupies a special place in the hearts of supporters of the Valley Commandos.

His story is unlikely to be repeated again, with academies and the regions generally throwing players on the scrapheap if they haven’t made it by 21. Bezani had hardly touched a rugby ball until he was 25 and didn’t play for Pontypridd until he was 31.

“I was brought up in Monmouth and left school at 14-and-a-half, which you could in those days if you had a job to go to, because my father had me out working,” explains the now 63-year-old.

It was village club Tylorstown in the Rhondda where he started playing rugby after deciding he fancied giving it a try.

“Initially, I played second-row but after a bit thought I’d better move up to the front-row,” he recalls.

“I played alongside a great and well-known hooker in Ralph Evans and he helped me a lot.”

Bezani’s break with Pontypridd came when rugby wildman Chris Jones  telephoned him.“Ponty were playing Newport away on a Wednesday night and Chris asked me to have a go. I just loved it and it went from there,” said Bezani.

League rugby arrived in Wales, and Pontypridd, with no-nonsense Mike ‘Spike’ Watkins as coach, were determined to make a mark. They certainly did that, and more. From the kick-off of their opening fixture at Llanelli, fired-up flanker Denzil Earland was sent off with hardly a minute on the clock for foul play. Lock Jim Scarlett followed before half-time, but the 13-men managed a remarkable against-the-odds 13-13 draw.

“Spike was good for us, just what we needed at Ponty. You didn’t take any backward steps and, if it was one-in, it was all in. We didn’t mind some rough and tumble.

“We always stuck together, through thick and thin. That was the motto we lived by, the camaraderie was fantastic and we remain friends for life. It was such a great team to be a part of and I wouldn’t have swapped those days for the world. I was just so lucky to be captain.

“Every week you were up against someone as good as you in your position so you always knew you were in for a battle and sparks could fly. Mark Rowley, the Chief, Ghurka, Mark Spiller, who thought he was David Hasselhoff, ‘Stella’ (Steele Lewis), I could name many more, were characters while our supporters and the atmosphere they created was brilliant.

“We used to get great crowds for Cardiff, Swansea and Neath. Sardis became known as the House of Pain because we set out to make it painful for the opposition. And it worked because it got such a reputation, teams would often be beaten before they left the visitors’ dressing room to run the gauntlet.

“The Chief led the way. He was the hardest player I’ve ever seen and, if there was any problems, he would sort it. Mind you, the rest of us didn’t mind a bit of biff. But there was a lot more to us than that for we had some great players who knew how to play the game.

“I played with the best goal-kicker in the world in ‘Jenks’. He was an awesome player and his attitude was second to none. He was professional with the way he conducted himself even before union went pro, putting in the hours in his own time. Jenks worked so hard on his all-round game and everything had to be perfect. Even in training, he was flat out. He got the maximum out of his career through effort and won the 1997 Lions Test series with South Africa with his exceptional goal-kicking.

“Not everybody at Ponty had the same attitude towards training though,” laughs Bezani. “We had some boys who would have won a lot more caps if they’d worked half as hard as Jenks.”

It took Pontypridd 120 years to lift their first trophy and it was Baz who had the honour in 1996, following a stunning comeback to beat Neath 29-22 in the final of the Welsh Cup in front of a packed crowd at the old National Stadium in Cardiff.

The match went down as one of best in the competition’s history and marked the end of Bezani’s career with Ponty.

“What a way to go out, it was fantastic. My daughter Lucy was our mascot on the day and to win the first trophy in the club’s history was phenomenal,” he said.

“We went back to the club to celebrate with our fans and my last memory of it was being in an Indian restaurant with our fitness trainer Julian Baker having a curry. I think I must have passed out from the gallon and a half we’d drank.”

The Valley Commandos played and partied hard. Bezani is adamant they would have beaten South Africa in 1994 – they lost 9-3 – if the ‘big man’ (Jenkins) had been allowed to play by the Welsh selectors.

Baz certainly made an impact on the Springboks, and he was on the end of the hardest punch he received when Pontypridd went to South Africa to face the Blue Bulls during the early days of professionalism.

“I don’t who started it but it had all kicked off at the back of a line-out, which wasn’t unusual with us, and the legendary scrum-half Joost van der Westhuizen, God bless his soul, tried to rearrange my face with a punch.

“I didn’t see it coming and he knocked me out. My gum shield went through my lip and I was bleeding. Back in those days you could have up to 10 minutes in the blood-bin and go back on.

“I was on one bed and Adriaan Richter, who captained South Africa, was on the next one under a stand at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria getting stitched up after he’d been duffed up by one of our boys.

“Our forwards coach Lynn Howells came rushing in and said: ‘Hurry up Baz, your 10 minutes is nearly up, you have got to get back out there’. He pushed me towards the door but I ran into the wall and fell over. Lynn had to grab me and manhandle me through the door to the pitch. I was concussed and it wouldn’t be allowed to happen now. But we didn’t know any better in those days. You just got on with it, that’s what you did at Ponty. Meet fire with fire!”