“I’m into my fourth year of professional coaching now, so I’m getting there,” says Rees, who is on secondment from his Transition Coach role at Cardiff Blues. “Some players finish and go straight into coaching at the top end, but I wanted to earn my stripes. I think I’m going about it the right way. I’d rather make my mistakes now than in a couple of years when I’m hopefully in a full-time senior role.”
Rees is the new face among the Wales U18 coaches, joining Geraint Lewis and James Chapron in a team headed up by Chris Horsman. Fresh from a training session in Stellenbosch, the vanguard of South African rugby, he is upbeat about this year’s U18 cohort. “The good thing about them is they can be in the age grade pathway together for the next two years,” he says. “It means the coaches can now start implementing structures for how they want them to play in the future.”
Pleasingly for him, what with his focus on the backs and attack, he sees a lot of talent in Wales’ backline. “If the set piece can give them the opportunity to show what they’ve got, we can do well on Friday.” In the first of three games – they play England and France next week – Wales take on South Africa Schools at the Boland Landbou Agricultural School near Paarl.
In last year’s series, Wales beat both SA Schools and England, but analysing the opposition can be difficult at U18 level. “The only footage we’ve got is from those games, but all those boys are gone. From an attacking perspective, we’ve had seven sessions in the lead-up to coming here, so that’s not an awful lot of time. We just concentrate on what we’re good at – doing the simple things very well consistently, and under pressure. Our focus is very much on us.”
When Wales Sevens needed a skills coach in Hong Kong this year, Rees was asked to join the fray, adding another layer to his coaching education. “It was a good experience, and one of those opportunities that’s difficult to turn down – just like this one with Wales U18. To be asked to try and implement some of your own ideas is great.”
Already he can say that he’s learnt from some of the best coaches during his time at the Blues. He describes Danny Wilson – now an assistant coach of Scotland – as “excellent”, whilst singing the praises of new Ospreys backs coach Matt ‘Jockey’ Sherratt, whom he assisted last season. “I learnt so much from Jockey. He was brilliant with me.”
That those outgoing coaches were able to finish with a Challenge Cup flourish was fitting. For Rees, that night in Bilbao brought back memories of achieving the same feat with the region as a player in Marseille eight years ago. “It was surreal doing it as a player and then doing it as a coach. There’s a photo of the four of us who won it together in 2010: me, Bubba [Scott Andrews], Fau [Taufa’ao Filise] and Melon [Gethin Jenkins].
“Having competed at the top end as a player and now doing it as a coach, I can bring different things to the squad, and hopefully the Blues can utilise that with me. I’m constantly trying to get better. You don’t ever want to get to a point where you think you know it all.
“As long as you’re constantly improving, that’s all anyone can ask for. To be able to do that out here in South Africa against three quality sides at U18 level is fantastic.”
SA Schools v Wales kicks off at 15:00 BST this Friday, and will be streamed live on S4C.
