The clouds have parted but the waves still crash ferociously against the rocks just over the road from his penthouse apartment.
Before we leave, he proudly shows off newspaper clippings from the South Wales Echo, Western Mail and South Wales Argus that his parents compiled in a book.
We climb down the stairs to head out for a coffee. The walls are adorned floor to ceiling in memorabilia and he stops to recall tales from a storied career. At the top of the staircase, we pause and look at his Rugby World Cup final jersey before making our way to the bottom, where his schoolboy shirts are displayed.
Somewhere in the middle, we wander past a couple of Newport RFC shirts, and a Newport Gwent Dragons shirt. They have pride of place in the museum.
We stroll down the street, waves still battering the shoreline over the road. The locals say hello, the cafe staff know his order before he says it. He is Percy Montgomery.
Welsh rugby has seen some truly great overseas players come and go, leaving a mark wherever they settled. But before the likes of Xavier Rush, Marty Holah and Regan King, there was ‘Monty’.
The Springbok legend, who had 50 caps to his name, arrived at Rodney Parade in 2002. At the time, no contract was forthcoming on home soil so he did ‘what everyone else was doing’ and looked abroad.
“There was a good relationship between Newport and South Africa at the time via some agent,” he tells WalesOnline. “He got Gary Teichmann, Adrian Garvey and they were doing well. So it was a natural move.
“There were quite a few South Africans there.”
Montgomery found a home near Caerleon and would eventually procure Garvey’s furniture and gas braai, which he’d light under an umbrella protecting him from the predictably inclement Welsh weather if he had to.
“Gary Teichmann was a Springbok captain when I was a junior under Nick Mallett,” he explains, “and I thought that if he had gone over then it must be good.
“I’d heard a lot of good reviews from the players about the league, Pieter Muller was at Cardiff, and obviously the money was good as well, which made it easier.
“I didn’t want to leave the Springboks but I had to, they gave me no choice. Newport were good to me.”
Montgomery, now 48, would go on to revive his career at Rodney Parade. He revelled in the rough and tumble of Welsh rugby and equally enjoyed the dusty gym facilities and the cabbage patch training ground.
Defying his boyish good looks and flowing blonde locks, he was at home in the mud that would cake him head to toe after training sessions with the likes of Rod Snow, Jason Forster and Simon Raiwalui.
“Our facilities weren’t great,” he laughs. “We had the old gym and the cabbage patch next to Rodney Parade. I’d come home covered in mud and my missus would get angry!
“I remember going to the gym and there would be cobwebs on the weights but okes grinded and it toughened us up. There were no mirrors on the walls though, so I was a bit upset!”
In more serious tones, he points out that his humble beginnings in Namibia gave him a grounding to go on and thrive in workmanlike conditions.
He arrived in Newport with all the fanfare that a 50-cap Springbok would do and he rocked up with an attitude to buy into the whole show, rather than simply collect a payslip. Arriving halfway through the final year before the game went regional he helped Newport reach the 2003 Principality Cup final, during which Montgomery scored all of Newport’s points in a 32-9 defeat to Llanelli.
But as that season drew to a close, he was banned for two years, 18 months of which were suspended, and fined £15,000 after being sent off by a young Nigel Owens during a match against Swansea. The full-back was shown a red card after being accused of shoving a touch judge to the ground, something which the man himself disputes.
“They just tried to make an example of me but I didn’t push anyone, trust me,” he insists. “It was the biggest load of bulls**t. I got six months. We were winning 21-0 against Swansea, Stefan Terblanche was playing for them and it was a messy game. The referee wasn’t in control of the game, our second row Mike Voyle got a red card and they ended up having a man sent off as well.
“Anyway, the touch judge was walking past me and he basically bumped into me, slipped and fell over.
“He said that I’d pushed him and I said: ‘That’s crap, man, you slipped’. I was p***ed off. I’d had an argument with my girlfriend the night before and she’d threatened to call off the engagement or something like that.
“I knew what the referee was going to do. I just walked straight off the field. I didn’t talk to anyone.
He adds: “They tried to make an example of me, talking about how you can’t touch the officials and all that but if they had TMOs back then, trust me the referee would have seen what happened.”
Montgomery, who was reportedly on the verge of being drafted back into the Springbok setup at the time, had to sit out the 2003 Rugby World Cup as a consequence. But the punishment rejuvenated him and breathed new life into the squad as the game went regional.
“We got the guys so fit in that pre-season, we didn’t f*** around,” he says. The Dragons would go on to finish third in their inaugural year under Mike Ruddock and the easygoing South African loved it.
“It was work hard, play hard,” he says.”A few of the boys liked to party. We did our hard yards and then it was about keeping the group together so that you were playing for each other on the field.
“We had a few lock-ins, I won’t lie but it was all good. It sorted the men out from the boys, there were a few punch-ups but it was all normal and it took the egos out of the guys. The team came first and that’s how it’s supposed to be.”
They finished fourth the following year but during that time, Montgomery met with new South Africa head coach Jake White at a hotel in Cardiff, who insisted the full-back was part of his plans for the 2007 Rugby World Cup. Even three years out from the tournament, White knew what players he wanted involved and Monty was going to be his goal-kicker and a senior player.
It paved the way for a return to South Africa but it meant leaving Newport, a place where he admits he transformed his goal-kicking to become one of the best in the world.
“I was set to stay in Wales pretty much forever,” he insists.
“I was actually on the field at Rodney Parade with Bob Skinstad. We were winning games and things were going well and I was just moving the snow on the field to kick balls after training.
“I said to Bob: ‘I don’t think I’m ready to give up on Springbok rugby. I think I’ve got to go back, I’ve got a point to prove’.
“That’s when I made my decision. I knew I had more to give to South African rugby.”
To say it worked out pretty well for Montgomery is putting it mildly. He was a key player in the 2007 Rugby World Cup success. He would go on to become the first Springbok to reach 100 caps and still holds the points record to this day.
That decision, made on the frosty Newport turf, shaped his career.
He retired in 2008 but recent years have not been easy for the man who used to exude confidence in the heat of battle. Team-mates and loved ones have passed away.
He recalls names without hesitation: “I lost Joost [van der Westhuizen], I lost my dad and then the day after I lost James Small. Then Tinus Linee went, the Western Province centre, Chester Williams passed away.”
But there was also a ‘near death’ experience in 2017 that had to be overcome. After attending a friend’s 60th birthday party in Drakensburg, another mate fell asleep at the wheel of a car carrying Montgomery and two other people. It veered off the dirt track and flipped into a cold river and landed with the passenger side, where he was sat, under water. The Springbok was momentarily stuck as he wrestled with his seatbelt.
“I was the last one to get out of the car,” he recalls. “I was stuck with my seatbelt. All I said was: ‘Tell my daughter I love her’.
“I almost died and it was very traumatic. One of my friends broke their neck. It was crazy. Luckily we made it to a nearby farm.
“That’s why I feel very blessed to be where I am today and to help others is important. It gives you perspective about life. It brings you back down to earth.”
The accident brought about anxiety and Montgomery says he slipped into depression.
But things are now looking up. As he peruses Camps Bay, he talks of the copious amounts of charity work that he has done, including completing Ironman challenges to raise money.
With the help of partner Doris van Niekerk, he has launched his own brand of tequila and now beer. He tells of eight children from townships that his foundation has put through education. He seems at peace.
He concludes: “When you finish playing, you can’t just sit back and do nothing. You’ve got to give back to communities. You’ve got to raise money. It’s so important. We’re talking about putting food on the table for kids.”
But there is a sense he realises that, sometimes, you have to put yourself first.
“From the accident, I had anxiety and depression. It was a crazy few years,” he says.
“Now I just do what I want to do. I’m tired. I surf and I do what I want to do. I have a calmness.”
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