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Wales Online
Wales Online
Sport
Dylan James

The Welsh rugby props with a combined age of 128 still playing against each other

Grassroots rugby has its fair share of, shall we call them elder statesmen... but what about two props with a combined age of 128?

We give you the Welsh pair of Phil Blakoe and Aled Davies.

They faced off against each other when Flint took on Bala 2nds and picked up a heap of attention after a picture of the pair was posted on Twitter, with the question posed - Is this the oldest front row pairing in the world?

While this fact is difficult to prove, you can imagine the pair would most certainly be up there.

From years of friendship to their on-field battles, this is the story of two stalwarts of Welsh rugby.

Aled Davies - age 61

Flint RFC's Davies is the 61-year-old chairman of the club, and is also part of the coaching team. When player numbers are short, he puts himself on the bench to make up numbers. This season, Flint have been lacking numbers quite a bit, so he's played more than usual.

This isn't the first time the pair have shared a rugby field as opponents and Davies says Bala's Blakoe is "a real lad".

"He sort of pimps himself around to different clubs, so he plays more regular than me actually! He's older than me, he's 67," he smiles.

"I came on and he happened to be on, so we ended up propping against each other. I played against him ages ago. Heck, the last time we played each other would be about 35 years ago."

Davies' Flint won the match 24-17, and when he was asked who played better out of the two, he simply answered: "Well, me obviously! Well, put it this way, I got one (scrum) against the head off him. I said to him after the game, '1-0, Phil'.

"We could be losing the game by a big margin, but if we get one against the head, us front row players would claim a 1-0 win!"

The pair have even played together for a North Wales veterans side, so to say they're familiar with one another would be an understatement.

Aled (left) and Phil (right, headband) (Aled Davies)

Davies has been playing rugby since he was eight years old, which means he's had the oval ball in hand for 53 years. He's played all over North Wales and also in Chester, where he spent 10 years. He's able to keep up with the younger lads at the club as he works in physical job, which keeps him fit.

Davies has worked as a self-employed joiner since he left school. So in rugby and work terms, he has been incredibly consistent. The prop went on to explain the reason he still plays is because the rugby scene in North Wales is on the decline.

"North Wales rugby has gone down a bit, the interest has gone down, and partly because there's nothing for these players to look forward to. They play their club rugby, say if they win Division One, there's no promotion. In south Wales there's a pyramid promotion scheme that goes right the way to the Premiership."

Davies has been labelled as a "magnificent servant to the game" (Aubrey Evans)

Friend and former rugby team mate Aubrey Evans says that Aled is an "inspirational character". Evans first met Davies 25 years ago when the pair played for Flintshire. They have also coached together at Flint RFC.

"He's the backbone of Flint Rugby Club, he's been a magnificent servant to the game in the north, representing North Wales amongst his list of achievements on the pitch. And still on the odd occasion he's happy to put his boots on from time to time."

Davies and Blakoe are part of the North Wales Barbarians, a team for over-35s. Davies is the president of the club and Blakoe plays for the team. The side started out as a team of ex-North Wales Rugby players, but now it is more so a team of the best players across the north.

Phil Blakoe - age 67

"I'm just a weirdo at 67 still playing!" says Blakoe.

He is a legend of north Wales rugby who has plied his trade for a plethora of clubs. The loosehead prop is even signed up to a website for teams struggling to raise a XV, so they can request someone like Phil to come and play for them.

He's registered with Bala RFC, but if he doesn't have a match with them, he sticks his name on the website and "always gets a game". This year he has played for Llandudno, Rhos Wrexham, Rhyl, Bala and Flint, so he's a big character on the north Wales scene.

Phil is retired from work, so he uses his time to train in the gym, which keeps him fit for rugby matches. On the day of this interview, he had done two hours of cardio and 90 minutes of weights. This workout consisted of a 5km interval session, cross trainer for 40 minutes, 20 minutes on the bike and the ski machine for 10 minutes.

During his working career, Phil owned a car sales garage (Phil Blakoe)

"It's quite intense, but that suits my game more than anything - the interval training - for forwards in rugby. I teach my lads, because I coach under 15s as well. I've coached Rhyl first team, I've coached every age group in Rhyl, from junior to the first team."

Phil admits he was a bit of a late bloomer with rugby, and didn't properly get into the sport until he was 25. He started out as a tighthead prop and then moved over to loosehead later on in his rugby career, and has played for Rhyl RFC for 40 years, plying his trade with the firsts until he was 55.

"I joined Rhyl, who in those days had four teams. They can't get a second team out now unless the first team's not playing. I progressed into the first team and then it was there I played up until my mid-50s. I came off the bench for Rhyl first team last season for a couple of games. I was on the bench not so long ago for Bala first team.

Phil during his younger years (Phil Blakoe)

"I'm not being big-headed but there are not a lot of props that will not touch me scrummaging-wise.

"The old days have gone, when I started propping, you'd carry on until you couldn't walk. In my first game I propped against Pwllheli first team and couldn't walk for a week afterwards, I was bent down, inside out. These young props now... the amount of times in a game where the referee is going uncontested because you're giving your opposite prop a hard time, it's too easy to give up at the moment I find."

Phil says scrummaging against younger lads is a "piece of cake" (Phil Blakoe)

When asked about Davies getting "one against the head" on him, Blakoe's version of said scrum loss is slightly different, jokingly saying: "It wasn't put in straight! I'm not letting him get one against the head. He'd only been on the pitch two minutes, I'd been scrummaging all day! Is that what he said did he?

"It was true, actually!"

When asked who he thinks will play on the longest, it sounded like Phil thought Aled had the edge.

"Aled's not playing a tenth of what I play! Obviously he's a bit younger than me, he'll probably just go on the bench for Flint because he's their coach. I didn't even know he was going on the bench on the Saturday but I play a full game every week. Obviously Aled is six years younger than me so he's still a very fit guy, so he could go on as long as he wants."

It's a fine sight to see - a long-standing, competitive and friendly rivalry between two absolute legends of the grassroots game. Some shift, boys!

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