 |
| Ollie Olds. Page taken from "The Heart and the Art of my Rugby Photography" |
The picture you see to the left is one that I took the first time I photographed Ollie play. It was January 28th 2009 and Brynteg School had a Saturday morning fixture against Plasmawr School. I remember very little about that game as after almost 200 games they all tend to merge into one for me. But what I do remember vividly is the conversation I had a few days later with Paul Bowen - Ollie's coach at Brynteg. I had gone in to give him free copies of the photos I'd taken as being a former Brynteg pupil I was glad to go back and help out. We were looking through a few of the photos together and I remarked how Ollie looked a lot younger than the other players and questioned if he was old enough to play in the senior side. He looked me straight in the eye and with total conviction said "gooooood player!" and as a man who had coached the likes of British Lions Dafydd James and Gavin Henson at Brynteg in recent years, he certainly knew what he was talking about.
As with all the players I've photographed at youth and grass roots level I like to follow the progress of their careers, and having photographed Ollie again in further Brynteg games and for Wales at age-grade level, I was delighted to see him return to South Wales as a full Wales International. This made him the 4th player I'd photographed go on to gain International honours after Christiaan Roets (Wales Rugby League) Andrew Hoggins (Germany Rugby League) and Tom McGarr (Ireland Rugby League), and with the likes of Lloyd Peers, Matthew "Nipper" Morgan, and Tom Habberfield looking like they have every chance of adding to that list in the future I'm enjoying sitting back and watching the list grow. Good luck lads!
