By Graham Thomas
Tommy Reffell insists he will have no problem if Warren Gatland gives out the hairdryer treatment in the Wales dressing room this autumn.
Reffell was one of the Leicester players who took a full blast of hot air from Tigers coach Michael Cheika recently.
The Cheika shaker came during half-time when Leicester trailed by 11 points to Gloucester and was revealed by full-back Freddie Steward.
It did the trick as the Tigers came back to win, 29-26, although former Australia coach Cheika claimed later: “If it was a hairdryer then it was on the very lowest setting, because there are a couple more settings in me.”
Gatland is not renowned for going full Sir Alex Ferguson – the dressing room giant credited for popularising the legend of the hairdryer treatment – but the New Zealander is not averse to spitting out a few home truths.
Reffell has seen both coaches go into “forceful” mode and says: “For me, it’s all about the timing of something like that.
“If a coach spells out those home truths at half-time and it’s a way of telling players how to improve, then that’s fine.
“But if a coach starts shouting after a game about what we should have done, then I think maybe he should have done it earlier when we could have affected the outcome.
“Gats holds us to very high standards in training and off the pitch in meetings. He gets his points across very well and sometimes that requires getting them across quite strongly.”
Whatever has been fired towards the ears of Reffell from club and country in the last few months, it appears to be working.
Last season, the 25-year-old openside flanker made 10 starts for Wales – more than any other player, in a sequence of appearances stretching from last year’s World Cup, through the Six Nations, and onto the summer tour of Australia.
The last eight of those matches may have all ended in defeat, but Reffell’s performances were widely considered as cut above anything else seen in a red shirt, with the possible exception of his back row colleague, Aaron Wainwright.
This season – with Cheika newly installed at Welford Road – Reffell has been similarly instrumental for Leicester, who stand second in the English Premiership after five wins out of six.
“We’ve got World Cup winners in that Leicester squad,” adds Reffell who left his Bridgend home at just 15 to pursue his rugby dream across the border with one of the most famous rugby clubs in the world.
“We’ve got guys with over 100 caps, boys who have been on Lions tours, so we know we should have performed a lot better than we did last year and we’ve looked to improve this year, which we’re managing to do so far.”
Last season saw dozens of players leave the Welsh regions, many of them full internationals, in order to seek greener pastures elsewhere.
Reffell was well ahead of the curve, deciding to leave his Bridgend home as teenager, long before he had made a breakthrough with Wales U20s.
“I was very fortunate to go through the Leicester pathway, but it also meant I had to grow up quickly because I was away from my parents and friends, staying in digs with a family I’d never met before.
“It was strange at first, but it made me mature quickly and I was glad I did because I was joining one of the biggest clubs in the world, an historical club with historical players.”
Perhaps the most famous of all those players – England’s World Cup-winning captain Martin Johnson – has offered his guidance to the current Wales No.7 and Reffell was more than glad to take it.
“He’s the greatest player in Leicester’s history, in my opinion – someone who captained England and won the World Cup, someone who captained the Lions and won a series in South Africa.
“When he comes in and talks to us, it means a lot to the players, especially the forwards. It’s great when he shares his knowledge and he’s probably more of a talker now than he’s ever been.”
Suitably inspired by the Red Rose’s finest, Reffell is now aiming to transfer his winning momentum with Leicester into Welsh colours this season – starting with the first of the autumn Tests against Fiji on November 10.
