Get the latest Welsh rugby news sent straight to your inbox Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

"Don't make me look like a b*llend in this piece or I'll hunt you down!"

It was a fitting way to end an interview with Dan Baugh, one of the hardest and most frightening rugby players Welsh rugby has known.

He is also one of the most fondly remembered, particularly by those whose allegiances lie in the Welsh capital.

During his seven-year stint with Cardiff RFC and then Cardiff Blues, Baugh earned cult figure status as a ferocious competitor who went above and beyond every time he crossed the white line.

"It's just a reputation," explains Baugh. "The longer I was out of the game, the harder I got.

"It's not a tag that I ever put on myself. There's a saying in rugby: 'be the best at things that require no talent'. I made a living out of that.

"I just gave everything and that reputation probably just developed as a result. It probably hurt with the referees and helped everywhere else!"

THE 'CHEAP' CANADIAN WHO CAME TO CARDIFF

So just how did a young Canadian end up in Cardiff playing professional rugby more than 20 years ago?

"Oh God, this is going back," is Baugh's immediate reaction.

Back in mid-1997, a Wales team coached by Alec Evans had visited Canada, with lock John Tait signed by Cardiff on the back of it after impressing for the hosts.

Little did Baugh know he would follow a similar path until a dark December day in Welsh rugby later that year ultimately changed his fate.

"Gwyn Jones broke his neck in 1997. That was the dreaded game when Garin Jenkins' dad had a heart attack.

"That was the entry in.

"We were in Buenos Aires with Canada for a World Cup qualifier at the time.

"John got hold of the hotel on behalf of Alec and asked if I'd be interested in coming out on trial to the end of the season with Cardiff."

It was only meant to be for a few months. Baugh never envisioned anything longer.

"Even when I signed my first contract, I didn't really think it was going to last."

But he never went back.

Apparently, the reason Jonathan Humphreys had recommended buying Baugh was because Cardiff could "get him on the cheap".

"Oh yeah they did. No bones about it! I never thought I'd play for Cardiff but I would have probably played for kit at the time.

"I was running a kitchen at the time in Canada. I had a good job. I moved away from home and I was finding my way in the world.

"But the fact that somebody out there in the world was gonna pay me to play rugby was a dream come true.

"The game had just gone professional so nobody took the game for granted."

Baugh knew next to nothing about the country he would soon call home, but his experiences of moving around while growing up thanks to his dad's job as a Mountie in Canada left him in good stead.

"You get used to moving and meeting people and learning how to fit in with different groups which is right in line with the rugby culture.

"It's not an easy thing to do and it's not for everybody but it wasn't even a question for me."

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

And so he went, staying long beyond the end of that initial season.

But what about the first time he walked into the star-studded Cardiff changing room and rubbed shoulders his new team-mates?

"Jesus, it was a hell of a room to walk into," said Baugh. "Rob Howley, Dai Young, Mike Hall, Mikey Rayer - I'd only ever see them on TV, I've got to be honest.

"I hadn't been playing rugby for very long. I didn't pick up a rugby ball until I was 16 years old.

"I just knew that I was going to love it because I love everything about rugby.

"There were better players in that changing room but they were still doing it for the same reason."

If you thought Baugh would have been intimidated by stepping into that environment, then you'd be mistaken.

"Nobody knew me. Nobody expected anything from me.

"I could just go out there and express myself with a group of phenomenal players who, to be honest, made me look good.

"In my entire career, I wasn't big on catching and passing. If I was lucky enough to get the ball in the field, I tended to run with it.

"When other people had the ball, I tended to hit them and that was that.

"Playing with those good people, they brought me on and they taught me the game. But I learned on the hoof.

"I had some physical attributes that let me play the way I did. But I never really felt pressure."

'I DON'T KNOW IF CARDIFF WAS THE PERFECT CITY FOR ANYONE BUT IT WAS A LOT OF FUN'

He remembers his time in the capital city fondly, with those early seasons when rugby was stuck between an amateur and professional game some of his favourites.

"It was called professional but they weren't really very professional.

"You could sleep in which meant we went out a lot. We socialised a lot together and partied a lot and enjoyed ourselves.

"We worked hard and played hard and didn't take for granted what we had because we had a bit of context on what life is about."

Perhaps his fondest memories are of the season when Cardiff rebelled and spent a year in the English Premiership. On the road every week, a close-knit team travelling around the country with the ethos of an amateur side and the talent of a professional outfit.

(Image: Darren Quinton/Birmingham Live)

Baugh admits that side probably did underachieve in the early years of professionalism, but "at the time we were just enjoying playing with each other".

"The back five rows of the bus were smoking rows and we'd have the big bath in the changing rooms after and everybody was drinking and enjoying each other's company. It was just a different era."

In what was a "unique time in the game", surely Cardiff was the perfect place to be?

"I don't know if Cardiff was the perfect city for anyone at that time but it was a lot of fun and I wouldn't have changed it.

"I owe Wales and Cardiff a lot.

"I met my beautiful wife there. I have two beautiful children from Wales that 'siarad Cymraeg'.

"I still call it home and when I have time time off, we like to get back to the coast where we lived."

CULT HERO, DAI BISH AND THE HARDMAN TAG

A "crazy bald guy, with his collars tucked in and his socks down, smashing people" was Sam Warburton's recollection of Baugh, citing him as the player who made the former Wales captain fall in love with the sport.

Indeed, Baugh's efforts on the pitch endeared him to many Arms Park regulars.

Moments such as a stunning tackle against Swansea that left its victim over the other side of the pitchside barrier, or his incredible display as Cardiff ran riot in a 65-16 demolition of Llanelli in 2001 stand out in the minds of supporters.

"Those memories get better every year I'm away from it. I threw myself into everything and people remember those those kinds of moments.

"When I go watch rugby, I want to watch people that can't do anything more.

"It was an endearing feature to the fans that they could see that I had limitations. They could see that I ran with my eyeballs out and my teeth showing."

(Image: Huw Evans Picture Agency Ltd)

There's one specific moment I wanted to ask him about: his run-in with David Bishop towards the end of the scrum-half's career.

"I love Dai Bish! He was a hardman when there was allowed to be hard men in the game.

"Hard men in the game now have become cowards because they know they can hide behind the rules, they can hide behind the TV cameras and they can hide behind the referees and yellow cards because you can't afford to have a man down.

"The thugs and the lowlifes like myself either found a skill set or left the game because it's a dated model to be a thug. Guys like Dai Bish and me, we thrived on it and we really enjoyed that side of the game.

"Bish was a small man but he's tough as nails. If he had something to deal with then he was walking towards your chest, not your back."

But what of the actual clash with the Bish?

"There was all this hype coming in, this big confrontational conflict with Bish," adds Baugh.

"But I'll be totally honest with you... I didn't know who the hell Dai Bish was.

(Image: Paul Stuart)

"The way that he'd been spoken about, I was expecting him to be 6'8'', hundred and thirty kilos, this monster dragging his knuckles on the floor ready to kill people!

"No offense to Dai Bish. He was really tough and hard for his size. But, Jesus, I was expecting something different!

"It was one little thing where he swung at me, I hit him a little bit late. And since that day, every year that goes by, it actually gets a little bit more aggressive and a little bit more controversial.

"It makes a good story though, doesn't it?"

THE PRICE HE PAID FOR HIS CULT STATUS

It is evident that a childhood spent playing different sports shaped Baugh's career, from wrestling and judo to American football, before the inevitability of steroids in the latter sport saw him turn his back on it in favour of rugby.

It was a man's game, which is what a young Baugh found so endearing.

"Playing in an amateur club environment, if you got man of the match, you had a pint glass that had to be kept full all night. As a kid that's exciting, isn't it?"

Yet Baugh ultimately paid the price for his earlier exploits before rugby, and was forced to retire in 2005 following a string of injuries.

"Looking back, I probably came into it with issues.

"In hindsight, I spent my whole childhood doing armed bars and knee locks and spending my time on my knees and twisting people in knots and getting twisted up in knots. None of that can be good for your knees in the long run."

(Image: Darren Quinton/Birmingham Live)

By the time he arrived in Cardiff, he'd had one ACL reconstruction from football. By the time he'd retired, he'd had 10 operations on his knees.

But that wasn't what finished Baugh's career. Instead, it was a broken navicular: a tiny bone in the foot.

"That was probably the hardest thing to get my head around. All of these big injuries, I'd managed to come back from and not even think about them.

"I was happy to carry on and play on and I just couldn't believe it as the doctor told me that I was going to have to hang them up from this little bone in my foot."

After retiring, Baugh remained with the Blues as a conditioning coach, before becoming forwards coach a few seasons later. In 2011, he took up a permanent role with Wales, before joining Wasps in 2014 as strength and conditioning coach:- a role he still holds.

'WE SHOULD ALL BE ENJOYING DOING WHAT WE'RE DOING'

"Most people, when they meet me, are expecting a bit of a goon and a thug," admits Baugh. "And I like to think that I still surprise people that I can actually speak."

So how does Baugh want Welsh rugby fans to look back on him?

"Just how much I enjoyed it. That's the overriding message for me was that I enjoyed every single second I was in Wales.

"The biggest thing for me is the players that I worked with. I like to think that if you asked any of them about me they would say that Dan enjoyed working with the players.

"I'd like to be remembered as somebody who enjoyed every day of it. Every day that I was lucky enough to play rugby and get paid to do it, I don't take one second of that for granted and I continue to not take it for granted.

"It's such a privileged position. We should all be enjoying ourselves doing what we're doing."

As good a place to leave it as any.