The 27-year-old was at his local club where he coaches, Whitehead RFC in Newport, to receive the award from Dragons head coach Dai Flanagan and Wales coach Rob Howley. The duo presented the award on behalf of the Welsh Rugby Writers Association.
Wainwright, who won his first cap against Argentina in June 2018, has been sidelined with a hamstring injury, but hopes to be back in the coming weeks to represent his region and then, he hopes, Wales in the Autumn Nations Series this November.
Wainwright’s award was recognition for his stellar performances for Wales in what has been an otherwise difficult year for the national team. He follows in the footsteps of Welsh greats who have previously received the award, such as Howley himself, Sir Gareth Edwards, Sam Warburton and Alun Wyn Jones.
How did it feel to win the award? It’s a bit scary to be thrown in that mix. It’s a bit surreal but hopefully I’ve got a couple of years left in me yet to keep going. Hopefully the best is still to come.
When can the fans expect to see you back on the pitch? I’ve got some contact today, and did bit of sprinting yesterday, so I don’t want to jinx anything and put a game or a date on it, but in the next couple of weeks hopefully.
The thing I’m battling with at the moment – this being my first big major injury and first surgery – is just having those conversations with the physios, just trying to battle back and forth with them. They’re the guys that are there to dictate when I come back and they’re the ones who are in charge.
An ideal scenario: I’d try and play for Dragons before anything else. I don’t think I would be too comfortable, if selected, to go straight back in and play international rugby but just focusing on getting the body right and going from there.”
Tell us about Whitehead rugby club? I played youth [for them], played seven or eight games of senior rugby, played in a final at Rodney Parade – which we lost and I got a yellow card! Some of the guys that I have coached over the last couple of years I have played with, so it’s quite a good affiliation.
After the games I play, I come back here and they’re happy enough to get stuck into me as much as I am to get stuck into them at training and on Saturday. It’s a good balance. It keeps you grounded. There is nothing better than walking through those doors and straight away, them saying ‘what on earth were you doing today?’ It brings you straight back down, but it’s great.
I can come back here and just switch off in a way, calm down, socialise and interact with the people at my rugby club and then two days later, on a Monday, I’m back in training with potentially a massive game on the weekend to play.
What’s it like coaching a team in Division Four East? Mostly wet and physical. Last weekend but it was 10-10 at half time and we ended up losing 48-22. So the other team had a lot of driving mauls.
The players’ ages range from 18-19, up until about late 40s. A load of guys have been here for ages and trying to get them to do something different to what they’re used to is a bit of a challenge sometimes.
Will you be that mid-40s players and will you come back to play? I’ve always said after I finish playing I want to come back and play here so that’s a goal of mine. Gavin Henson played for Pencoed. Hopefully, do something like tha: come back and play for a couple of games, which will be quite interesting. Get a lot of the boys from school back together, which will be good.
Do you see a future in coaching? Maybe. I’ve got my level two. I don’t think I could see myself doing anything more serious than this at the moment. It’s good just to come down and have a laugh with some of the boys and have a bit of a chat with my mates. So maybe later on in my career I’ll start thinking about that more seriously.
What about the Dragons’ start to the season? It’s been incredibly encouraging. Hopefully it can add to that when I come back. First thing’s first is just to get myself and my body back right. Try and get back playing and training well and then just go from there.
Will the wins come for Wales this Autumn Nations Series? 100%, and the way you’ve seen the regions’ start in the league is incredibly encouraging. It’s a different feel to the regions this year than it may have been last year.
If all four regions are performing and playing well then it will add to the international standard and how we’re playing and training as a group when we go into camp, so it benefits everyone and hopefully the regions can keep going well.
What have been some of the issues facing Wales over the last 12 months? Probably just balancing having a lot of younger newer guys coming into the squad, and a lot of those experienced guys leaving the squad; just getting some of the younger guys up to speed with things and settling into international rugby.
If you look back as well there’s been a lot of games we’ve been in and close to winning, and two that stick out in my mind are the Scotland and England games in the Six Nations [Wales lost by a single point and two points respectively]. That’s probably where you need a little bit more experience just to see those games out.
It’s building and if the regions keep performing and playing well, those guys there get that experience of winning and what it takes to win and hopefully that feeds into the international squad.
Wales face Fiji, Australia and South Africa on consecutive weekends this November. Find out more here.
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source link
