John Westerby meets Sale's farmer-in-residence, Wales prop Eifion Roberts, in The Times.
"Eifion Roberts has come a long way in a short time and there are occasions when his two worlds collide. When his rugby commitments permit, the Sale Sharks prop still likes to return to the family farm on the outskirts of Ruthin, North Wales, but it can often be a frustrating experience.
“I try to help out, but I can’t do as much as I’d like,” he said. “I’ve got to be careful with things like handling the cows, in case I get kicked or anything like that. It’s safer if I stick to the tractor work now.”
"At the end of a testing year for rugby union, tainted by Bloodgate and drug scandals, the best that can be hoped is that the sport stays true to its inclusive mission statement: that it remains a game for all shapes and sizes. In the professional ranks, there is no better example of this creed than Roberts, 28, who has been transformed from an overweight farmer playing amateur rugby into one of the best props in the Guinness Premiership and a folk hero with the Sale crowd. In November last year, he won his first Wales cap against Canada."
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