Team Talk: Welsh Rugby Star Louis Rees-Zammit on Playing at the Highest Level

Men’s Health: When did you get into rugby in the first place?

Louis Rees-Zammit: I’m from Cardiff and was born here. I’ve got an older brother and started playing rugby when I was about six years old. He would be playing for school and club and my parents just introduced me to it. As a youngster, you never think about going pro. You just enjoy playing with your mates.

But as you get older, as long as you work hard, it can become an option. For me, going pro was not something I was ever going to turn down.

MH: How old were you when you felt like you wanted to go pro?

LRZ: I played every sport – football, cricket, tennis. But it turned out that I was probably best at rugby and I pursued that when I went to Hartbury College. It’s linked with Gloucester and it was clear that was the best place for me to be. I was working with the coaches and improving, so it was then that it looked like it could happen if all went to plan.

MH: Was playing so many sports something your parents encouraged?

LRZ: My parents are both really athletic and sporty, but I also had so much energy as a kid that I just wanted to play as much sport as possible. Any TV I watched was pretty much sport. Whatever I watched I’d want to play. One day I’d see tennis on the TV and then go out in the afternoon and try to get the hang of hitting the ball. It was the same with all sports. But I was just a lot better at rugby than anything else.

MH: At what stage did you start taking your conditioning and nutrition more seriously?

LRZ: I would say when I went to Hartbury. It was boarding, so there is more focus on looking after yourself and your body. When you’re training all the time you realise that you’ve got to look after yourself physically or you’re not