The Welsh rugby international leaving his mark on British American Football

As the NFL off-season ramps up, British fans will be looking to see if Louis Rees-Zammit can make the most of his pre-season appearances, but one former Welsh rugby international is already taking his chance on the gridiron.

While the fast-footed former winger known as Rees Lightening is aiming to make the Jacksonville Jaguars 53-man roster, having played his first football game in the Kansas City Chiefs’ first game of the 2024 pre-season, Steven Parry is already halfway through his first season in BAFA Division One with the South Wales Warriors.

The former professional rugby league player, and Cincinnati Bengals fan, took the chance to join the Warriors as his career in the 13-man code wound down and he made the move to being a full-time firefighter with the South Wales brigade.

“I was a retained firefighter alongside playing in Champ One, two down from the Super League, with a long term ambition to go whole time and that’s what I do now so I’m a whole time firefighter with a bit of time on my hands now to come and enjoy a bit of American football,” said Parry.

While his club career was spent in the lower divisions, with Gloucestershire and the South Wales Raiders, Parry was capped 14 times by Wales including at the very highest level, representing his country at the Rugby League World Cup in 2017. 

Like Rees-Zammit, who has stated the NFL has been a longtime ambition inspired by his father Joe, a tight end and defensive back with Wales’ original team the Cardiff Tigers in the 1980s and early 90s, Parry has had a long-term interest and previously came close to joining the Warriors.

“I’m 36 now, I did come to a Warriors open day about eight years ago, because I’ve been an NFL Fan, Bengals fan, for about 20 years so I’ve always wanted to have a go of it and now just sort of felt like the right time before I got too old,” said Parry who was nudged by a teammate from his rugby union side, Treharris near his hometown of Merthyr Tydfil.

“One of our O-line guys plays for the same union team as me, he said, come down and have a go. I attended a rookie day and the rest was history. I’ve fallen in love with the sport.”

In League, Parry has played as hooker, similar to scrum-half in union, and half back and in the 15-man game at centre, a position he likens to his posting as a linebacker for the stingey South Wales defence.

“It’s great, that’s the good thing with linebacker you’re flying about, making tackles, big hits and putting a stop to things,” said Parry who describes himself as still learning the position having also tried defensive line during pre-season training.

“That’s the good thing with centre, a lot of the skills transfer to linebacker where you’re reading sort of run plays and stuff and then going to shut it down from inside. So I think it does translate a little bit.”

Having spent his career in professional rugby Parry has been impressed with the level of detail the Warriors put into their own training and preparation: “It’s been nice because diving into this now there’s a lot of film study, a lot of playbook work which was like being back in the old Rugby League days where you do spend a lot of extra time on your own studying and making sure you’re clued up on the team you are playing and also on your own performance so I really, really enjoyed that side of it as well.

“It’s a lot more than I expected. Like you said, it’s amateur, and you’re still putting in a lot of work, still doing a lot of film study. The coaches are fantastic, they do a lot of work, I take my hat off to them. It’s really good and really enjoyable.”

That work has seen the Warriors start the season 6-0 in the South West Conference  while the Llanharan-based will face the Bristol Apache and Solent Thrashers on the road to complete the regular season. 

Though League doesn’t enjoy the same high-profile as Union in Wales, which made Rees-Zammit a star while barely out of his teens, Parry rubbed shoulders with some of the brightest talents in the multimillion-pound Super League, such as Regan Grace, while playing for Wales, including at the 2017 World Cup.

The tournament was staged in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea where Wales took on the eventual quarter-finalists in their capital, Port Moresby.

“It was fabulous, it was great, in a really good group with Fiji, Ireland and Papua New Guinea and we got to play Papua New Guinea in Papua New Guinea so that was a hell of an experience going there and playing where Rugby League is the biggest sport, everyone’s playing it, and they were hell of a crowd and hell of a team as well so it was a one off experience which was outstanding.

“To sing your national anthem in front of thousands of people and on telly is incredible I don’t think there’s no feeling like it and it’s big, a lot of pressure, but there’s so much excitement and such a good experience when you look back at it.”

Parry said visiting the gold and mineral rich but fractious country was a unique experience: “In Papua New Guinea it was very tense we couldn’t leave the hotel for security reasons obviously but we did go out into the malls and done signings and stuff and wherever we travelled we were on buses with police escorts and things.

“That was the greatest experience going to Australia where League is the number one game, it’s the biggest sport in the country and getting to play in weather like this as well and not in the freezing cold with the wind and rain it was absolutely lovely and it was the best rugby experience I’ve had.”

Having been in playmaking positions in rugby Parry does miss having the ball in hand, but also acknowledged he still has much to learn.

“I do miss getting the ball and having a little go. I do try and convince the coaches to let me have a little go, kick return or something just so I can have a carry but they’re having none of it.

“I’ve been a fan and played a lot of Madden as well, when I was younger, which helped with the rules so I think I had a good idea of the rules and what was going on but then I’m still learning more as it goes, the little nuances, the little rules that I’m not too sure about but I’m picking them up with my mistakes.” 

Parry has also been involved on the Warriors punt and kickoff teams and credits his rugby background with his fitness: “This is more explosive. Every play you’re going full tilt and giving everything you’ve got, rugby obviously is a bit more stamina so yeah it’s a little bit of a different fitness but I do think the rugby background does help me with that recovery period and being out there and giving 100 per cent every play.” 

And while Parry admits to having a curiosity as to what might have been had he turned to football earlier in his career, “when I was a bit quicker and a bit lighter”, he laughed at the idea he should offer any tips to that other Welsh rugby international aiming to reach the sport’s very highest level. 

“I think he could give me some advice, because I think he’s way ahead of me in the learning process. I just really hope he gets a little shot to show what he can do because he’s one hell of an athlete and one hell of a player. “ 

While UK NFL fans, particularly those in Wales, are hoping to see Rees-Zammit make his NFL breakthrough, the South Wales Warriors are just grateful to have their own rugby convert.

This article appeared originally in Inside Britball. Reposted by permission.