Fatherhood Re-ignites Elias' Love of the Game

As a father to two young children, Ryan Elias has a fresh perspective on life, as well as a renewed love for the game of rugby.

The Scarlets and Wales hooker admits he went through some tough times in recent years amid a catalogue of injury issues with his Achilles, neck, hamstring and bicep. Those fitness problems contributed to him spending some 15 months out of the international picture, while he concedes he wasn’t playing his best rugby when he did get out on the field, as everything got on top of him.

But, recently, there has been a welcome change in his fortunes. He returned to the Test arena during this season’s Six Nations and figured in four of the five matches, sharing in the much needed victory over Italy. Now he has been named in the Welsh squad for the summer fixtures and that will give him an opportunity to reach a real career landmark as he is just two caps away from the half century.

Life is good off the field too, as dad to two young daughters, aged two and half and six months old respectively. So Elias is in an upbeat mood as he prepares for the Scarlets’ final BKT URC game of the season, at home to Dragons RFC this Saturday. It’s a real contrast to how things were for him a year or so back.

“There was a low period in my rugby where I definitely didn’t enjoy it,” he says. “It was probably two seasons ago, off the back of the 2023 World Cup in France. Between injuries and missing the first six, seven weeks of my first child getting born, being away at the World Cup, it just seemed like everything got on top of me.

“I wasn’t enjoying my rugby and that was a difficult period for me. I didn’t think I was playing my best rugby either, which doesn’t help. So I kind of just boiled things back. I remember having a conversation with Dwayne Peel (Scarlets coach) around a year and a half ago, just about how I wanted to get back to enjoying my rugby, getting back to basics.

“I sat down and built a plan around how I was going to do that. It helped me build myself back up both on and off the field. It’s nice to be over that bit of a lull. It was a tough period, but I think it’s important to have those periods to appreciate the good times.”

And happily, those good times have returned, as he confirms. “I am feeling good mentally and physically. I have enjoyed the season both for the club and with Wales. It’s been nice being back in the picture, getting over a couple of injuries. I feel like I am enjoying my rugby and when you are doing that everything comes a whole lot easier off the back of it.”

The 31-year-old Elias is also relishing fatherhood. “The perspective piece has been really important for me, growing up and realising there’s a lot bigger things in life than just the game, ” he says.

“It was important for me to realise that. Having the girls and my wife definitely helped me with that, helped me through the whole process.

“When you get home and you have had a tough day in the office or a loss on the weekend, the two little ones don’t realise what’s going on. It’s just a case of rolling the sleeves up and enjoying the time with them and appreciating that time. Time is going very quickly in terms of rugby, but that also means the girls are growing up fast and I want to make the most of being there and be a big presence in their life when they are growing up.”

Looking ahead on the rugby front, there’s the final club fixture of the season against the Dragons this weekend as the Scarlets look to end the campaign on a winning note after narrow one-score defeats to Cardiff Rugby, the Vodacom Bulls and the Ospreys.

“They were games we could have and should have won in our minds,” said Elias. “It’s about taking the positives from those performances and trying to get the result this weekend.”

Then comes a summer international programme which sees Wales playing games against the Barbarians, Fiji, Argentina and South Africa. “I thought it was great for us to get that win against Italy at the end of the Six Nations,” said Elias. “I enjoyed the consistency in the messages and the things we were going after. I thought we showed improvements week on week and got the win in the end.

Hopefully we can build on that, with some big matches coming up. “You saw the improvements through the Six Nations, from the Scotland game to Ireland and then getting the win against Italy.

“We now get to test ourselves again against some of the best sides to see where we are at and if we can make more strides and more improvements. For me, that’s exciting. There’s a good young group of players and the coaches as well.”