Rick O’Shea is the man of the people on the BBC Wales rugby operation: fronting their interactive coverage, mining the grass roots of the games for stories and sharing his love of the game with bantering good humour.
Rick’s got rugby in his blood, his father John played for Cardiff, Wales and the Lions, managing a first for the British Isles team – first sending off. Rick was born in Wales but spent most of his childhood in another Celtic rugby hotbed, Cornwall. He’s represented Wales at student level and played as a semi-pro before injury forced him to hang up his propping ears.
Looking to fill that Saturday afternoon void, he was taken on by BBC Cornwall as rugby corespondent before returning to Cardiff to become a partner in Cameo Club. One of the customers who enjoyed his drinks serving prowess was BBC producer Rhodri Jones, who sent him off to earn his spurs at the likes of Caerphilly and Ebbw Vale. With his natural enthusiasm and a great knowledge and love of the game Rick joined the Scrum V team and is now an in-demand journalist, presenter and after dinner speaker. He’s now studying medicine.
Here are Rick’s Welsh Icons:
My Welsh Place – In reality there can be only one place, The Millennium Stadium.
Last season during the Wales V England 6 Nations match I was lucky enough to be at pitch-side and the atmosphere was simply breathtaking. I though that the anthems were impressive until I heard the roar that went up when Martyn Williams burst through early on. Later that week we were in Brive filming an item on Alix Popham and I had a chat with Andy Goode, the English outside half that day. He told me that he had never experienced anything like it, and added that in most stadia you might be aware of the crowd, but when Williams made his break he felt like he had been hit on the back of the head!My Welsh Sound – We’ve been blessed with so many great singers and songwriters, but to stick with the rugby motif, at Stradey and now Parc y Scarlets Yma o hyd always sends a tingle down my spine. On a broader front, I love the Stereophonics – I remember a friend’s stag do at The Kinsale Sevens, dressed as monk as it goes, and Dakota by the Stereophonics came on and the whole marquee erupted, although Local Boy in a Photograph would be my favourite.
My Welsh Taste – I live near Llandaff Fields in Cardiff where we are spoilt for choice when it comes to places to eat and drink. I was formerly a partner in the Cameo Club and can still be found propping up the bar, particularly on match day.
I Guess a perfect day would go something like this: Breakfast at Brava, lunch at Cibo, a few beers watching the Rugby in the Halfway followed by a curry in The Cinnamon and then off to The Cameo for a odd nightcap. Sounds good to me!My Pride in Wales – What makes me most proud to be Welsh? It has to be our sense of humour. Generally speaking we don’t take ourselves too seriously and therefore you are never far from a laugh.
My Welsh Sporting Hero – There are so many: Gareth was my boyhood hero but when he retired I switched allegiance to Terry Holmes and then Jiffy!
I think I’ll cop out and say my father, John O’Shea. He was tight head prop for Cardiff and Wales and in South Africa in 1968 he became the first, and remains the only, British Lion to be sent off for fighting!My Welsh Icon – Richard Burton. A Personification of Wales at its best, cultured and passionate. He was not burdened by introspection and his ambition took him to the very summit of his craft. His was a life less ordinary, probably because he took chances.
