Wales flanker Alex Mann happy to share limelight with his best mate

Alex Mann admits it’s a surreal feeling to be on Wales duty at the same time as his best mate Isaak Davies.

Flanker Mann, below, won his ninth cap against Japan yesterday, while Cardiff City striker Davies was last week called up to Craig Bellamy’s Welsh squad for the World Cup qualifiers against Liechtenstein and North Macedonia.

The pair grew up together in Aberdare and were both in the Bluebirds Academy as teenagers before Mann switched to rugby.

“Isaak has been my best mate since I was young, from when we were about four or five,” said the Cardiff back rower, who moved from 6 to 7 for the Japan game.

Goosebumps

“We grew up in school together. He’s like a brother to me.”

Commenting on both of them representing their country, Mann said: “It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it, really, because we always said to each other in school, in class, that we wanted to play for Wales, obviously him with football and me with rugby.

“I don’t know how many times we talked about it. So for Isaak to get a call-up is a massive honour for him.

“I know what it takes in football, so I am just really proud of him.

“It’s gone from us being in Aberdare thinking this is our dream. So it’s pretty surreal that we both get a chance at the same time now.

“We are similar people. We just keep our heads down, keep working hard, and hopefully get the opportunities.”

Striker: Isaak Davies

Second nature

Reflecting on their footballing days together, Mann said: “I played with him for three or four years back in the day in the Cardiff Academy.

“I was all right, but nowhere near as good as him. He was a really good player out on the wing, really fast.

“I was a centre-back, I did the dirty job. I had a couple of yellow cards!”

In terms of his own sporting journey, the 23-year-old Mann says: “Rugby was my first love, but then I had a nasty break to my elbow, which put me off a bit, so I went into football.

“It was good because I was in a professional environment from a young age, so I got to see what it takes week-in, week-out.

“But then I started playing rugby again at school and I just knew it was the sport for me. It just came second nature, really, and I was better at it than football, 110 per cent.

“I found my love of rugby again, so I knocked football on the head.”