My Life in Rugby – Chris Czekaj: I won Challenge Cup after leg break horror

FOUR years after I'd scored on my Wales debut in 2005 against Canada, I did so again in the same corner of the same ground and against the same opposition in Toronto in what was my first game back from my broken leg. It was a bit bizarre to say the least but it just goes to show how life can go full circle and how I was justified in never giving up on the belief that I would pull on a red jersey again.

Everyone wants to talk about my injury against Australia in 2007 and how horrific it was – you can hear the sound of the bone breaking, and my screams of agony, on the video clips on YouTube – but I take great pride from how I responded to that setback, at just 21 years of age, to reclaim my place in the Wales side and go on to win a total of nine caps in the end.

Admittedly, it would have been nice to have played at a World Cup but the injury occurred at just the wrong time, on the eve of the 2007 tournament, and I was only on standby for the one in New Zealand four years later. By then, George North was coming through and taking the world by storm, and still is.

My aim from the start was to get to at least 50 Wales caps and become a Lion, and who knows, maybe that would've happened had my leg not snapped under the full weight of Stephen Moore, but I'm still really pleased with the way things turned out and the 15 years I enjoyed as a professional player.

As a kid, I had endless energy and my parents took me down to Llandaff RFC as soon as was possible so I could burn some of it off. As someone who was fast, I quickly caught the eye, and by about the age of 14, I became involved in the Blues setup and worked my way up through the age groups.

This coincided with age-grade representative honours for Wales and I went to two Junior World Cups in 2004 and 2005. Alun Wyn Jones was in that team and we had a very good run, only losing to France at the U19 tournament in South Africa before winning the U21 Six Nations Grand Slam the year after – the same year that the seniors won the Grand Slam, too.

Winging it: Chris Czekaj dives over to score during the Heineken Cup match between Cardiff Blues and Edinburgh at Cardiff City Stadium in 2010. Inset: Playing aganst Australia for Wales

PICTURES: Getty Images

A lot of that Wales team went to New Zealand on the Lions tour which created opportunities for younger players to tour North America in the summer. Even so, I never expected to get picked, having only played a couple of games for Cardiff Blues. It was all a bit nuts.

You never forget your first try and I had a bit of work to do to score mine. Ceri Sweeney gave me a pass some way out, I stepped two or three defenders and I think there was a hand-off in there, too. I won four more caps before that career-threaten- ing injury in Brisbane happened. The initial conversation with my surgeon was based around getting me to a point where I could run around with my kids, when I eventually had them, not how long it would be before I was back playing again.

My mindset from the start was positive. I didn't have anything else planned career-wise, nothing to fall back on, and I didn't want to give up on my dream. For me, there was no other option but to get fit again and that's what I set my mind on doing, with the not inconsiderable help of my then girlfriend and now wife, Kat, and the rest of my family, as well as the surgeons and physios who helped with my recovery.

From a Cardiff Blues viewpoint, playing in the same team as Jonah Lomu and winning the 2010 European Challenge Cup, against star-studded Toulon in front of a partisan 50,000 crowd in Marseilles, when no one gave us a chance, were the main highlights.

By 2014, I was getting less and less game time at the Blues and I could tell that my contract wouldn't be renewed. Had something closer to home cropped up, I would have probably taken it, but France was the only option and I headed off to Colomiers, with my wife and twoyear-old boy. Looking back now, we're both really glad we did that as I had three really good years there.

You get the best of everything there – you're within a two-hour drive of the beach in the summer and the Pyrenees in the winter for skiing and Toulouse is only ten minutes away by car. I didn't get off to the best of starts on the playing front, suffering a really bad concussion on my home debut, but other than that, it was a great experience.

My two years at Bedford after that were probably the most enjoyable I had. It's a real rugby town and the culture at the club is brilliant. I played full-back in my first season and in the centres in my second and we finished third in the Championship on each occasion.

I only left because I wanted to be back nearer home, finishing my career at Merthyr. I am hugely thankful for the game and what it has given me, and it's great to still be involved as a Regional Development Officer for the WRU.

One last thing, the story on Wikipedia about my nickname being ‘28', because that's what my surname adds up to in Scrabble, simply isn't true!

– as told to Jon Newcombe