'It was abhorrent': Ex-Wales captain Colin Charvis opens up about racist abuse he suffered as a player
By ITV Wales journalist Amit Nathwani
From the early 2000s, Colin Charvis became a household name.
You would find him in the back row of the Welsh rugby team, tackling hard and scoring tries.
He scored 22 of them for Wales - a record for forwards and won 96 caps. He was the first black person to captain his country.
He loved playing rugby. Charvis said it helped him "find a family" following the death of his mother.
"People I met on the rugby pitch meant everything to me."
But it was during his time with the armband, some of the things written about the former British and Irish Lion star in the media left him unable to leave the house.
After a few defeats on the pitch, Charvis was once voted the second most hated man in Wales after Osama bin Laden.
In an exclusive interview, he told ITV News he is only now able to joke about it because at the time it was “abhorrent.”
“Nowadays, you will say ‘a man walked up to me’ or ‘a woman walked up to me and said’ rather than ‘a black man walked up to me’”.
“They were trying to drop those adjectives in every description of me. They were saying ‘Colin Charvis, born in England, mixed race.’ It was always mentioned. And yet the other players that came from Llanelli or Cardiff, that was never mentioned.”
He added: "I felt that was a dig every time they wanted to have a pop at me. You couldn’t get into an argument with a journalist because they will always have the last say.”
Charvis said the team’s management had to step in at one point.
“They told them ‘this is flat out racism. You are getting at the personal aspects of this guy rather than the shortcomings of the team.’”
“For me, it was about putting my boots on at the time and seeing if I could be the best I could possibly be for my team and our country.”
“It wasn’t very pretty for my family,” the 47-year-old said.
“It’s like when you’re injured and you get stretchered off, it’s not very comfortable for them. But I chose to be in that position. What I didn’t choose was to be vilified in the newspaper. I can only say that was because of my colour.”
Sports people often say they are only thinking about the next game and nothing else.
Charvis was no different. But he said it is only after he stopped playing that he “smelt the roses.”
He said: “Within a few years of calming down and my life being back to normal, I thought ‘I can’t believe some of the things that were written about me.’
"When you’ve lost and they’re picking on personal aspects of you rather than saying ‘Colin Charvis is just not good enough', you realise how difficult times were.”
During his time as captain, Charvis introduced his team to former South African president Nelson Mandela in 2004. He said it is an experience he will never forget.
“We only chatted for a couple of minutes,” Charvis said.
“When people talk about the cliches of meeting someone and sensing that aura and being overwhelmed by a character, that is something I experienced when I met Mr Mandela.”
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An exclusive poll by ITV Wales revealed a third of people from black and ethnic minority backgrounds experienced racism in Wales.
The poll also revealed 45% of people from a black and ethnic background believe rugby is racist.
Charvis said he doesn't believe rugby is a racist sport, but he can see how ethnic minority players have to try “a little bit harder” to be noticed by coaches.
He has been part of the Welsh Rugby Union Council for more than a year, and said making the sport more inclusive has been top of the union’s agenda for a while.
“We want our teams to reflect society,” Charvis said.
“If BAME people think that rugby is racist, it’s because they don’t see many people from their community playing it.”
He challenged any person from an ethnic background to try the sport and added, “If you feel it’s racist when you’re there, come and find me within the WRU and I’ll come with you to see what’s wrong with that rugby club.”