Regan Grace: 'Electric' Saints wing ready for Challenge Cup action
- Published
Regan Grace: I was homesick after a week - my mother told me not to be so soft
Betfred Challenge Cup - Castleford Tigers v St Helens |
|---|
Venue: Wembley Stadium Date: Saturday, 17 July Kick-off: 15:00 BST |
Coverage: Live coverage on BBC One, live commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live Extra and BBC local radio and live text commentary on the BBC Sport website and app |
He is the exciting wing likened to the legendary Jason Robinson and rugby union World Cup winner Cheslin Kolbe, who is looking to light up the Challenge Cup final this weekend.
Regan Grace - the 24-year-old Wales and St Helens star who hails from Port Talbot, south Wales.
"He's one of the players to watch, Regan Grace," says England dual-code international Jason Robinson.
"Watch out for him he's absolutely electric.
"He reminds me so much, probably similar to myself, and if you look at rugby union at the moment, probably a Cheslin Kolbe."
Grace will be in action on Saturday in the Challenge Cup final at Wembley Stadium when his club St Helens take on Castleford Tigers.
It will be the second Challenge Cup final that Grace will have played in, after he starred in the team that lost against Warrington Wolves in 2019.
"We've obviously gone to Wembley once and lost, and it was a massive hurt because we had such expectations hanging above our heads, that we were going to walk it and it was going to be easy," said Grace.
"It felt like we didn't really get ourselves into the game, we let the game run away so I think this time there's a different feel to it.
"We know we're in for a really tough game, but we've also got the hurt there from the final before to drive us to make sure we don't leave any chance for the game to just be taken from us without putting up a fight."
Grace has been at the Merseyside club since he was 17-years-old.
Before that he plied his trade in south Wales - rising through the ranks from Aberavon Green Stars to Aberavon Quins, Ospreys, and South Wales Scorpions - sometimes juggling both rugby union and rugby league fixtures multiple times a week.
But at 17 he had to make a decision between union and league - and his heart followed the latter.
"I didn't prefer one or the other it's just I used to play them both whenever I could.
"I got a bit more involved in rugby league because I could choose when I wanted to get the ball by going into the ruck and just picking it up and running with it. I felt like playing it also improved my rugby union game whilst I was growing up" explained Grace.
Like England's aforementioned Robinson, Wales has a history of breeding dual-code internationals. The likes of Jonathan Davies, Scott Gibbs, Allan Bateman, to name a few.
"Growing up, every boy's dream in Wales is to play for Wales one day, and when you say Wales, you mean Wales rugby union so that dream has always been in the back of my head.
"I've never written off the opportunity or the choice to go, it's just if the time's right at some time in my life I would like to try to have another crack at it again and go for it. But at the moment I'm happy, where I am."
Now known for his scintillating pace down the wing, Grace, who scored 12 tries in 20 games for St Helens last season, has become a real danger man in the Super League.
"One of the main things when I came up here was I want to make something of my name, I want my name to be remembered for something," explained Grace.
The young wing has a chance to write himself into the history books of the reigning Super League champions again on Saturday.
Up to 45,000 fans will be in attendance at Wembley, something that Grace will relish: "I can't wait. The long months we played without fans - it was hard at the start and it started getting harder and harder to motivate yourself because you've not got the atmosphere there as you walk out, you've got to create your own.
"The first game we had at Saints when we had fans back we had like 4,000 but it felt like about 40,000 so I can't imagine what actual 40,000 is going to sound like when we go out.
"Most of the fans coming are Saints fans - they're loud and ready to cheer us on to really get us going."
Castleford Tigers are standing in their way though as Saints aim for their first Challenge Cup success since 2008.
"It would be massive really for us to go out and win it and it's massive for the club.
"The Challenge Cup has so much history behind it and it would be amazing to bring that back home for our club to add to our history and our success and to the success this team has had that I am part of," says Grace.
"I just like winning, really. I want to win as much as I can while I am here. As much silverware as I can get, that's my aim while I am at the club."