As the Scottish players’ voices ricochet around the empty stadium like bullets in a tin shed in a cowboy western during the captain’s run before their autumn clash against Wales in Cardiff’s citadel, the teenager sits alongside chaperon Gareth Davies, the Welsh Exiles officer, 11,000 miles away from home and totally outside of his rugby comfort zone.
More familiar with coastal surroundings of Kapiti on the lower west coast of the North Island, the youngster’s home venue is Wellington’s Westpac Stadium, home of the Hurricanes, where the capacity is dwarfed by Principality Stadium’s 74,000.
Born In London, but brought up in New Zealand by a welsh mum and english father, the aspiring utility back was introduced to the Welsh Exiles programme while attending Plymouth College as an exchange student.
Like most kids growing up in New Zealand, Ainslie is rugby-mad and has already gained success in a number of formats of the game. He has played for New Zealand at touch rugby, played for Hurricanes U17s and played representative rugby for Horowhenua-Kapiti. If that isn’t enough, he’s also played rugby league for the Melbourne Storm Junior team.
“I’ve always had a ball in my hand ever since I was a kid, I grew up playing with dad kicking and passing because he loved that aspect of the game so much,” said the distant relative of Leigh Halfpenny.
“Leaving New Zealand at such a young age was a big step, particularly as I’m a big family man, leaving them was definitely hard but the opportunity to go to college and play rugby abroad was a massive step for me. I had finished college in New Zealand – so came over here to purely play rugby and focus on the gym.”
Ainslie’s arrival to Welsh shores was no fluke. There are about 1,500 players aged between 13 and 20 involved in the Exiles programme and even though there are no guarantees for the young Kiwi, Davies says the programme is going from strength to strength and his presence at the captain’s run shows the WRU are engaging with Welsh-qualified players from around the world.
“We have got a series of contacts, particularly all over the UK and in Zane’s case we were contacted by Plymouth College where Zane is studying,” explains Davies.
“They said he was Welsh-qualified and they thought he had the potential to do well in the Welsh pathway so we arranged to go and see him in a game playing for his school against Taunton School where he did well.
“We thought it was a good opportunity while he was in the UK for him to come up and do a couple of sessions up here in Wales and he has done really well.
“There are probably 500 players in the Exiles programme between 17 and 18 – so the difficulty we have is monitoring all the players and making sure the players who we think have the most potential get the right level of exposure here in Wales, particularly for the Wales U18 and U19 pathway.
“There are loads of opportunities in Wales, particularly for those looking at higher education, we have very strong links with the universities and in turn the universities have strong links with the regions.”
And as Ainslie looks on, marvelling at the Cardiff amphitheatre as the playing squad chat to Scotland legend Doddie Weir, he’s asked if he’d like to play in the stadium in the near future.
“That’s the dream,” he replies without hesitation, “Always dream of making it big – but I want to play for whoever I can – I’m keeping my options open – playing for Wales would be good for my mum but not so good for my dad!”
And as he ponders which direction to take, Davies is looking forward to running the rule over the next crop of contenders as three Exiles camps have been confirmed for next month in Nottingham (Tues February 19), London Welsh (Wed February 20) and Somerset (Thurs February 21).
“In the last two years we have had a huge increase in the number of players involved with the Exiles and there are now hundreds involved in the programme, some based overseas,” he says.
“It’s important that we engage with every single one of them and their families without them having to make long journeys into Wales, so the one-day camps are an important part of the programme. It’s impossible to involve them all in Exiles fixtures and events which take place in Wales.
“Regardless of their current standard, our aim is to engage with all Welsh qualified players and help them maximise their potential.
“The Exiles programme also provides an extremely important part of our national age grade player identification pathway and a number of Exiles players impressed us last season. Nineteen Exiles were selected to take part in the Wales U18s training squad last season and seven were eventually capped during the Six Nations U18 Tournament. Several Exiles toured South Africa with Wales U18s in August.
“International rugby provides different challenges and such opportunities are very rare. These events were a great experience for the Exiles boys and it demonstrates that the Exiles programme can provide a credible pathway into national age grade rugby.
“This season 18 products of the Exiles programme are already involved in the Wales U18s national age grade squad and in the last two years other Exiles have been awarded regional academy or senior contracts.
“Others have represented Wales U20s and taken part in international sevens events all over the world. Three from the Exiles programme, Joe Jenkins (Queensland, Australia), Will Talbot-Davies (Warwickshire) and Dylan Moss (Buckinghamshire) have just been selected for the current senior Wales 7s World Series squad.”
For further information about the Exiles programme and camps please register with the WRU at www.wru.wales/exiles
