“I always wanted to be a rugby player myself and to pass on that passion.” PE teacher and rugby coach Mike Butler has certainly delivered on the second part of that ambition, helping Wales and Newport Gwent Dragons centre Tyler Morgan to reach the top of the sport.
Butler was Morgan’s first rugby coach at Caerleon Comprehensive School, and he soon realised he needed to get the promising youngster more involved in the game.
“He (Butler) played centre himself so he took my off the wing and into the midfield to get a bit more ball in hand,” said Morgan. “From then on, my love for the game grew.
“He’s just a really positive and supportive coach. I really appreciate what he did for me and all the help he gave me through school.”
Butler said the attributes that made Morgan stand out as a schoolboy have continued to shine through as he made his name with the Dragons.
“He’s very athletic. It would be too easy to say he was a big boy running through everyone but he wasn’t,” he said. “Tyler was very unselfish. He didn’t always try to score himself – but when it was needed he’d go and do it.”
The 21-year-old has won three caps, making his debut against Ireland in 2015 and starting the Rugby World Cup quarter-final against Springboks at Twickenham Stadium.
And Morgan made sure to repay the debt he owes Butler and the school with his gesture before the sport’s showpiece tournament last year.
“We had a prize night that I organised a while back but he was part of the World Cup squad and they had training so he said unfortunately he couldn’t make it,” explained Butler.
“On the day of the awards I received a text off him and he said ‘is it still possible to come up?’
“He was dripping with sweat from the intense training that he’d just been through but he stopped by for a couple of hours to present the awards.
“As a PE teacher you do it whatever the talent of the pupils but to see someone reach the top of the game means a lot.”
