Jamie Roberts has put what he describes as one of the toughest weeks of his career behind him to focus on Racing Métro’s Top 14 and European campaigns as well as Wales’s series of autumn internationals.
The Wales and Lions centre woke up a week ago to scores of text messages from friends asking which Welsh region he would be joining after one of Racing’s coaches, Laurent Labit, was quoted in a French newspaper saying that none of the club’s four Welsh internationals – Roberts, Dan Lydiate, Mike Phillips and Luke Charteris – had done much since their arrival and could be allowed to go. Roberts said he had no intention of leaving and would continue to fight for his place.
“It was an emotional week for me,” said Roberts, who played in the European Rugby Champions Cup victory over Northampton in Paris on Saturday, when Phillips and Charteris came on as second-half replacements while Lydiate watched from the stand. “My phone blew up and I did not know what was going on. Sometimes the press seem to know more about my life and what I am going to do than me.
“It was very difficult and I had to field some awkward questions. I spoke to the coach about his remarks and he said that he did not make them. Either he is lying or the journalist is but, ultimately, I have to be man enough to move on. There is only one way to answer critics and I will not go into my shell. I felt very emotional before the Northampton match and, while I made a couple of mistakes, I think I contributed to the victory.”
Roberts signed a three-year contract with Racing in the summer of 2013. He has no desire to leave and is relishing being part of a large, cosmopolitan squad full of international players and the consequent intense competition for places.
“We have a superb squad here and it means big players miss games,” he said. “It is how you take it. It is frustrating for Dan, a player of real quality, and I hope he gets a run against Treviso on Sunday. It is strange because if you play every week here you are told you are getting flogged but if you play at home every week you are getting a consistent run of games. The press like to put a twist on everything. I am enjoying my time here, playing for a great club in a city I love. There is not much to complain about.”
Racing are seventh in the Top 14 but are only four points behind Toulon in second place. They are unbeaten at home and in 2016 will move into a new 32,000-seater stadium a few miles east, which the club will own and use as a concert venue.
“Finishing in the top six is important for clubs in France and the league is so intense that a number rest players for European matches but the squad at Racing is such that we could field two seriously competitive teams and we are very much fighting on two fronts,” said Roberts. “We are in a tough European pool and it was vital to start with a win at home. It was a dogged victory over Northampton, not pretty at all. We targeted their forwards and slowed their ball down but we played a get out of jail card when George Pisi was clean through and his hamstring went. It is important we back it up against Treviso.”
Roberts will join up with Wales after the match in Italy, assuming he is named in the squad for the autumn internationals, which the national head coach, Warren Gatland, will announce on Tuesday morning. Their first match is against their World Cup group rivals Australia on 8 November and the Wallabies are looking for a new head coach after Ewen McKenzie’s resignation .
“You can look at that in two ways, good news or bad news,” said Roberts. “Australia are a class outfit, as they showed against the All Blacks at the weekend. They will be hugely frustrated at losing in the final seconds and their next game is against us. They will be baying for blood and that is what Test match rugby is about. It is a very difficult place to perform.
“We could not get a tougher autumn [Wales also face New Zealand and South Africa], which I hope to be part of, and we will be very well-prepared. People are talking about the World Cup but there is a season of rugby to be played before then. I am sure Warren will blood players in November and it is an interesting autumn for the home nations, who all face big challenges.”
Wales have only beaten a major southern hemisphere nation once in Gatland’s seven-year reign; Australia in 2008. “I am always asked if it is our time to beat Australia,” said Roberts. “I played in our last win over them in 2008, if only for 15 minutes before being knocked out. We have come so close so many times since against them and South Africa.
“New Zealand are the benchmark at the moment, given the way they play the game and their intensity, and we have to front up in November. It is going to be very tough.”
A possible Wales XV to face Australia
Leigh Halfpenny
Alex Cuthbert
Jonathan Davies
Jamie Roberts
George North
Dan Biggar
Rhys Webb
Gethin Jenkins
Richard Hibbard
Samson Lee
Luke Charteris
Alun Wyn Jones
Dan Lydiate
Sam Warburton
Taulupe Faletau