New Wales squad member was discovered and 'stalked' in South Africa

SPOTLIGHT: New Wales recruit Olly Cracknell has some history in South Africa.

The uncapped Leicester flank has been called up by Wales this week for next month’s Nations Series after veteran No.8 Taulupe Faletau withdrew from the squad.

Faletau suffered a knee injury during Cardiff’s United Rugby Championship victory over Edinburgh on Saturday.

Back in 2013, when he was still a teenager, Cracknell spent some time playing for Border in South Africa. That is when former scrumhalf Rupert Moon, who was appointed as the Welsh Rugby Union’s North Wales development officer at the time, heard about his talents.

Moon admitted that he “stalked” the Leeds-born player and convinced him to join Welsh club RGC 1404.

“Olly had registered on the WRU website as a Welsh exile when he was 16,” Moon told WalesOnline.

“Anyone who was born in Wales or has Welsh heritage can register, and he knew his grandfather was from Llanelli.

“You can identify players from that list who you might be interested in and it was my job to talk to them. Olly was one of those. He was playing in South Africa at the time.

“He had gone on tour there with Leeds Grammar School and decided to pay his own way to go back and join the Border Academy in East London, where he stayed for eight months.

“I know from speaking to him about it that it was pretty brutal. He was training four times a day, sharing a room, but he wanted that personal and rugby development.

“He ended up playing in places like Loftus Versfeld and Newlands, which was a great experience for him.”

Moon added: “Fortunately, I had contacts out there through an international exchange programme we ran in north Wales, where young players from underprivileged areas in South Africa would come over to us and we would send youngsters over there for a life experience.

“Through those contacts, I managed to speak to Olly’s coaches and they said he was a good guy, determined and a hard worker, but needed to bulk up.

“So, I set about trying to talk to him and stalked him for about three months. I was emailing him and trying to track him down.

“Then after a few months, he responded and said he was coming back to the UK in a few weeks’ time. This was about November 2013.”

After making the move to North Wales in 2014 and representing RGC 1404, Cracknell eventually progressed to the Welsh Under-20 side, and he also earned a professional contract with Ospreys.

He also had a stint with London Irish before joining Leicester.

Wales face Argentina in Cardiff on November 9 and then play Japan at home before facing New Zealand and world champions South Africa back-to-back at their Principality Stadium headquarters.