Former Wales full-back Shane Howarth has spoken of the enduring pain caused to his family by the scandal that ended his Wales career. Howarth’s story features as part of a new book, telling the life stories of some of Welsh rugby’s most colourful characters.
In 2000, Howarth found himself at the centre of the ‘Grannygate’ scandal that ripped through the game in Wales. It was a torrid experience for him and his family, ending a three-year spell that had seen him become one of Wales’ best and most popular players.
Howarth, who had previously represented the All Blacks, had stated he was eligible to play for Wales through a Welsh grandfather on his mother’s side. But the now infamous ‘Grannygate’ investigation uncovered there was no formal documentation to prove it.
The man said to be his grandfather, Thomas Williams from Cardiff, did not appear on his birth certificate and press reports claimed his maternal grandfather was someone else.
In an interview that features in the new book — Rugby Lives: The Untold Stories of 26 Welsh Internationals in Their Own Words — Howarth said the scandal put his family “under pressure”. You can
“To have that [playing for Wales] taken away from me hurt, it hurt big time,” Howarth told former WalesOnline journalist Simon Thomas.
“But what upsets me the most is it hurt my mum’s side of the family. It dragged up things that didn’t need to be bloody dragged up. It all came out in the wash. The most disheartening thing for me, out of it all, was I let my mum and my grandmother down. That sits with me still today.
“As much as I could, I went up to see Nana and apologise. It did bring skeletons up that didn’t need to be brought up.“I took that pretty hard, it really gutted me.”
