A YEAR ago Keiron Assiratti was wondering how he could prop up his family, never mind the Welsh scrum.
Yet this weekend he will be heading to Dublin to face the Grand Slam chasing Irish side as he continues his development from novice international tighthead to a mainstay of the Welsh pack.
This time 12 months ago the 26-year-old was left wondering if he would have a future in the professional game as the financial failings of the game in Wales led the four regions to tighten their belts.
Both he and Cardiff and now Wales front row team-mate Corey Domac h o w s k i , right, were coming out of contract and hadn’t been offered a new deal.
The fear was that it could be as little as £50,000 – a 50 per cent-plus reduction in their previous terms.
“I was speaking to one of the Merthyr coaches, and I was thinking of signing for them. I would probably have taken a side job as well – I’d have just had to wing it,” admitted Assiratti.”
“I had to think about getting a job for my family, to try and secure everything. But I didn’t know what I was going to do.
“I also let things play out at Cardiff, had a run of games and now here I am. I just had to play as well as I could and see what happened. Now, I can say I’m doing quite well, so it’s been a big turnaround.” His strong finish to last season, along with D o m achowski, led to both props being included in the Wales World Cup training squad. First caps followed in the warm-up matches, but only Domachowski went to France.
Cardiff eventually came up with new contracts for their dynamic duo and now they are both topping up their accounts with a Welsh wage. Assiratti came on as a replacement for Leon Brown in the opening game of the Six Nations against Scotland and then went head-to-head with Joe Marler from the start in the game against England at Twickenham.
Now he is preparing for arguably the biggest game of his career to date with an assignment against Ireland’s Andrew Porter as Wales seek to turn agonisin
