The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 267 No 7179 p904-936
22-29 December 2001

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He moves from one scrum to another

Patients in south Wales might be lucky enough to have their prescription dispensed by a professional rugby player. When not playing for the Welsh premiership team Bridgend, or at an international level for Wales A, Huw Harries works as a locum pharmacist.

Huw has been captain of Bridgend for the past two seasons. He started his professional career in rugby in 1996 playing for London side Harlequins, just after rugby union turned professional. The timing could not have been better for Huw, allowing him to become a professional player straight after finishing his preregistration training.

"The highlight of my career was being on the bench twice for the Welsh international side. It was a massive honour," Huw says. He has also captained Wales A, the international team that develops players to play for the full international Welsh team.

A typical week for Huw involves a lot of gym and track work and video analysis of opposition sides. "It is physically hard but it's a cracking life," he says. Huw also works as a pharmacist for a day-and-a-half each week. "Pharmacy provides a break from rugby and a different kind of mental stimulation. It gives me the best of both worlds." Huw does get recognised when he is working as a pharmacist, particularly in the Bridgend area. "People come in and talk about whether we've won or lost. The banter with patients is good fun."

Have pharmacy and rugby ever crossed over? "When I was a student and our final-year dissertations were randomly assigned, I was given the topic of drugs in sport. Everyone thought it was a fix," he remembers. But being a pharmacist means he can advise other players what medicines they are allowed to take, particularly for coughs and colds. Many of them are banned from use in competitive sports. It is also useful for giving advice on anti-inflammatory drugs, he added, since one problem among professional sports players is stomach ulcers because of the quantity of anti-inflammatory drugs many of them take. So what is the professional advice on how to deal with a muscle injury? "Ice it, take anti-inflammatories and seek physiotherapy," he says, "I don't bother with heat sprays. Massage is better by itself."

At the age of 28, Huw says that he is coming towards the end of his career as a professional rugby player. One career option he is considering is in sports commentary, working for Welsh-speaking television and radio programmes. He admits that he is lucky to have a career in pharmacy, too. "It is a problem among professional rugby players that a number of them don't have another career to go into," he says. "Quite a few players go into coaching but it's not something I really fancy at the moment."

In the meantime, Huw hopes to play for another three or four years. "I'm very lucky to be able to play rugby full-time and to be paid to do something I love," he says.