The Biggar Picture – as a publisher, how could you resist that title? – has made headlines for several reasons, but most have chosen to highlight the former Wales fly-half’s distant relationship with head coach Warren Gatland.
Did he feel the need to consult with many of the people who feature in the book? “No, not all,” he responds. “Everything that’s in the book comes from how I felt, and it’s not for me to run my opinions past other people. This is just my story, my opinion, and I’ve been honest.”
As for Gatland, whose return to the helm of Wales has seen him embark to that difficult second album, the 112-times capped Biggar can now see their relationship for what it was. “It was very professional, and I have the utmost respect for Gats,” says the 35-year-old from the Gower. “What we achieved together, all the good times and everything we’ve had. The easy thing would have been to say that we got on like a house on fire because we were successful all the time.”
It wasn’t all trouble and strife, however, and the book - written with the highly-respected journalist Ross Harries - is packed with laugh-out-loud anecdotes. (The publishers omitted the one about a naked Rob Evans, the boisterous Scarlets and Wales prop, greeting a member of royalty in the changing room after a match in Cardiff.)
“We didn’t play well in quite a lot of those games, but we were a team who forgot how to lose, and it was just finding a way to win close games. Whether my contribution was in starting or coming off the bench, I’d still have an impact on the game.”
It’s hard to fathom that someone as accomplished on the Test stage as Biggar ever felt like an outsider during his Wales career, but so it was. When he describes his home village of Llangennith, on a peninsula sticking out at sea and almost extra to the rest of the nation, he could almost be describing his own sense of isolation at the lowest times.
“One thing that struck me with the book was how clearly there were lots of really low, tough moments that I had to dig myself out from,” he reflects. “It made me feel proud that I managed to do that. These were moments that popped up rather than me thinking consciously about them.”
The thrust of the book, written with the widely-respected journalist Ross Harries, had been to give readers an insight to the Welsh number ten shirt. It takes a certain type of character to shoulder that burden. Biggar hopes his children will be proud of the story he has told in the years to come.
Biggar has straddled more than one era of Welsh rugby – the majority of which were under Gatland – and won three Championship titles, so when was he at his happiest in the fabled red jersey? “This may actually really surprise people, but I think that the year where we went 14 on the spin and got to number one in the world,” he says, referring to 2019. “That coincided with me not being 100% first choice. It was between me and Gareth Anscombe, and we had a really good relationship, but the squad was incredibly happy too.
Winning keeps any discontent at bay, but Biggar believes it was more than the feel-good factor. “We had a team full of leaders, not just in the starting team or on the bench, but even the boys who weren’t in the matchday 23. All great teams need that. The mix in the group meant we had some young guys were coming through; some guys on 30 caps; then you had guys towards 70, 80, 90 caps. It’s hard not to say that wasn’t my happiest. A Grand Slam, an autumn clean sweep, and getting to number one in the world. Those times were brilliant.”
It's interesting to learn that the overwhelming feeling when Biggar opted to step away from the Test arena in 2023 was relief. “When you play ten for Wales, it very much is a rollercoaster of emotions – it’s almost harder mentally than it is physically,” he explains. “It was clearly shattering the way we went out in the quarter-finals, but when I took a couple of weeks off after it, I could feel the release in me, knowing there was no one who was going to judge me in that Welsh ten shirt. There’s no one who’s going to criticise me or want this or that. I was lucky enough to be in a team which was successful in the Six Nations, World Cups, generally throughout my time in the shirt. So had I not been successful, there may have been something in me that wanted to give more, but I can breathe and it feels more of a release.”
Perhaps now, in international retirement, and with this truthful book, those who criticised Dan Biggar during his career will take a different view of the man.
Wales head into their Autumn Nations Series opener against Fiji on Sunday, but even though his name is no longer on the WRU teamsheet, Biggar is still the ultra-competitive fly-half who made his professional debut for the Ospreys 16 years ago. He’s just doing it in a different country.
“As things go, I’ve cracked the stereotype a little bit by actually moving out of Wales,” he laughs, speaking of his move to Northampton and now Toulon. “I’ve embraced it. I loved my time in Northampton, but being in France, in a different culture, is something I’m really glad I’ve done.”
He connects his time playing club rugby in Wales, England and now France to the Championship he starred in so memorably: the Six Nations. It goes some way to explaining why his TV commentary during this year’s tournament received such positive reviews. He reasons that his club career, plus being on British and Irish Lions tours, has given him a unique, rounded view on all the countries. “When I’m watching a match and there’s a French player who perhaps isn’t a Dupont or an Ntamack or an Ollivon, you think, ‘I know he plays for Pau, he’s got good feet’, or ‘George Furbank is really good at X, Y and Z’. When Six Nations time comes around, that’s a real positive for me.”
‘The Biggar Picture: My Life in Rugby’ by Dan Biggar is available to buy now.
