Nigel Bezani was the leader of the Valley Commandos and a cult figure in Welsh rugby

As the cult leader of Valley Commandos - the Pontypridd team at the heart of Welsh rugby in the 1990s, knocking lumps out of all comers at the House of Pain - you've got a rough idea of what life looks like for Nigel Bezani at 70.

After all, the picture of Bezani sitting on his motorcycle at Sardis Road remains iconic. A picture is worth a thousand words - in this instance, no reams of sentences can as deftly convey that sense of time. In his leather jacket, all at once, you just understand Bezani's place in Welsh rugby three decades ago.

Cutting to the present day, the motorbikes remain. But they now compete with a more stripped-down two-wheeled vehicle. "I've still got the bikes," Bezani, fresh from celebrating turning 70, tells WalesOnline. "I get out when I can in the summer, but I don't ride in the winter now.

"But cycling is my love. I love going out on my mountain bike. I go every day just about, if it's not torrential rain. Sometimes I'll do two hours, other times an hour-and-a-half. I take different routes, on the mountain. I do enjoy it.

"There are a lot of boys with problems after rugby. But I feel all right for 70. I've got to be honest, I'm quite fit. You look at some people at 70 - I'd jump over their heads!

"I love it. I'll tell you, it's the best thing I've done, retirement. I was a self-employed builder, then I went to work on construction. I retired about three years ago.

"I love it. I do a bit of training to keep fit. A bit of cycling and some weights. Although I hurt my shoulder recently, so I've pulled back on the weights.

"I like watching rugby now. I'd much rather watch than play. It's a different game than the one we played. It's moved on. There seems to be more outside interference with referees and TMOs.

"I was watching one game the other week and there were four blokes in the sin-bin. I was thinking, 'that's not rugby'. You had a job to get one card back in my day!"

Watching his local club, Tylorstown, accounts for much of Bezani's rugby involvement now. He first picked up the sport at that same club as a relatively late starter.

"I was about 25 when I started in Tylorstown," he says. "That was my local club and someone just asked me to come down.

"They'd seen me doing a bit of training and said to give it a try. My first game was for the thirds and it just went from there. I was hooked.

"I got into the social side more than anything at the time. That's how it was back then - more drinking than rugby!

"Bob Penberthy was my coach at Tylorstown. Pontypridd asked me to have a game, because we played them in the cup that year. We had done all right in the scrum.

"But Bob pushed me to have a go. I was captain at Tylorstown, but he said I had to go, rather than waste my time there.

"I went down to Ponty when I was about 30, I think. But I ended up staying quite a while. I was there until I was 39.

"I had a good innings with them. I played nearly 200 games and reached a few cup finals.

"I played against South Africa and Fiji. I had a good time, really. I played in a good team. There were some great players, like Neil Jenkins who was outstanding, wasn't he?

"Dale McIntosh, Steele Lewis, Phil John, Neil Eynon, Mark Rowley... well, you could name them all. They were brilliant players. We had a good team."

Cup final glory

Of course, one memory sticks out more than most from his time at Sardis Road. After 120 years without any silverware, a stirring comeback in the Welsh Cup final against Neath saw Bezani lift the club's first trophy at the old Nations Stadium in 1996.

"It's got to be that," he says when deciding upon his favourite moment in the jersey. "There's quite a few things come up now and again on Facebook and it brings back memories. But that was a great day for the town as well.

"We were there the year before and lost to Swansea when we thought we should have won, but we didn't. Neil Jenkins had a bit of an off-day with his kicking. It was the last go for me, really, at 39.

"The celebrations afterwards - it was a great couple of days after that!"

That was the heyday for Pontypridd, with that particular rugby hotbed falling by the wayside following the advent of regional rugby and the disbanding of the Celtic Warriors after just one season. "It was really good, but I think it ruined all that when rugby went regional. They wanted them to become something else, when Ponty loved being Ponty.

"The year I finished, rugby went professional. They didn't really know what they were doing, I suppose. No one knew what anyone was worth. Rugby is still being run by amateurs, isn't it? We haven't grasped that yet and we're still in trouble.

"I tell you what I enjoy watching: the Gallagher Prem. A lot of these Welsh boys are playing well in that, aren't they? But they are clubs in England, just like they are clubs in France. I don't think going smaller gets us back on track - it just sends more boys to England.

"I'd go back to eight clubs straight away and get that tribalism back. We used to play big matches as Ponty - we played derbies and matches against sides like South Africa. They were the biggest blokes I've ever seen. I just remember hanging onto the back of Kobus Wiese. We had a good tussle against them.

"Now Ponty are playing the likes of Beddau and Ystrad Rhondda. That's the local derby now. I used to play against them for Tylorstown. It's mad, isn't it?"

Off the back of that South Africa match, Pontypridd were invited to play at Loftus Versfeld against Northern Transvaal, opening up the refurbished ground ahead of the 1995 World Cup.

A date against Springboks

"They had about eight Springboks playing for them when we played them out there," he says. "Joost van der Westhuizen punched me from behind and nearly broke my jaw.

"I had my gumshield come through my chops. I was lying on the bed, I was half-unconscious. And they were stitching me up and you have 10 minutes to go back on then. Someone came in and said, 'come on, it's nearly 10 minutes'.

"I thought it was Lynn Howells the coach at the time, but it was actually Eddie Jones the team manager. I didn't know this until two or three months ago what he told me! So I ran towards the double doors, ran into the wall, and he put me through the door and went back on.

"I should have never gone back on there! I couldn't remember much of that game, but I know we gave them a bit of a run."

Those are the sort of stories that were regaled over and over in Tylorstown's clubhouse on Saturday, when all manner of faces from Bezani's past met up to celebrate his birthday.

"There'll be a lot of the old Ponty boys there," he says. "I invited all of them on our Ponty WhatsApp group, you know." The thought alone of that group is an amusing one.

"We have a blast in there, taking the mick out of each other," he added. "I imagine we'll be in a state this weekend!"