Ashton Hewitt: 'People think rugby doesn't have society's problems'

02/19/2021 03:00 PM

Dragons winger's efforts to combat racism have led to awful abuse but he remains determined to see change in the game

Even if England are beaten in Cardiff next week by 30 points there can be no eclipsing Welsh rugby's undisputed player of the season. Never mind that Ashton Hewitt does not have a full cap; the 26-year-old Dragons winger has done more for the wider game over the past nine months than many higher-profile players achieve in their entire careers.

To proclaim him as rugby's answer to Marcus Rashford is to risk trivialising their respective campaigns but the articulate Hewitt's efforts to combat racism and discrimination have been similarly inspiring. "It can get lonely and you get a bit of heat," he says softly. As understatements go, it is like describing the Principality Stadium pitch as a bog standard stretch of grass.