A grandfather that was an icon of cricket, and a father that played both rugby codes professionally, Cardiff and Wales flanker James Botham always had big footsteps to follow.
Before every wedding, there’s more than enough to do, especially in the final month. The tastings, the fittings, the haggling [venue, music, catering], and the general preparation, from guest lists to table plans to speeches.
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Alternatively, you could surprise yourself and your bride to be, by getting called up for your country and head on a rugby tour to the other side of the world. Which is what happened to James Botham, the 11-cap Wales backrower.
“It was a shock to the system,” he says. “I’m getting married on the 3rd of August, and I only get back 11 days before. I was doing the tastings, fitting and then, boom, I’m on tour at a week’s notice.”
First capped in 2020, the Cardiff flanker was seen as a future staple of the Welsh side, quickly earning nine caps across three consecutive Test match windows.
The cap counter stopped at nine, less than a year after his debut, until it was finally restarted for this year’s Six Nations. He’d been injured or out of favour for too long, and was finally picked to start in Wales’ opener against Scotland. It was supposed to be a new beginning.
“The toughest point, and there’s been a lot of ups and downs, was not being involved for two years, and then getting that opportunity in the Six Nations and, within the first 10 minutes, doing my knee again,” he says.
“But I played that game knowing it wasn’t quite right, so when it went I thought, ‘here we go again’. I did wonder if I was ever going to get a shot again.”
And even though he’s now a key part of the Wales squad – a versatile player that can cover the backrow and, at 26, with plenty of nous to go with it – even getting here wasn’t straight forward.
“When the initial squad was announced, I wasn’t in it, so I just thought, ‘this is typical’, but then, as things panned out, I was back in, but that’s professional sport.”
He left behind not only his understanding fiancée Izzy, but also their feathered family.
“We’ve got ducks, quails, chickens, then every resident bird in the area who come to our place to eat the food,” he says.
“It’s a bit of an oasis, with the pond and everything, and we’ve probably got about 40 to 50 birds in all, and two dogs, who are like our little babies.
“We’ve got a chicken that thinks it’s a dog too,” adds James, “she comes into the house, sleeps with the dogs, and think she’s a dog basically. I’ve never seen a chicken like it.”
While he sells the eggs for ‘a little bit of income’, the birds are a passion. “It's relaxing, a bit of stress release, you get so much back from them,” he says. “You give them food and water, they’re very loyal in return, it’s a nice way of feeling at home.”
Aside from Cardiff, where he was born and always desperate to return to [which he did when he signed for Cardiff as a teenager], home was with the man who made his surname world famous: Ian Botham.
“I grew up in North Yorkshire, in grandad [Ian]’s house, he built a house on his land, and mum and dad moved in,” he says.
It was also here that his passion for birds began. “Even though I went to school at Sedbergh, they had a few chickens there,” explains James. “And I started selling eggs, and ended up with about 150 chicken and a little enterprise there, I was only about 15.”
He kickstarted his chicken enterprise, after a match incident against Edinburgh in the URC two years ago. “I took a blow to the head from Cherry [Dave, Edinburgh hooker] came into the rugby from the side, and it was the scariest thing,” he explains. “I couldn’t feel my legs or arms, for 90 seconds I couldn’t move, or feel anything, it woke me up to a lot of things.
“After that, I knew I had to get other businesses [outside of rugby] sorted, so that when I have kids, they’d be supported. Rugby’s a great career, but it’s a short one, and it can be even shorter too because one incident can happen, and the next you’re injured for life.”
Talk returns to his granddad, the legendary all-rounder, not least because he’s as famous here for his cricketing exploits as he is anywhere – often due to Australia being his cricketing victims.
“Granddad is a massive role model for me,” says James. “Without him I wouldn’t be playing rugby, he supports all the family, without him I wouldn’t be here in Australia now.
“I don’t think he gets enough credit for being family orientated,” he adds, “people think he’s got cold emotions, but he’s the biggest family man I know.
“Granddad’s fame out here is massive,” he adds, “you’ve got to respect that, and for me, he’s everything, he’s done everything he could for me.”
James’s dad [and Ian’s son] Liam, played professional rugby for West Hartlepool, Cardiff [where James was born], Newcastle and Leeds, before switching codes and playing for Leeds Rhinos, London Broncos and Wigan Warriors.
Liam played county cricket briefly before switching to rugby, but James made a decision on his sporting path earlier.
“I used to love playing cricket, but I fell out of love with it in last two years of school,” he says. “There was a group of lads who weren’t that great, and I just had more fun with rugby, plus Granddad being who is he is, I’d never try and compete with what he’s done or try to be as good as him.
“The best thing he [Granddad] ever did was just let me get on with it, to enjoy it, which is something a lot of parents forget. He’d come along to watch, and if I got out for a duck, we’d laugh, although that was often because when he did come to games, I’d try and smack it out of the ground to impress him.
“It was the same with dad and rugby,” continues James, “there was never any pressure to play, he just let me get on with it.”
While he followed his father’s path into union, he has done one thing distinctly different. “I think dad made the wrong decision in leaving Wales,” he says. “It’s always been massive for me to play for Wales, to try and kick and on and create my own path, my own legacy as an athlete.”
He looks to his granddad – still Nike’s longest-serving athlete, reckons James – for inspiration in both creating legacy and supporting the family, but admits who he’s related to, is rarely forgotten.
“I’ve always had, ‘he’s Ian Botham’s grandson’, they try to get under your skin, but it’s boring chat, and just makes me laugh really,” he says.
James certainly has his head screwed on it, so much so that he’s gone to great lengths to protect it. “I’ve developed my own head guard with Rhino,” he says. “I’ve always worn one, but they’ve rubbed, and been itchy, so I wanted to do something about, and there haven’t been any head guards made by a professional player before.
“Hearing was another problem when you wear one too, and we’ve solved that as well with the new head guard.”
Golf apparel is next. “We’re looking at golf wear with Rhino too, the kind of stuff that is waterproof and actually stays waterproof and doesn’t leave you soaking by the eighth hole.”
Playing off 1, he also has another career option. “I’m not good enough to be on a tour or anything, but to take your PGA course you can be anything up 4.6, so I could technically become a pro and be able to coach people, which is quite a nice little niche to have.”
In the meantime, aside from the poultry husbandry, head guard and clothing design, and future life as a golf pro, he has Australia to contend with. “It’s great, home of the flat white, I didn’t know,” he says of Australia. “Everyone’s been lovely, but we’ve brought every single bit of terrible weather with us from Wales, so sorry about that.”
Like Australia, he arrives as part of a squad in transition, with Wales having taken the wooden spoon in the Six Nations, losing five from five, which followed a lacklustre Rugby World Cup in which they were knocked out by Argentina in the quarter-finals, having only narrowly avoided defeat to Fiji by six points.
“The squad is a great place to be,” says James. “I was sat at a table the other day, and the average age of the players must have been 22, it was ridiculous.
“All I can say is people have to be patient,” he continues, “we’re in transition, and it takes time to gel. People always look at the negative, but look at the first half against South Africa [they were losing 14-13], we showed fight, even if the end result [41-13] didn’t quite show it.
“But everyone is in this together, the media can’t see that, but the group is great, the coaches have been great with everyone, and we say we’re in transition for a reason, we don’t call it that for the sake of it, so be patient. In four years’ time, ask the same question, and then let’s see where we are.”
