Double trouble but the players can see the funny side of the breaks

Both men fractured their right legs and then shared an ambulance to hospital - ending up in neighbouring beds.

Second-row Jeff Steele, 23, was injured in a tackle as his club Pentyrch, near Cardiff, took on rivals Aberdare

Ieuan Griffiths, 28, ran onto the pitch but was immediately injured in a ruck. Pentyrch's team manager said he had never seen anything like it.

"In all the years I've been associated with the game I've never come across anything like this," said Gareth Williams.

"When Jeff was injured we could see right away his leg was badly broken and the game was held up.

At least we had plenty to talk about while we were in hospital and kept each other's spirits up. Ieuan Griffiths

"When the game finally restarted Ieuan went on as replacement - and three minutes later the same thing happened to him."

The double injury meant lengthy hold-ups in play and the end-of-season Welsh Division Three South East game last Saturday lasted for a total of two hours 10 minutes

Paramedics were still making Jeff comfortable in their ambulance when Ieuan turned up on a stretcher.

But the coincidences did not end there.

Swap accounts

Medics diagnosed both players with the same injuries - fractures of their tibia and fibula bones.

The players were able to swap accounts of what had happened during the week they spent next to each other in the Royal Glamorgan Hospital at Llantrisant.

Marine surveyor Jeff, from Radyr, Cardiff, will be in plaster for up to 14 weeks after his break.

"I was waiting to be taken away in the ambulance when I was told that Ieuan had also been carried off," he said.

"When we got to the hospital the X-rays of our legs were virtually identical."

Ieuan, a plant contractor from Church Village near Pontypridd, said: "I just couldn't believe that I suffered the same injury just minutes after replacing Jeff.

Consolation

"But I knew as soon as I went down that it was serious.

"At least we had plenty to talk about while we were in hospital and kept each other's spirits up."

Jeff is in plaster up to his thigh while Ieuan has had metal pins screwed into his leg held in place by a metal frame.

Ieuan's playing days are now over while Jeff faces a long fight to get fit.

The only consolation for the injured players was that despite the breaks not going their way their team still won 31-0.