The Rugby Club meet Matt Gilbert who is a truly exceptional member of the Scarlets squad.
Impairment not holding Gilbert back
The Rugby Club meet a truly exceptional member of the Scarlets squad.
Matt Gilbert is making a name for himself and not just because of his talents on the rugby field but also because he is deaf.
With his hearing aid in and by lip reading, Gilbert says he can pick up about 90% of the surrounding sound - if he can't see any lips then that figure falls to 60% and if he can't lip read and his hearing aid is not in then he says he is lost!
"When I play a match the hearing aids are in under the scrum cap - when it is raining I wrap them up in little plastic bags," explained Gilbert on the
Rugby Club.
"Obviously I have got to communicate who I have got and which attacker I am going to be defending but at the same time in attack, if I am standing out in the backs I need to make sure I get the call from the fly-half, centre etc. If I don't get the call then I am just going to get in the way. Sometimes I have to run a line regardless of the call and have to hope that I don't miss out."
Gilbert says the hardest thing is defence though, when he is focussed on the attacking team but needs to take direction from the man on his inside, however his peripheral vision is exceptional and Gilbert does not believe his deafness affects his game too much.
"I have a hearing impairment and my correction is to wear a hearing aid, but Lou Reed (Scarlets lock) for example has got vision impairment and he has to correct his vision with contact lenses. If he lost his contact lenses in a game then he would have to stop - well I am guessing he would as he wouldn't be able to see a thing. If I lost my hearing aid - or the battery goes on it, which does happen then I can carry on because I have my vision and can still see what is going on."
