For Ben Fry, this season in Super Rygbi Cymru has felt a lot like coming home – even if his body needed a couple of months to catch up.

The Cardiff back rower returned to the semi-professional game last autumn after a turbulent few years that took him from the Dragons to Major League Rugby in the United States, and now into a new life balancing rugby with a full-time role at Indigo Group.

What’s striking in conversation is how much joy he’s taken from being back in a tight‑knit club environment, and how central the rebranded SRC has been to that.

“It’s nice to get back into it,” Fry says.

“I had that itch to get back into it. Returning in September, I missed out on pre-season, so it took me a couple of months to get my lungs back.

“Just felt like I was getting properly back into it [when] it was the end of the season, but it was really enjoyable.

“I love being back here, finding my feet, being back in the team environment was the main thing for me, implementing a bit of experience and just having fun with it.”

Cardiff’s season ended with a sense of underachievement – after topping the Super Rygbi Cymru regular season table, the Rags lost the play-off semi-final to eventual winners Llandovery – but Fry is clear that this is a young group who will be better for the lessons.

“I think, for us, we are a young group,” he reflects.

“There probably are things we’ll look back on and think, ‘oh, we could have done this better.’

“And the main thing is, as a group, improving next year and not letting that happen again.

“I think it was just a few things didn’t click, a couple of tries, couple of soft tries got away from us, and then you’re fighting that whole battle then.”

If the team’s campaign felt like a near miss, Fry’s individual form didn’t go unnoticed. He was voted into the official SRC team of the season at openside flanker. For someone who hadn’t had a proper pre-season, that recognition meant something.

“Yeah, no pre-season, the lungs were screaming!” he laughs.

“It took me a bit of a while to get back into it, but I wasn’t expecting it, to be honest with you.

“Great to know that I’ve still got it. For me, it was more about just coming back in and enjoying my rugby, and being around a great group of boys, and implementing a level of experience when I can.

“I was missing the competitive environment, and missing being around a good group of boys that know some good rugby as well. So, I won’t take the credit for myself, I’ll take the credit for the team.”

What has changed markedly in the still relatively new SRC, since Fry last played Welsh Premiership rugby, is the depth of coaching experience scattered across the league. Former internationals and regional stalwarts are now embedded in club environments, and Fry believes that it’s transforming standards.

“I think that definitely helps,” he says.

“You’ve got Fishy [Dan Fish], his knowledge is in abundance, and taking that down to those sorts of levels, and being around those boys constantly, they’re only learning masses from players who have had great careers.

“They’ve got Scott Baldwin in Bridgend as well, and he had a couple of chats with Ioan Emanuel after the game, and I just think those little moments, they’re invaluable.”

The league’s rebrand and contraction has had its critics, but Fry can feel the difference from inside the competition.

“I think [fewer teams] does strengthen the pool,” he says.

And I think, obviously, with the regions buying into it as well and wanting to push their players through it, that’s really built it up as well.

“I can only see that there’s a better pool of players coming through, and that translates when you’re playing – you feel it as well.”

Cardiff’s own crop of youngsters are part of that. Fry talks with obvious pride about helping guide the likes of Harri Wilde, Elijah Evans, Matty Young, and the Emanuel brothers, Ioan and Steff, while still very much in the thick of it himself.

For all the on‑field focus, though, this is not the full-time professional world he once inhabited. Fry’s life now is a genuine dual career. He works as a business development manager at Indigo Group, whose backing has made it possible for him to commit to Cardiff and the SRC.

“Yeah, so I started with Indigo back in September, same time as Cardiff,” he explains.

“Indigo sponsors Cardiff Rugby, they sponsor me as a player as well for the season, and the way they’ve helped me has been amazing.

“If I’ve got to shoot off and go down to Carmarthen on Thursday night, they let me off earlier, Even small things like going to the gym on my lunches.

“Matthew Bennett [Director at Indigo] is always in contact with Fishy, so that itself has been a real sort of motivator for myself to be able to go and play again.”

There’s genuine gratitude when he talks about his employer.

“There’s not many employers that look after employees like Indigo look after me,” he says.

“He’s very supportive, Matthew. He’s very supportive of rugby. There’s always a massive, massive backing and support from Indigo.”

That support has allowed Fry to think about rugby in a different way: no longer as his only income, but as something he can enjoy while building a long‑term career off the field.

“My main thing is I’ve found a job that I love now,” he says. “Indigo, Matthew’s trained me up, and things are going really well, so for the moment it’s great to be able to balance both.

“But at some point, I’m going to have to give my body a break and decide I need to give everything into my work life, which I’m loving.

“For the time being, I will carry on playing, because I’m absolutely loving it. But then also I’m trying to build as strong a career as possible within Indigo.”

One more year in Cardiff blue is guaranteed. Beyond that, Fry is realistic that his body – and his new career – will have their say.

For now, though, Super Rygbi Cymru has given him exactly what he craved: a competitive edge, a young squad to help mentor, and a chance to prove – to himself as much as anyone – that he still belongs at the sharp end of Welsh club rugby.

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