Rob Howley’s wife has revealed the emotional strain caused by the betting scandal that saw Wales’ assistant coach barred from rugby.
“To find something out like that was unbelievable. A huge shock. It put so much pressure on the family,” Ceri Howley told the Mail Online.
The couple have two daughters, Megan and Rebecca, with Ceri saying: “Imagine how the girls felt seeing this stuff about their dad on social media, having to explain everything to their friends.
“It was like going through some kind of trauma. We’d all invested into rugby.”
Ceri told the paper she was out shopping in a Tesco store when Rob telephoned her with the news he was being sent home from the World Cup after admitting breaching World Rugby’s regulations on betting on matches.
Howley hid under a blanket in the back of a car arranged for him by Wales team manager Alan Phillips WRU to avoid any waiting cameramen when he arrived back at his house near Bridgend.
Ceri, their daughters, her parents and his mother, formed an emotional waiting party as tears flowed with Rob telling them he had made a mistake and was sorry.
He said: “I hadn’t told Ceri about my rugby betting, so would she be able to trust me again? We’ve been together for 28 years and I let her down.
“Ceri asked some tough questions: my feelings, values. I didn’t know if she’d still love me.”
