Sarra Elgan Easterby (born 1979) is a Welsh journalist and television presenter. She has covered

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

for numerous media outlets.

Early life

Born in

Neath Neath (; ) is a market town and Community (Wales), community situated in the Neath Port Talbot, Neath Port Talbot County Borough, Wales. The town had a population of 50,658 in 2011. The community of the parish of Neath had a population of 19,2 ...

, she is the daughter of Kathryn Rees and former

Neath RFC Neath Rugby Football Club () is a Welsh rugby union club which plays in the Indigo Premiership for Season 2024/25. The club's home ground is The Gnoll, Neath. The team is known as the All Blacks because of the team colours: black with only a whi ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

and British Lions rugby union player,

Elgan Rees Harold Elgan Rees (born 5 January 1954) is a Welsh former international rugby union player. Rugby career Rees toured with the British & Irish Lions to New Zealand in 1977, when he had yet to be capped by Wales, and South Africa in 1980 and at ...

Career

Elgan studied theatre, media and music at

Trinity College, Carmarthen Trinity University College () was a Church University College in Carmarthen, Wales. The institution was founded in 1848 as the South Wales and Monmouthshire Training College, a teacher-training college. It changed its name in 1931 to Trinity ...

; soon afterwards she took a role in Welsh

soap opera A soap opera (also called a daytime drama or soap) is a genre of a long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term ''soap opera'' originat ...

Pobol y Cwm ''Pobol y Cwm'' (''People of the Valley''; ) is a Welsh-language soap opera produced by the BBC since October 1974. The longest-running television soap opera produced by the BBC, ''Pobol y Cwm'' was originally transmitted on BBC Cymru (now B ...

''. Her first presenting job was on

S4C S4C (, ''Sianel Pedwar Cymru'', meaning ''Channel Four Wales'') is a Welsh language free-to-air public broadcast television channel. Launched on 1 November 1982, it was the first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speakin ...

children's show ''

Planed Plant ''Planed Plant'' ("Children's Planet") was a strand of Welsh-language television programming for children broadcast by S4C. It first aired in September 1998. Back then, it had previous names and services, like ''Y Clwb S4C'' (1982–1990, when ...

'', before presenting for

CBBC CBBC is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 6 to 12. Its sister c ...

. She also sang in a Welsh-language pop music group called ''Cic''. She began as a pitchside reporter at

matches for S4C after the death of

Ray Gravell Raymond William Robert Gravell (12 September 1951 – 31 October 2007) was a Welsh rugby union Centre (rugby union), centre who played club rugby for Llanelli RFC. At international level, Gravell earned 23 cap (sport), caps for Wales national r ...

in 2007. Elgan has worked as a presenter on rugby union coverage on

TNT Sports TNT Sports is the brand name for sports television channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world that are owned and operated by Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). The name originates from the American cable television ...

and its predecessor

BT Sport TNT Sports (formerly BT Sport) is a group of pay television sports channels in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Now owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe, Warner Bros. Discovery and BT Group, they first launched as B ...

. She became a regular on the ''S4C'' rugby chat show ''Jonathan'', alongside Jonathan Davies and

Nigel Owens Nigel Owens, (born 18 June 1971) is a Welsh former international rugby union referee, who retired in December 2020 after a 23-year career. He previously held the world record for the most test matches refereed and was one of five international ...

from 2018. She has also worked for

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

, and for

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

covering the British Lions tour to South Africa in 2021.

Personal life

In 2005 she married Irish former rugby player

Simon Easterby Simon Easterby (born 21 July 1975) is a professional rugby union coach and former player. He is currently the interim head coach for the Ireland national team. Early life Easterby's father is English and his mother Irish, so had Irish citizens ...

. Former Scarlets and Wales full back Matt Cardey was best man at the wedding along with Simon's brother Guy. They have one daughter, Soffia born in 2007, and a son Ffredi, born in 2009. They live in

Cowbridge Cowbridge () is a market town in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, approximately west of the centre of Cardiff. The Cowbridge with Llanblethian community and civil parish elect a town council. A Cowbridge electoral ward exists for elections to ...

in the

Vale of Glamorgan The Vale of Glamorgan ( ), locally referred to as ''The Vale'', is a Principal areas of Wales, county borough in the South East Wales, south-east of Wales. It borders Bridgend County Borough to the west, Cardiff to the east, Rhondda Cynon Taf t ...

. She and the children are Welsh speakers.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Elgan, Sarra Living people 1979 births BBC television presenters British people of Welsh descent Sky Sports presenters and reporters British women television presenters People from Neath Welsh-language television presenters Welsh television presenters