Welsh Rugby 101 E-Book

John Griffiths

• Herausgeber: Polaris
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 120

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

Welsh Rugby 101 is a compendium of fascinating facts, stats, stories, personalities and trivia – perfect for all fans of Welsh rugby. From the very first Test match against England in 1881 all the way through to the present day, Welsh rugby's rich history is distilled into 101 facts, stats and stories. This entertaining volume is an instructive, if sometimes irreverent – but always affectionate – guide to some of the groundbreaking firsts, controversies, innovations, characters, achievements and disasters that have taken place in the Principality over the years. Whether an expert or a novice, this is the perfect companion for those who follow Wales's exploits on the field and love to bask in light of its glorious (and sometimes inglorious) past.

Leseprobe

This edition first published in 2019 by

POLARIS PUBLISHING LTD

c/o Aberdein Considine

2nd Floor, Elder House

Multrees Walk

Edinburgh, EH1 3DX

Distributed by

ARENA SPORT

An imprint of Birlinn Limited

www.polarispublishing.com

www.arenasportbooks.co.uk

Text copyright © John Griffiths, 2019

ISBN: 9781909715790

eBook ISBN: 9781788851800

The right of John Griffiths to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form, or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the express written permission of the publisher.

The views expressed in this book do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions or policies of Polaris Publishing Ltd (Company No. SC401508) (Polaris), nor those of any persons, organisations or commercial partners connected with the same (Connected Persons). Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers, or other information or content expressed by third parties are not those of Polaris or any Connected Persons but those of the third parties. For the avoidance of doubt, neither Polaris nor any Connected Persons assume any responsibility or duty of care whether contractual, delictual or on any other basis towards any person in respect of any such matter and accept no liability for any loss or damage caused by any such matter in this book.

Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. The publisher apologises for any errors or omissions and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available on request from the British Library.

Designed and typeset by Polaris Publishing, Edinburgh

Printed in Great Britain by MBM Print SCS Limited, East Kilbride

Photos courtesy of:InphophotographyGetty ImagesJohn Griffiths’ archiveArena Sport archive

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1 The people’s game

2 An Aussie captain

3 Leading the dragon

4 The creation of the WRU

5 The other side of the whistle

6 The Welsh system

7 Welsh rugby’s first legend

8 Living up to his nickname

9 Leading skippers

10 Living with Lions

11 The confident Mr Bancroft

12 Beating England at Cardiff

13 The Triple Crown

14 The prince of centres

15 Most tries in a Test by a player

16 The Bullet

17 Champions of the world

18 Longest winning streak

19 The Grand Slam

20 The First World War

21 Through the card

22 Wales’s oldest player

23 Three times for a Welshman

24 Unchanged through the season

25 The sacrificial car of Juggernaut

26 Welsh rugby’s only Test cricketer

27 An expensive headwear bill

28 The full back who caused a stir

29 The schoolboy who beat the All Blacks

30 That lovely point

31 The last four-point dropped goal

32 The Second World War

33 The Second World War

34 Capped either side of the war

35 The fastest man in Wales

36 Ken’s run

37 The Cardiff legend

38 The changing value of the dropped goal

39 The lineout expert

40 The first Triple Crown for 39 years

41 The unique Mr Gwilliam

42 The King of Rugger

43 The great tactical controller

44 Still unbeaten at Cardiff against New Zealand

45 Good enough to be an honorary All Black

46 The most successful Welsh international of all time?

47 The fastest striker in Wales

48 Entire Welsh XV sent off

49 A firm favourite

50 The modern back row forward

51 Wales’s lowest-scoring results

52 Top Cat

53 Captains on debut

54 The match of 111 line-outs

55 On tour

56 Winner takes it all

57 First replacement referee in a Welsh Test

58 Replacement referees

59 The King

60 The master of the shimmy

61 The best in the world

62 Record points on debut

63 Wales’s first replacement player

64 The most-capped subs

65 The super sub

66 Home run

67 The indestructible JPR

68 Try-scoring full backs

69 Merve the Swerve

70 The team of all the talents

71 The changing value of the try – part I

72 The Duke

73 The Viet Gwent

74 A fixture at tight-head

75 The crowning years

76 The early bath

77 The fifty club

78 Winner takes all

79 A double record-holder

80 The dropped goal king

81 Rugby World Cup record

82 The record points-scorer

83 The points machine I

84 The points machine II

85 The changing value of the try – part II

86 Highest scores and record margins

87 Wales’s longest-serving international player

88 Record defeats

89 Opening the new stadium

90 The Great Entertainer

91 The top try-scorers

92 Wales’s oldest try-scorer

93 The unique dropped goal

94 Getting the monkey off their backs

95 The Hundred Club

96 Babes in arms

97 Wales’s youngest try-scorers

98 Warren Gatland’s Grand Slam record

99 Welsh head coaches

100

101 The international record

Acknowledgements

I am indebted to John Jenkins, Howard Evans and Tony Lewis, three longstanding Welsh friends, for making freely available the fruits of their research into Welsh rugby. Cuttings from the Western Mail, Wales’s national daily, have also been a constant source of reference and I am indebted to their former rugby correspondents, notably John Billot, JBG Thomas and WJ Hoare for the accuracy with which they reported Welsh international rugby. But above all, thank you to the 1151 players capped by Wales since 1881: without them there would be no book.

Introduction

Welsh rugby fans have never had it so good. As this pocket guide goes to press, the national side is enjoying a record run of successive victories and occupies its highest standing, to date, in the official rankings calculated by World Rugby, the sport’s governing body.

So is the class of 2019 the best Welsh team of all time? That debate will be a part of rugby chat in pubs and clubs throughout the Principality as Warren Gatland’s team prepares for the Rugby World Cup in Japan later this year.

As the only perspective on the present is the past, this collection might help inform the arguments. In a distillation of 101 facts and stats, famous characters and matches, I have set out to capture the achievements and some of the disappointments of the national side from its modest entry to Test rugby in February 1881 to the joy of its recent Grand Slam triumph in Cardiff in March 2019.

The choice of what to include is mine and inevitably others will have different views. ‘How could you leave out Percy Bush or Dai Watkins?’ will be the cry from Cardiff and Newport. Or the million who claim to have been there might ask why accounts of Wales beating England at Wembley in 1999 and Cardiff in 2013 are omitted. Readers can suggest alternatives, but in the meantime here is my selection of the 101 men, matches and moments that stand out from more than 138 years of Welsh rugby.

The statistics go up to 31st March, 2019

1

FAMOUS FIRSTS

The people’s game

It was probably near Newport (Mon) that the Romans, during their western raids, first unveiled to the people of South Wales a game that resembled rugby. Then, in medieval times, West Wales was a stronghold of the mob game known as cnapan, which featured handling and kicking between two teams of mauling, brawling masses and which, with modifications, survived into the early 19th century. So when the Rugby School code of football was introduced to South Wales by students, teachers and doctors returning from English institutions where the game was practised, its distinctive feature of running with the ball struck a chord with young Welshmen.

Rugby football had established a foothold in Welsh schools and colleges before, in 1866, the first competitive match on Welsh soil was staged at Lampeter in rural West Wales, the participants being the local St David’s College and Llandovery College, Wales’s leading public school. Welsh scholars departing their cloistered confines subsequently assumed the lead role in spreading the game. The rapid industrialisation of South Wales, moreover, was the driving force of a population explosion that brought English, Scots and Irish to the area to support the native workforce in the coalfields and furnaces. Many joined with students and clerical workers supporting the heavy industries to establish the rugby clubs that sprouted in the 1870s, helping rugby football become the game of the Welsh people by the end of the decade.

2

FAMOUS FIRSTS

An Aussie captain

Newport were the leading Welsh rugby club of the late 1870s and early 1880s and it was a Newport initiative taken by their ambitious secretary, Richard Mullock, that led to Wales placing her first international fifteen on the field. Newport were affiliated to the Rugby Football Union and Mullock persuaded the RFU’s grandees to grant the Principality a fixture with England for the 1880/81 season. Mullock took it upon himself to raise the team.

The first Welsh captain chosen by Mullock was Australian-born James Alfred Bevan, who stares out from the team group photo for that encounter with England at Blackheath in 1881 wearing the red jersey and Prince of Wales feathers that became the permanent emblem of Welsh rugby fifteens. Bevan had first seen the light of day in St Kilda in Victoria on 15th April 1858 but was sent to the Welsh marches to be educated at Hereford Cathedral School after he was orphaned as a child. The future captain was a gifted sportsman who excelled at cricket, golf and rugby, winning Cambridge Blues in 1877 and 1880. But his single match in charge of the Welsh rugby team proved an utter disaster, the Principality suffering a humiliating defeat by seven goals, six tries and a dropped goal to nil – an 82–0 hiding in today’s money.

3

Leading the dragon

All told, 137 men have worn the captain’s armband since Wales made their inauspicious entry to international rugby in 1881.

Name

First captaincy

JA Bevan

19 Feb 1881

CP Lewis

28 Jan 1882

HJ Simpson

12 Apr 1884

CH Newman

3 Jan 1885

FE Hancock

9 Jan 1886

R Gould

26 Feb 1887

TJS Clapp

12 Mar 1887

AF Hill

22 Dec 1888

AJ Gould

2 Mar 1889

WA Bowen

3 Jan 1891

WH Thomas

7 Feb 1891

WJ Bancroft

18 Mar 1898

EG Nicholls

11 Jan 1902

TWR Pearson

10 Jan 1903

GL Lloyd

7 Feb 1903

W Llewellyn

6 Feb 1904

RM Owen

12 Jan 1907

WJ Trew

2 Feb 1907

RT Gabe

9 Mar 1907

AF Harding

18 Jan 1908

G Travers

1 Feb 1908

E Morgan

2 Mar 1908

HB Winfield

14 Mar 1908

RA Gibbs

12 Mar 1910

JL Williams

28 Feb 1911

J Bancroft

9 Mar 1912

TH Vile

25 Mar 1912

JP Jones

8 Mar 1913

Rev JA Davies

17 Jan 1914

G Stephens

21 Apr 1919

H Uzzell

17 Jan 1920

JJ Wetter

15 Jan 1921

T Parker

26 Feb 1922

JMC Lewis

20 Jan 1923

A Jenkins

10 Mar 1923

J Rees

19 Jan 1924

J Whitfield

2 Feb 1924

R Harding

27 Mar 1924

TAW Johnson

17 Jan 1925

S Morris

7 Feb 1925

RA Cornish

28 Feb 1925

WI Jones

14 Mar 1925

WJ Delahay

5 Apr 1926

BR Turnbull

15 Jan 1927

BO Male

5 Feb 1927

WC Powell

26 Feb 1927

IE Jones

26 Nov 1927

WG Morgan

2 Feb 1929

HM Bowcott

18 Jan 1930

JA Bassett

8 Mar 1930

WG Thomas

21 Jan 1933

JR Evans

20 Jan 1934

C Davey

3 Feb 1934

JI Rees

18 Jan 1936

W Wooller

3 Apr 1937

CW Jones

15 Jan 1938

H Tanner

18 Jan 1947

WE Tamplin

20 Dec 1947

JA Gwilliam

21 Jan 1950

J Matthews

7 Apr 1951

BL Williams

7 Feb 1953

JRG Stephens

16 Jan 1954

WR Willis

27 Mar 1954

KJ Jones

10 Apr 1954

CI Morgan

21 Jan 1956

MC Thomas

19 Jan 1957

RCC Thomas

4 Jan 1958

RH Williams

16 Jan 1960

BV Meredith

6 Feb 1960

DO Brace

12 Mar 1960

TJ Davies

3 Dec 1960

LH Williams

25 Mar 1961

DCT Rowlands

19 Jan 1963

AEI Pask

15 Jan 1966

D Watkins

11 Mar 1967

NR Gale

11 Nov 1967

GO Edwards

3 Feb 1968

SJ Dawes

9 Mar 1968

B Price

1 Feb 1969

DJ Lloyd

15 Jan 1972

WD Thomas

2 Dec 1972

AJL Lewis

20 Jan 1973

TM Davies

18 Jan 1975

P Bennett

15 Jan 1977

TJ Cobner

11 Jun 1978

TGR Davies

17 Jun 1978

JPR Williams

11 Nov 1978

J Squire

19 Jan 1980

SP Fenwick

1 Nov 1980

WG Davies

5 Dec 1981

ET Butler

5 Feb 1983

MJ Watkins

4 Feb 1984

TD Holmes

2 Mar 1985

DF Pickering

17 Jan 1986

RD Moriarty

12 Jun 1986

WJ James

4 Apr 1987

J Davies

3 Jun 1987

B Bowen

7 Nov 1987

RL Norster

28 May 1988

PH Thorburn

21 Jan 1989

RN Jones

4 Nov 1989

KH Phillips

2 Jun 1990

IC Evans

4 Sep 1991

GO Llewellyn

22 May 1993

MR Hall

27 May 1995

JM Humphreys

2 Sep 1995

NG Davies

25 Sep 1996

IS Gibbs

11 Jan 1997

RG Jones

5 Jul 1997

P John

19 Jul 1997

R Howley

7 Feb 1998

KP Jones

27 Jun 1998

D Young

5 Feb 2000

M Taylor

11 Nov 2000

LS Quinnell

26 Nov 2000

AP Moore

10 Jun 2001

CL Charvis

6 Apr 2002

ME Williams

8 Mar 2003

G Thomas

16 Aug 2003

SM Jones

23 Aug 2003

DWMM Davies

27 Aug 2003

MJ Owen

13 Mar 2005

DJ Jones

11 Jun 2006

DJ Peel

9 Sep 2007

GD Jenkins

24 Nov 2007

RP Jones

2 Feb 2008

A-W Jones

14 Mar 2009

M Rees

6 Nov 2010

SK Warburton

4 Jun 2011

BS Davies

8 Jun 2013

MS Williams

8 Aug 2015

DJ Lydiate

19 Mar 2016

JH Roberts

16 Jun 2017

TT Faletau

11 Mar 2018

EL Jenkins

2 Jun 2018

CL Hill

9 Jun 2018

JJV Davies

9 Feb 2019