Gowerton: A conveyor belt of talent for Wales
Brendan Gallagher continues his series looking at rugby’s great schools
AS YOU might expect in such a rugby-daft area many great players have been spawned by Gowerton school in its various guises – county grammar school and then comprehensive – but the conveyor belt of top-quality talent didn’t get under-way until after World War 1 when lock Gwyn Francis became their first international.
Francis won a Blue at Oxford in 1919, the same year he was capped against the New Zealand Services XV, and was then one of the many Welsh schoolmasters who made their life over the border in England. He became master in charge of rugby at Reading school, helped found the Berkshire Union and was a stalwart player with both London Welsh and Surrey.
After retiring as a player he reffed locally for nearly 30 years and to this day the Gwyn Francis award is presented to the Berkshire club which, voted for secretly by all Berkshire refs, displayed the best hospitality to them during the season.
The formidable Rowe Harding – star of the first XV and head boy – was a notable Gowerton product in the 1920s, both on the field and in the classroom. He won 17 caps, played for the 1924 Lions in three Tests and was a key man for four years in one of the most noted Cambridge University back divisions ever, captaining the side in 1927.
Harding was another to strengthen the ranks of London Welsh and, after retiring at the age of 28, became a judge on the southern circuit as well as an acerbic commentator on the game.
The most enduring and endearing story in the Gowerton canon remains the day that pupils Haydyn Tanner and his cousin Willie Davies inspired a famous Swansea win over the All Blacks. It was September 28, 1935, and the dynamic duo had already represented Wales Youth in tandem earlier that year and, both aged 18, were still pupils at the school, starring for the first XV and enjoying occasional run-outs with the Swansea senior side.
Swansea wanted them for their game against Jack Manchester’s All Blacks at St Helen’s and a club delegation was sent to the school to argue that they would come to no harm. Quite how they could guarantee that is not recorded. The school relented and what unfolded was the stuff of dreams, a sensational 11-3 win on a wet, dirty afternoon with 35,000 fans roaring the Swansea team home.
Afterwards Manchester beseeched the travelling media to inform New Zealand that they had been fairly beaten by Swansea but could they omit the fact that two schoolboys were their chief tormentors.
A few weeks later Tanner, whose pass was a thing of wonder even with the heavier leather balls, was at it again, starring for Wales in their win over the All Blacks. Not once was he dropped by Wales between 1935 and the last of his 25 caps in 1949. What might he have achieved save for the War.
Bleddyn Williams certainly rated him as the best Wales scrum-half he either played with or against or reported on in nearly 30 years in the Press box – and that included Gareth Edwards.
As for Davies, he was described by Howard Marshall in the Daily Telegraph the following morning as “a sprite with the touch of genius, that instinctive eye for the opening which marks the perfectly balanced, and with change of pace and direction sufficient to carry him through the smallest gap like an elusive ghost”.
What an interesting and varied career he enjoyed after completing his studies at Gowerton.
Initially the immortal Cliff Jones held sway at ten for Wales but Davies picked up a smattering of caps before making the place his own in the 1939 Five Nations when he was ever present. His dropped goal against Ireland that year was the last four point dropped goal in the Championship’s history.
After getting married he moved north, playing professionally for Bradford Northern and Great Britain and training as a teacher at Carnegie College before taking a post at Bingley GS. During the War, when serving in the RAF, he skippered a Combined Services
Rugby League side to a 15-10 victory over a Combined Services Union XV in a charity game at Odsal Stadium, Bradford.
In 1946 he toured Australia and New Zealand with the GB League squad, playing in the final Test against the Kiwis while with Bradford he won two Challenge Cup finals, taking the Lance Todd man of the match trophy in 1947 after inspiring an 8-4 win over Leeds.
After the war two near Gowerton contemporaries took centre stage, Lewis Jones and Onllwyn Brace. Jones was a sportsman of almost comic book brilliance and lustre, excelling at every sport to which he turned his attention at school, before rugby demanded his full attention. While at school he was capped by Welsh Schools and also developed his distinctive double hitch-kick, a sort or early version of what David Campese performed years later.
It was in his first full season of senior rugby with Llanelli, having first appeared occasionally for Neath, that Jones made his Wales debut at the
age of 18 against England. It nearly didn’t happen, he was doing his national service with the navy and was days away from departing for a tour of duty to Hong Kong on an aircraft carrier, when a
rugby-loving senior officer realised that
his young charge was in the running for a Test call and countermanded the order.
There was drama again later that year when the injury ravaged Lions in New Zealand called up the precocious Jones who flew to the other side of the world asap, thus becoming the first Lion to travel south by aeroplane. On arrival he scored 63 points in seven games in New Zealand and played in both Tests in Australia, scoring 16 points against the Aussies in Brisbane.
Jones was the hottest property in rugby and in 1952, having claimed a second Grand Slam with Wales, he went north signing for Leeds for a then world record fee of £6,000. After an initial season ruined by a broken arm Jones was a major and enduring success in Rugby League scoring 2920 points in 385 games for Leeds, including 144 tries, and winning 15 caps with Great Britain where he weighed in with 150 points.
The other big name for Gowerton around this era was Onllwyn Brace, 18 months younger, who played both scrum-half and flyhalf at school although it was at scrum-half that he made his mark before winning four Oxford Blues, forming a noted half-back partnership with future England cricket captain M J K Smith.
Brace won nine Wales caps with 1956 his best season when they narrowly missed out on the
Slam but rugby could not command his full attention and after retiring he moved into the media world and was to succeed Cliff Morgan – alongside whom he had made his Wales debut in 1956 – as head of BBC Wales Sport. His department was at the forefront of developing Five Nations coverage and much of what we now take for granted was developed during his period in charge.
Another Gowerton product and Welsh Schools cap to follow that duo was Wales and Llanelli prop Norman Gale who won 25 caps between 1960 and 1969. He captained Wales twice and also claimed the distinction of being the last hooker to kick a penalty in a T1 Test match landing one against the 1967 All Blacks when he captained Wales at Cardiff Arms Park.
More recently as a comprehensive, with Rob Evans an inspirational head of PE, and long standing master in charge of rugby Dean Mason proving a wonderful mentor, Gowerton produced a series of cracking sides with a number of star players learning their trade at the school.
Not least among these were Dan Biggar and Liam Williams while Keelan Giles and Sam Davies were also young stars who shone brightly. Biggar and Davies lived in the same street and were continually compared with each other as they developed as players.