David "Tarw" Jones (1881– 21 January 1933) (also known as Dai Jones) was a Welsh
dual-code international rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...
and
rugby league
Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...
footballer. He was a member of the winning
Welsh team who beat the 1905 touring
All Blacks
The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987, ...
in a game considered one of the greatest in the history of rugby union.
Jones is the only Welsh player to have been part of a team to have beaten the All Blacks in the union and league game
and is the second
dual-code international rugby player from the Northern Hemisphere.
David Jones gained his nickname Tarw (Welsh for bull) from his imposing stature; standing at 6’1'’ and weighing almost 16 stone. A
collier from
Aberaman
Aberaman is a village near Aberdare in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, south Wales. It was heavily dependent on the coal industry and the population, as a result, grew rapidly in the late nineteenth century. Most of the industry has now ...
who later became a policeman before becoming a collier once more, he played club rugby as a forward for
Treherbert RFC
Treherbert Rugby Football Club is a Welsh rugby union team based in Tynewydd in the Rhondda Valley. Treherbert RFC play home games in red shirts with black shorts and black socks. Today, Treherbert RFC plays in the Welsh Rugby Union Division Four ...
[Smith (1980), pg 136.] and then later
Aberdare, before switching back to Treherbert. In his later life he was caught in a scandal which saw him banned from rugby union and forced his switch to rugby league.
Personal history
Jones was born in
Tynewydd
Tynewydd is a village located in the County Borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, south Wales. With Treherbert, Blaencwm, Blaenrhondda and Pen-yr-englyn it is part of a Community (Wales), community of Treherbert. The village lies in the former industrial ...
, a small village in the
Rhondda Valley
Rhondda , or the Rhondda Valley ( cy, Cwm Rhondda ), is a former coalmining area in South Wales, historically in the county of Glamorgan. It takes its name from the River Rhondda, and embraces two valleys – the larger Rhondda Fawr valley ...
in 1881, to Griffiths Jones and his wife Catherine. Jones was the middle child of five, and like his father before him, became a coal miner.
Jones later managed to find employment outside the tough world of mining, becoming a police officer. Reports exist during his period as an officer which help to explain his unconventional character, both on and off the pitch. One story is told that while serving as a police officer in Treherbert he became annoyed with an
inspector, Jones reportedly removed his tunic, grabbed hold of the inspector and forcibly ejected him from the station.
[Richards (1980), p. 109] Another occasion saw him disciplined by the police force for selling
raffle
A raffle is a gambling competition in which people obtain numbered tickets, each of which has the chance of winning a prize. At a set time, the winners are drawn at random from a container holding a copy of each number. The drawn tickets are che ...
tickets while still on duty.
[Richards (1980), p. 110]
After leaving professional rugby Jones became a publican and ran two pubs; the Eagle Hotel in
Aberdare, and the Castle Hotel in Treherbert. He would later fight in World War I as a member of the
Welsh Guards
The Welsh Guards (WG; cy, Gwarchodlu Cymreig), part of the Guards Division, is one of the Foot Guards regiments of the British Army. It was founded in 1915 as a single-battalion regiment, during the First World War, by Royal Warrant of George V. ...
but was wounded badly at the Battle of the Somme, leaving injuries that affected his health throughout the rest of his life.
[Smith (1980), p. 163] In 1933 David Jones died in Aberdare, South Wales.
Rugby union career
Jones was one of a line of players chosen from clubs in the South Wales valleys to bolster the Welsh forward pack. His first international game was at the age of 20 against
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
[Davies (1980), p. 136] after impressing during a trial at Treherbert in 1901
[Thomas (1979), p. 36] and he would represent Wales on another twelve occasions. Jones was a powerful man with a heavy tackle and was used as an impact player; although recognised as a lock forward his international career saw him play in several positions including one game where he was given the number 8 shirt against Ireland in 1905. Jones was part of a very successful Welsh team and was part of two Triple Crown winning sides.
![Wales Rugby1905](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Wales_Rugby1905.jpg)
The greatest moment in Jones' international career came in 1905 when he was chosen to face
'The Original' All Blacks in the famous ''
Match of the Century'' Test match. The All Blacks had already played 27 games without loss, defeating the best British county and club teams as well as the England, Scottish and Irish national teams. Wales were the present
Triple Crown
Triple Crown may refer to:
Sports Horse racing
* Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing
* Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing (United States)
** Triple Crown Trophy
** Triple Crown Productions
* Canadian Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing
* Tri ...
holders and undefeated in the last year and the game was built into a major contest by the press, some going as far as calling it ''The Game of the Century''. Although reported as limping earlier in the week, Jones played his part in a hard-fought game, and along with
Arthur Harding
Arthur Flowers Harding (8 August 1878 – 15 May 1947) was an English-born international rugby union player who played for and captained the Wales national team. Often called 'Boxer' Harding, he was a member of the Wales team for the famous '' ...
followed a clear tactical game to give Wales a clear advantage. The All Blacks had proven incredibly strong in their previous games in their scrummage tactics, using seven men instead of the usual eight, but using a wedge formation to force their opponents back and then use the additional man to great advantage when the ball was eventually released. Harding had played the All Blacks earlier in the tour, when he faced them with county side Middlesex, and this insight may have explained the Welsh tactic. The Welsh also used a seven-man scrummage pack, but with Jones and Harding staying mobile behind the pack switching sides to prevent the wedge push. The Welsh would eventually win by the narrowest of margins, 3–0.
Five days after facing New Zealand for Wales, Jones was selected to face the same touring side as part of the
Glamorgan County team. The county team was poorly represented, as several players from the victorious Wales team had promised to play but eventually dropped out, until only Jones,
Will Joseph and
Jack Williams remained. The team played well, with some excellent play from
Cardiff
Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...
's
Reggie Gibbs. Jones himself was at the centre of two excellent moves; winning a line out and then placing an overhead punt, which Billy Pullen failed to handle correctly at the try line; and his own charge to the line which was just brought short of a try.
[Billot (1972), pg 35.] Glamorgan eventually lost three tries to nil.
Jones would play his last rugby union game for Wales against
South Africa in 1906. As part of the Glamorgan County side, Jones had played very well in the team's narrow defeat by the South Africans; but in the international he looked tired and ragged, and his normal excellent scrummaging was poor. He retired from the field early, his Wales union career over at the age of just 25.
International rugby union matches
Wales
[Smith (1980), pg 467.]
* 1902, 1903, 1905, 1906
* 1902, 1903, 1905
* 1905
* 1902, 1903, 1905, 1906
*
1906
Events
January–February
* January 12 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: A nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar to grant a constitution, ...
Rugby scandal
After Jones' international career he would find himself caught up in a scandal surrounding professionalism. Jones was thought to have returned to Treherbert after his weekly payment from Aberdare was cut from 10 to 5 shillings. An ex-secretary of Aberdare told the press that Jones had received payment from the club, which was against amateur union rules. In 1907, after an investigation from the
Welsh Rugby Union, Jones was banned from playing rugby union for life.
[Smith (1980), pg 180.]
Dual rugby code international
After being banned from playing under union rules, Jones joined professional league team
Merthyr Tydfil RLFC, and made national representative appearances for
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
in rugby league. His appearance in the first ever full international played against a visiting southern hemisphere side – the New Year's Day 1908 Test against the
All Golds at
Aberdare saw him become Wales', and the Northern Hemisphere's second dual-code rugby international, just three years after fellow
Rhondda
Rhondda , or the Rhondda Valley ( cy, Cwm Rhondda ), is a former coal mining, coalmining area in South Wales, historically in the county of Glamorgan. It takes its name from the River Rhondda, and embraces two valleys – the larger Rhondda Fa ...
player
Jack Rhapps. Played on a near frozen pitch, the game was a close match, with Jones scoring a try just minutes before the final whistle, which gave Wales the victory.
[Haynes (2007), pg 142.] This result made Jones the first player to play in winning teams against New Zealand under both league and union codes.
On 25 January, just over three weeks later, Jones faced the New Zealand All Golds again, this time representing the
Great Britain team.
[Haynes (2007), pg 146.] Jones was the only representative from a Welsh club in the British team, with the game played at
Headingley
Headingley is a suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, approximately two miles out of the city centre, to the north west along the A660 road. Headingley is the location of the Beckett Park campus of Leeds Beckett University and Headingley ...
in Leeds. The British were victorious, 14–6, and Jones was reselected for the second test against the New Zealand team on 8 February. Great Britain lost the second test, and Jones was not a part of the British team for the third and final test.
Jones finished his international rugby league career just a few months later when he represented Wales for a second and final time in a 35–18 win over England.
Bibliography
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References
External links
Great Britain Statistics at englandrl.co.uk (statistics currently missing due to not having appeared for both Great Britain, and England)The All Golds
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, David
1881 births
1933 deaths
Aberdare RFC players
Glamorgan Police officers
British Army personnel of World War I
Dual-code rugby internationals
Glamorgan County RFC players
Glamorgan Police RFC players
Great Britain national rugby league team players
Merthyr Tydfil RLFC players
Publicans
Rugby league hookers
Rugby league players from Treherbert
Rugby union players from Treherbert
Treherbert RFC players
Wales international rugby union players
Wales national rugby league team players
Welsh Guards soldiers
Welsh miners
Welsh police officers
Welsh rugby league players
Welsh rugby union players