Ian John Watkins (born 10 March 1963 in

Ebbw Vale Ebbw Vale (; cy, Glynebwy) is a town at the head of the valley formed by the Ebbw Fawr tributary of the Ebbw River in Wales. It is the largest town and the administrative centre of Blaenau Gwent county borough. The Ebbw Vale and Brynmawr con ...

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

) is a former

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 its m ...

player whose senior position was at hooker. Watkins was capped ten times for Wales and played club rugby for

Ebbw Vale RFC Ebbw Vale Rugby Football Club ( cy, Clwb Rygbi Glyn Ebwy) is a Welsh Rugby Union Club based in the town of Ebbw Vale, Blaenau Gwent, South Wales. The club play in the Welsh Premiership and act as a feeder club for the Dragons regional team. ...

and

Cardiff RFC Cardiff Rugby Football Club ( cy, Clwb Rygbi Caerdydd) is a rugby union club based in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. The club was founded in 1876Parry-Jones (1989), pg 59 and played their first few matches at Sophia Gardens, shortly after ...

. He also played invitational rugby for the Barbarians.

History

Watkins was educated at Glyncoed Comprehensive and Ebbw Vale Senior Comprehensive where he played at scrum-half and centre. He began his club career with RTB Ebbw Vale Youth RFC where he swapped his position to hooker. Whilst still playing youth rugby he moved to Ebbw Vale RFC senior team. He was first selected for the Wales international team during the

1988 Five Nations Championship The 1988 Five Nations Championship was the 59th series of the rugby union Five Nations Championship. Including the previous incarnations as the Home Nations and Five Nations, this was the ninety–fourth series of the northern hemisphere rugby unio ...

, coming on as a replacement. His first starting international came two weeks later when he faced

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

at the National Stadium in

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 ...

, in which Watkins scored his only international points with a

try Try or TRY may refer to: Music Albums * ''Try!'', an album by the John Mayer Trio * ''Try'' (Bebo Norman album) (2014) Songs * "Try" (Blue Rodeo song) (1987) * "Try" (Colbie Caillat song) (2014) * "Try" (Nelly Furtado song) (2004) * " Try (Ju ...

. In total Watkins played ten internationals all between 1988 and 1989. After playing in all four games of the 1988 Championship, in which Wales won the Triple Crown, he was part of the Wales team that undertook a disastrous

tour of New Zealand The Women's Tour of New Zealand is a stage race A race stage, leg, or heat is a unit of a race that has been divided in several parts for the reason such as length of the distance to be covered, as in a multi-day event. Usually, such a race co ...

in the summer of that year. Watkins played in the first Test at

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

, which

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

won 54-9. In December 1989 he was selected to face

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

on their tour of

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

. Wales lost 15-9. His final international games were all four games of the

1989 Five Nations Championship The 1989 Five Nations Championship was the 60th series of the rugby union Five Nations Championship. Including the previous incarnations as the Home Nations and Five Nations, this was the 95th series of the northern hemisphere rugby union champion ...

losing the first three opening games against

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

and

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, before defeating

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 ...

in the last encounter of the tournament. Troubled by injuries, Watkins found it difficult to challenge for the Wales hooker position later in his career.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Watkins, Ian 1963 births Living people Barbarian F.C. players Cardiff RFC players Ebbw Vale RFC players Rugby union hookers Rugby union players from Ebbw Vale Wales international rugby union players Welsh rugby union players