Tom Dobson (1871 – 4 July 1937) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

-born rugby union forward who played club rugby for Cardiff and international rugby for Wales. His brother George Dobson was also a rugby player who represented Cardiff and Wales.

Rugby career

Dobson was born in the small fishing village of

Keiss Keiss ( gd, Cèis) is a fishing village at the northern end of Sinclair's Bay on the east coast of Caithness county in Scotland's Highland Council area. Keiss castle Keiss Castle, which is now partially ruined, is located less than 1 mile no ...

Caithness Caithness ( gd, Gallaibh ; sco, Caitnes; non, Katanes) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. Caithness has a land boundary with the historic county of Sutherland to the west and is otherwise bounded by ...

, Scotland, but by 1873 his family was living in the Pontypridd area of Wales. In the 1890s Dobson had moved to the Cardiff Docks area where he had become a coal trimmer.Parry-Jones, David; ''Prince Gwyn, Gwyn Nicholls and the First Golden Era of Welsh Rugby'' seren, Bridgend (1999) pg. 47, With the industrialisation of South Wales, heavy labourers began filling the forward positions in many Welsh club teams, and Dobson became part of the pack for

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 ...

, one of the Wales' most prominent teams. In

1898 Events January–March * January 1 – New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York as the world's second largest. The city is geographically divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, B ...

, Wales were readmitted into the Home Nations Championship after agreements were made to settle the Gould Affair. Dobson was one of seven new caps introduced into the Welsh team, and one of five in a vastly changed pack. Although the back positions were full of Cardiff players, Dobson was only supported by one teammate in the pack,

Fred Cornish Frederick Henry Cornish (1876 – 27 April 1940) was an English-born rugby union forward who played club rugby for Cardiff and international rugby for Wales. Cornish 'Went North' in 1899 switching to rugby league, joining Hull F.C.Jenkins (1991) ...

, who was only collecting his second cap that match. The game was played away against Ireland, and without Arthur Gould, Wales were now captained by experienced fullback Billy Bancroft. Bancroft was in good form during the match scoring a penalty goal and a conversion. Two tries were scored by Wales in an 11-3 win, one from Viv Huzzey and the other scored by Dobson himself; his first and only international score. After the win, Dobson was reselected in a near unchanged squad that faced and lost to England in the final match of the 1898 Championship. Dobson was back in the Wales squad the next year in the 1899 Championship, joined in the pack only by David Daniel and Willie Alexander from the previous season, the other five players all being new caps. The first game of the Championship was against England, and Dobson was part of the team that secured a record win over the English, with Welsh wing Willie Llewellyn scoring four tries. Dobson's final game was the Championship encounter with Scotland in 1899 which Wales lost 21-10.

International matches played for Wales

WalesSmith (1980), pg 465. * 1898,1899 * 1898 * 1899

Bibliography

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dobson, Tom 1871 births 1937 deaths Cardiff RFC players People from Caithness Rugby union forwards Rugby union players from Highland (council area) Scottish rugby union players Wales international rugby union players Welsh rugby union players