Daniel Clive Thomas Rowlands OBE (14 May 1938 – 29 July 2023) was a Welsh

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

footballer and coach. Rowlands was born in Upper Cwmtwrch on 14 May 1938. As recorded in the preface for the book ''The Children of Craig-Y-Nos'', Rowlands was admitted in 1947, as an eight-year-old, to Craig-y-nos TB hospital in Breconshire. He was given a rugby ball as a gift and accidentally kicked it through a glass door, for which he was put in a straitjacket for a week. A teacher by profession, he played club rugby at scrum-half for Abercraf,

Pontypool Pontypool ( ) is a town and the administrative centre of the county borough of Torfaen, within the Historic counties of Wales, historic boundaries of Monmouthshire (historic), Monmouthshire in South Wales. , it has a population of 29,062. Locat ...

Llanelli ; ) is a market town and community (Wales), community in Carmarthenshire and the Preserved counties of Wales, preserved county of Dyfed, Wales. It is on the estuary of the River Loughor and is the largest town in the Principal areas of Wales, ...

and

Swansea Swansea ( ; ) is a coastal City status in the United Kingdom, city and the List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, second-largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of ...

. He captained Pontypool in the 1962–63 season, and captained Swansea in the 1967–1968 season Unusually, his first cap for

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

against

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in 1963 was as captain, a position which he retained for his next 13 caps between 1963 and 1965, leading Wales to their first Triple Crown victory since 1952. He captained Wales in every game he played including Wales' first match outside of Europe and its first in the Southern Hemisphere; played against

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on 12 May 1964, Wales winning 8-26. In the 1963 Five Nations match against

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, in wet and muddy conditions, Rowlands decided to kick for touch as many times as possible, with the result that there were 111 line-outs in the match and Wales outside-half David Watkins only touched the ball five times. Wales won 6-0 (including a drop goal from Rowlands, his only international points) but the

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eventually responded with a change in the laws in 1970, eliminating the gain in ground for kicks directly into touch from outside the team's own 22. After retiring as a player, Rowlands was coach of the Welsh national team for 29 matches between 1968 and 1974, becoming the youngest person to hold this position. This was a successful period for Wales, including a Grand Slam in 1971 and included the tour of

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in 1969. He was manager of the

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tour to

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in 1989, managed the British Isles team versus a rest-of-the-world team in 1986, and also managed Wales in the 1987 Rugby World Cup. He was President of the

Welsh Rugby Union The Welsh Rugby Union (WRU; ) is the governing body of rugby union in the country of Wales, recognised by the sport's international governing body, World Rugby. The WRU is responsible for the running of rugby in Wales, overseeing 320 member clu ...

in 1989. After recovering from cancer in the 1990s, Rowlands focused his attention on raising money for cancer charities. He died after a fall at home on 29 July 2023, at the age of 85.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rowlands, Clive 1938 births 2023 deaths Abercrave RFC players Llanelli RFC players Officers of the Order of the British Empire Pontypool RFC players Rugby union players from Swansea Rugby union scrum-halves Swansea RFC players Wales international rugby union players Wales national rugby union team coaches Wales rugby union captains Wales Rugby Union officials Welsh rugby union coaches Welsh rugby union players