David Watkins (rugby)

David Watkins MBE (born 5 March 1942 in Blaina, Wales)^[1] is a British former dual-code rugby international, having played both rugby union and rugby league football for both codes' national teams between 1967 and 1983. He is the only player to have captained both the British and Irish Lions rugby union side and the Great Britain rugby league teams.^[2]

Playing career

Rugby union

Watkins joined Newport RFC in 1961-62 from Cwmcelyn Youth but played odd games for Ebbw Vale RFC and Pontypool RFC while still a youth. He became a Wales Youth International. He made his debut for Newport against Penarth RFC on 2 September 1961. In his first season with Newport RFC the team won the Welsh Championship. Watkins played for invitational team the Barbarians during his first season for Newport in 1962.

Watkins made his international debut in 1963, at the age of 20 for Wales against England partnering Clive Rowlands. He was a key figure in Newport's epic win over Whineray's 1963 New Zealand All Blacks. He was vice captain of Newport under Brian Price in 1963-64 and went on to captain them for three seasons 1964-65, 1965-66 and 1966-67. He set the club dropped goal record of 14 in 1966-67, in all he scored 228 points including 55 dropped goals for Newport. He never played on the losing side for Newport at sevens. In 1967 Watkins assembled his own team to enter the first ever Glengarth Sevens at Davenport Rugby Club where he won the main competition.

Watkins led the Lions in two tests in Australia in 1966. He set up position for Uzzell's drop goal and kicked a penalty to draw with Australia in 1966. He'd played 21 times for Wales (including the 1964-65 Triple Crown and was captain three times in 1967.

Wales [3]
Against	Years
England	1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967
Ireland	1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967
France	1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967
New Zealand	1963
Scotland	1963, 1964, 1965, 1966
South Africa	1964

Rugby league

In October 1967 Watkins signed to play rugby league, joining Salford for £15,000, a then club record. He was Salford's captain in 1967 and also in the Challenge Cup Final in 1969 when they were beaten by Castleford.

Watkins became Salford's record points scorer and steered them to victory in the Lancashire Cup Final in 1972 by beating Swinton at Wilderspool, Warrington. In the 1972–73 season he kicked a world record 221 goals in a season. He also holds the longest scoring run record in 92 consecutive matches for Salford from 19 August 1972 to 25 April 1974. He totalled 929 points from 41 tries and 403 goals. The record refers to scoring consecutively for one club and does not include representative matches. He led Salford to the Championship in 1974. Watkins retired after being injured on the 1974 Australasian tour.

Watkins came back to mastermind a win in the BBC2 Floodlit Cup Final against Warrington in 1975. He played in all eight of Wales' matches in the 1975 Rugby League World Cup tournament. For the 1975–76 Northern Rugby Football League season Salford won the Championship by finishing as League Leaders but lost the Premiership final. Watkins played for Salford at fullback, kicking two drop goals in the loss to St Helens RLFC. He finished that season as the League's top point scorer. Watkins' Testimonial match at Salford took place in 1977. Watkins retired having set Salford's "Most Career Points" record with 2,907 points,^[4] and is one of fewer than ten Welshmen to have scored more than 2,000 points in their rugby league career.^[5] Watkins' rugby league career ended in 1979 after playing for Swinton for a season. He'd also played six international rugby league matches against New Zealand, Australia and France, and both captained and coached Great Britain and Wales.

Coaching career

After he'd stopped playing Watkins coached rugby league. He was the Wales national team coach and also coached Great Britain, taking them to the final of the 1977 World Cup, which they lost by one point to the hosts, Australia.

Watkins coached in Wales for the Cardiff City club.

Administration

Watkins was appointed Newport RFC team manager in 1992-93 and later became the club's Chairman when he was awarded an MBE. In 2006 Watkins, along with Falklands War hero Simon Weston, was installed as a patron of the Welsh Rugby League at a ceremony held in the Welsh Assembly. He was managing director of the Cardiff City Blue Dragons. In 2009, Watkins took over the position of Crusaders president from Jonathan Davies.^[6]

References

External links

• Great Britain Statistics at englandrl.co.uk
• Statistics at rugbyleagueproject.org
• David Watkins at wru.co.uk
• David Watkins at wales.rleague.com
• Smethurst stars for Wigan
• Salford legend makes his debut
• Wasteful Wales Get A Roasting

v t e Wales squad - 1975 Rugby League World Cup (7/8) Peter Banner (4/8) John Bevan (3/8) Brian Butler (6/8) Kelvin "Kel" Coslett (4/8) Edward "Eddie" Cunningham (4/8) Colin Dixon (2/8) Richard "Dick" Evans (6/8) Anthony "Tony" Fisher (8/8) Bill Francis (2/8) Stuart Gallacher (3/8) Brian Gregory (1/8) Mel James (2/8) Clive Jones (8/8) John Mantle (7/8) Roy Mathias (5/8) 'Big' Jim Mills (3/8) Michael "Mick" Murphy (0/8) Michael "Mike" Nicholas (1/8) Maurice Richards (3/8) Peter Rowe (4/8) Clive Sullivan (4/8) David Treasure (4/8) Glyn Turner (1/8) Richard Wallace (3/8) Robert "Bobby" Wanbon (8/8) David Watkins (c) (6/8) David Willicombe (7/8) Frank Wilson Coaches: R. Simpson Coach Leslie "Les" Pearce (5/8), e.g. The Number of Games Played in the 1975 World Cup.