Dai Young

David "Dai" Young (born 26 July 1967) is a Welsh former rugby union and rugby league player, presently Director of Rugby at Wasps RFC.

Born in Aberdare in 1967, Young lived in Penywaun for many years, and was regularly seen training with his father on the local sports field, now occupied by the Welsh-language school Ysgol Gyfun Rhydywaun.

Playing career

Young played rugby union at club level for Swansea and Cardiff. Having not been selected to play for Wales in the 1987 Rugby World Cup, Young, then 19, travelled to Australia for the summer to play for Northern Suburbs. When Stuart Evans broke his foot playing against Tonga, Young was on the right side of the world at the right time and was called up to the Welsh squad. He made his debut for Wales against England in the quarter-finals.

Young played rugby league for Leeds and Salford. When he moved to Leeds in 1990 his transfer fee was a then world record of £150,000 (based on increases in average earnings, this would be approximately £350,000 in 2013).^[1] He captained Wales in the 1995 Rugby League World Cup.^[2]

Young won 51 caps for the Wales national rugby union team, a record number for a prop, and three caps for the British Lions. He is the only man to have toured with the British Lions in three separate decades: 1989, 1997 and 2001.

Coaching career

Young became head coach of the Cardiff Blues in 2003, in which during his time in charge, led the side to the 2008–09 Heineken Cup semi-final and the final of the 2006–07 and 2007–08 Celtic League. In addition to this, he led to the team to the EDF Energy Cup title in 2009 beating Gloucester 50-12 in the final at Twickenham. In 2011 he resigned and was made Director of Rugby at London Wasps after payment of a compensation package.

Barbarians

Young was named as head coach for the Barbarians 2008 end of season tour against Belgium, Ireland and England. During this tour, he led the Baa Baa's to a single victory over Belgium, winning 84–10 in Brussels - The Barbarians lost 39–14 to Ireland and 17–14 to England. Young was again named as head coach for the Barbarians 2009 end of season tour, where the played England and Australia. On this occasion, he led the team to a 35–26 win over England, but lost to Australia 55–7 in Sydney. In 2011, he coached the team against England and Wales, where the Barbarians won both matches; 38–32 against England and 31–28 against Wales. This promoted his reassignment as Barbarians head coach for the match against the British and Irish Lions as part of their 2013 tour to Australia. The Barbarians lost 59–8, their largest deafest to an international side. .Ahead of this match, Young also coached the team to a 40–12 defeat to England at Twickenham.

References

External links

• Wales profile
• Statistics at espnscrum.com