Dick Thomas (rugby union)

Dick Thomas

Full name	Edward John Richard Thomas
Date of birth	(1883-10-14)14 October 1883
Place of birth	Wales
Date of death	7 July 1916(1916-07-07) (aged 32)
Place of death	France
School	Ferndale Board School
Rugby union career
Playing career
Position	Back
Amateur clubs
Years	Club / team
	Ferndale RFC Penygraig RFC Bridgend RFC Mountain Ash RFC Glamorgan Police RFC Glamorgan County Monmouthshire County
National team(s)
Years	Club / team	Caps	(points)
1906-1909	Wales[1]	4	(0)

Edward John Richard 'Dick' Thomas (14 October 1883 – 7 July 1916) was a Welsh international rugby union back who played club rugby for Mountain Ash.

Rugby career

Thomas first played rugby for local Rhondda clubs, Ferndale and Penygraig before moving to Mountain Ash, the team he would captain during the 1904/05 season.^[2] He faced his first international opposition when he was chosen to represent Glamorgan, an invitational county team that faced the touring South Africans in 1906. Glamorgan played well but lost 6-3 though if Bert Winfield had completed his kicks the Welsh would have won. Thomas would gain his first cap later that year, when a Welsh team was formed to face the same South African team. Thomas, along with the other newly capped players, John Dyke and John Jenkins were judged not to show great ability, but were far superior to the other non-capped players available.^[3] Wales lost the game, which saw the end of many great Welsh players.

Unlike Dyke and Jenkins, Thomas was reselected for his country again, but he needed to wait until the 1908 Home Nations Championship, when he was chosen to face France at the Cardiff Arms Park. Under the captaincy of Teddy Morgan Wales were victorious, as they were two weeks later when Thomas won his third cap against Ireland in Belfast. Thomas's last game was the following year in a match against Scotland. Billy Trew not only led the team but scored the winning try which Jack Bancroft converted.

International games played

Wales^[4]

•  France 1908
•  Ireland 1908
•  Scotland 1909
•  South Africa 1906

Later life

During World War I, Thomas was posted to France as a member of the 38th (Welsh) Infantry Division, 16th Battalion, and as a Company Sergeant Major was killed in action in the taking of Mametz Woods. He is commemorated at the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme.^[5] Another Welsh international died in the same military action, wing player Johnnie Williams.

Bibliography

• Billot, John (1974). Springboks in Wales. Ferndale: Ron Jones Publications. 
• Smith, David; Williams, Gareth (1980). Fields of Praise: The Official History of The Welsh Rugby Union. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. ISBN 0-7083-0766-3. 

References