The former Cardiff College of Education, Crumlin, Ebbw Vale, Monmouthshire and Barbarians back row forward won six Welsh caps and also toured with the 1962 British & Irish Lions in South Africa.
In 1967, he became Wales’ first honorary national coach, his appointment following hot on the heels of the Union’s decision to install Ray Williams as the first Coaching Organiser three months earlier. It was a real statement of intent by the governing body in Wales after they had been left clutching the Wooden Spoon at the end of the Five Nations championship that year.
Cliff Jones, as chairman of the WRU Coaching Sub-Committee, and then Alun Thomas in his wake, had pushed hard for a full time appointment within the coaching sphere of the game and the installation of Nash as coach to the Welsh XV was a second major step. In September, 1967, the Selection Committee, known as the Big Five, won the unanimous approval of the General Committee to nominate three honorary coaches.
Nash was given the Welsh job for the season, Carwyn James was given the task of coaching the West Wales XV to take on the touring New Zealanders and Dai Hayward was handed the same role with the East Wales XV. Monmouthshire appointed David Harries for their game against the All Blacks.
Nash was named as a selector, a massive step given he was not a member of the General Committee, and was then put in charge of the 25 strong national squad. He was able to gather his squad in advance of fixtures and his first game in charge was against New Zealand on 11 October, 1967.
Wales lost that game 13-3 and went on to draw at Twickenham and then beat Scotland to finish fourth in the 1968 Five Nations Championship. But Nash’s tenure as Wales coach was a short one due largely to a controversial decision at the time by the General Committee when it met on the Thursday before the Ireland v Wales game in Dublin.
The main item on the agenda was the appointment of an honorary manager and his assistant for the upcoming tour to Argentina. The selectors put forward a strong case for the National Coach to go on the tour as the assistant manager, but their appeal was rejected out of hand.
The President, Glyn Morgan, accepted the role as Honorary Tour Manager and Harry Bowcott, one of the Big Five, was appointed as his assistant. Bowcott was not at the meeting and consulted his selectorial colleagues before accepting the post.
As a result of the General Committee’s decision, the chairman of selectors resigned, so too did Alun Thomas, Chairman of the Coaching Sub-Committee. Nash quickly followed suit.
This led to the clubs demanding the General Committee ‘think again’ when they met for the AGM in June. They did so and, by the end of the month, Clive Rowlands, who had been elected as a vice-president at the AGM, was named as the official coach for the tour to Argentina.
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Born in Markham on 15 July, 1939, Nash learned his rugby at Hafod-y-Ddol Grammar School, in Nantyglo, and was twice capped by the Welsh Secondary Schools in 1957 and 1958. In his final appearance, against England in the first appearance at that age level at Twickenham, he was part of a powerful pack that earned an 8-3 victory.
Alongside him in the Welsh pack were other future internationals in Brian Tomas, Roger Michaelson and John O’Shea. Fellow 1962 Lions tourists Ken Jones was at outside half and another future Welsh coach, John Ryan.
Having qualified as a school teacher from his days at Cyncoed, Nash went on to become the Director of Leisure at Blaenau Gwent Borough Council. His rugby career was cut short due to an illness he picked up on the 1962 Lions tour.
That restricted him to a mere two appearances on that tour after he had forced his way onto the trip with a strong showing in sixth and final Welsh appearance against France in 1962. His Welsh debut came in the 3-0 defeat to South Africa in 1960 and he played in all four games in the 1961 Five Nations.
Ebbw Vale paid their respects to their former player with a minute’s silence ahead of their Principality Premiership clash with Llandovery at Eugene Cross Park at the weekend. The Welsh Rugby Union sends its condolences to family and friends of David Nash.
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