Thomas won his only Welsh cap (No 633) in the 9-0 win over Ireland in the 1961 Five Nations championship in Cardiff, although he did pay in the Wales XV victory over Fiji at the Arms Park in 1964. In that game he scored two of the seven Welsh tries.
David Lynn Thomas was born on 29 April, 1941 in Pontrhydyfen, near Port Talbot, and learned his rugby at Duffryn Grammar School. He won Wales Under 15 caps against South of Scotland and England in 1956.
He studied at Bridgend Technical College and went on to be civil engineer. He launched his senor rugby career with Maesteg before joining Aberavon, for whom he scored 92 tries between 1957-1968.
A centre who was equally at home on the wing, he played for the combined Neath-Aberavon side against South Africa (1961) and New Zealand (1963).He was also a mainstay in the Wizards’ side that won the unofficial Western Mail Championship for the only time in 1960/61, when they won 40 of their 48 games and drew four more.
His Welsh debut came in the third round of the 1961 Five Nations when Cardiff centre Cyril Davies was ruled out with an injury. Morgan stepped in to join Meirion Roberts in the Welsh midfield and played soundly in his side’s second win in three games to give them a shot at the title in Paris against the French.
But even though Wales beat the Irish 9-0, it was a game that failed to capture the imagination and led to the ‘Big Five’ selection committee making sweeping changes for the final round visit to Stade Colombes. Ken Richards scored all the Welsh points with two penalties and a try.
This was how the Daily Telegraph rugby correspondent summed up the Welsh victory that day:
Not for a long time, at the highest level, has there been a game of such lack of purpose and urgency. It mauled and sprawled in fits and starts all over the field in the manner of a flock of sheep with no dog to guide it. A Welsh crowd of 60,000 is as good a judge of Rugby football as most; so that to hear them express themselves with the slow handclap was as disconcerting as it was rare. Moreover, a deadly silence when their team had a clear winning lead towards the end, instead of the usual instinctive burst into battle hymns of victory, spoke for itself. It was as though they had almost developed a guilt complex and in truth the final margin was ridiculous.
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Wales made seven changes, dropping the skipper Onllwyn Brace and record breaking hooker Bryn Meredith, and introduced Thomas’ Aberavon clubmate John Collins on the wing as one of four alterations to the back line. A place was left open at centre for Cyril Davies once again, but when he failed to recover in time it was Swansea’s Haydn Mainwaring who got the call to win his one and only cap ahead of Thomas.
He came back into the national frame in 1964 when Fiji toured south Wales and France. In one of the most remarkable games seen at the old Arms Park, Wales outscored their visitors by seven tries to six to win 28-22.
Thomas scored a try in each half as Wales, making the most of having an extra man from early in the first-half when the Fijians lost a second row to injury, went into a 28-3 lead with 10 minutes to go. But the south sea islanders hit back with a flurry of four tries that finally cut the gap to six points.
In later life he became the commercial manager at Aberavon RFC and served as club chairman in the 1996-97 and 1997-98 seasons. His son, Gareth, also played for Aberavon.
The WRU sends heartfelt condolences to David’s family and friends.
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