On this day 1882: Wales claim first international win

It was January 28, 1882, when Wales arrived at Lansdowne Road a man short. They drafted in Hugh (later Sir Hugh – more on that later) Vincent, a Welshman from Bangor who at the time was studying at Trinity College Dublin. He just so happened to be on hand to play.

Although credited as a ‘Bangor’ player, Bangor didn’t actually play Rugby Football at that time, so it referred to his place of origin rather than who he played for (for instance W.F. ‘Bill’ Evans played for Cardiff and Oxford University where he studied and played, but was listed also under ‘Rhymney’). This was a hangover from the days of the South Wales Football Club (1876-79) where players were listed where they came from, not what their home club was.

Prior to the game, Wales had warmed up with fixtures against a North of England side (lost) and Midlands Counties (won), both at Newport. England’s national team had in fact refused an international after what was deemed to be a fiasco in 1881, when a makeshift Wales XV rocked up at Richardson’s Field, Blackheath, with some players meeting for the first time that day (and several playing out of position). They lost by 7 goals, 6 tries and one dropped goal to nil – or 82-0 in today’s money.

In late January 1882, it was the Irish side in disarray, a team markedly different to the one originally selected. Two of their players walked off after a disputed Welsh score. Ireland considered the Welsh team unworthy of an international fixture and did not take the fixture seriously for some time, more than once pulling out of matches. In 1887, they pleaded poverty, so Wales travelled to Birkenhead for a “home” international fixture with the men from the Emerald Isle.

In the build-up to the 1882 match, Freeman’s Journal of Dublin didn’t appear enamoured with their team, proclaiming them “a very weak lot, being minus no less than ten of those originally chosen”. The visitors, on the other hand, “are a good lot”. And so it proved, as Wales beat Ireland by 4 tries and 2 conversions (2 goals and 2 tries) to nil.

Wales’ tries were all made in Gwent, scored as they were by Tom Baker Jones (Newport), Tom Clapp (Nantyglo), the aforementioned Bill Evans (Rhymney) and James Bridie (Newport). Huw Richards of ESPN recounted – in an article titled ‘The original Celtic rivalry‘ – that “none had a more exotic trajectory in life than Evans who was to emigrate to Australia, become headmaster successively of Freemantle and Adelaide Grammar schools – all before he was 35 – then return home as a tramp, living rough in the countryside near his native Rhymney.”

In stark contrast to the fate of Evans, Richards writes, “two of the Welshmen ended up as knights. While George Morris got his by inheriting a baronetcy right at the end of his life in 1947, Hugh Vincent’s title was earned through political services including the thankless task of opposing David Lloyd George for the Conservatives in the then Chancellor’s rock-solid parliamentary division in the politically momentous year of 1910.”

Evidently unimpressed by Wales’ victory, the Irish still didn’t see the value of playing a reverse fixture in 1883, and for a long time the IRFU refused to even award caps for the match. It’s worth asking if it was around this time that today’s idea of a perceived Six Nations ‘grudge match’ between Wales and Ireland began.

In any case, the fixture is today famed for its fever-pitch intensity; something that will be in full evidence come next Sunday at Principality Stadium on the opening weekend of the 2021 Guinness Six Nations.

With thanks to Swansea RFC Memorabilia CIC.