This match, played at Balmoral, Belfast, is remembered as ‘The Roughest Ever’ and was the day of ‘The Terrible Eight’, who were the Welsh pack that won the battle against eight very strong Irish opponents.
Wales’s Captain, the Reverend Alban Davies, stated that he had heard no complaints from the Irish players, who had begun the niggling by coming into the Welsh hotel on the eve of the match.
Ireland’s pack leader Dr William Tyrell told Welsh forward Percy Jones: “It’s you and me for it tomorrow.”
Jones, a colliery foreman, smiled and answered: “I shall be with you, doing the best I can.”
Another Wales forward asked: “Can anyone join in?”
And so they did! Players fought when the ball was not near them and some should have been sent off, but Mr.Tulloch, the referee from Scotland, took little notice. It was one of the all time best punch-ups and Jones said: “The fun just went on and on.”
After the match Jones was told by Tyrell that he was the best Welshman he had ever come across, adding: “You’re the only Welshman who ever beat me.”
The pair signed each others menu card and in 1951, the President of the IRFU, by now Sir William Tyrell, and retired collier and by now hotelier, Percy Jones, sat together during the match in Cardiff.
Ireland led with skipper Alex Foster’s try, but Wales clawed back the lead with Bedwelty Jones scoring the equalising try. Two weeks later he signed for Oldham Rugby League club.
Selected Irish Captain Dicky Lloyd was photographed before the match with his team, but strained a tendon in the warm up and Harry Jack was called up for his second cap, playing at scrum half with Victor McNamara switching to outside half. Jack’s third cap came in 1921 and he later became President of the Fiji Rugby Union.
For the first time Wales’s pack had remained unchanged throughout the season, but the First World War now intervened and Wales did not play an official match for five years and one month.
The Reverend Alban Davies died in Los Angeles at the age of ninety, while both Tyrell and Jones lived to the age of eighty-two, dying within six months of each other.
