Where are they now? The last Wales team of the amateur era 25 years after their 1995 World Cup exit
June 4 marks the 25th anniversary of the last Wales team to play in the old amateur era, a 1995 defeat at the World Cup. Things were very different in the months before the sport officially turned professional. There were only 21 players in a squad. You could only bring on a player due to injury, and buckets of sand were brought on instead of kicking tees at a tournament that the Springboks went on to gloriously win in the final versus New Zealand.
For Wales, their 1995 World Cup campaign hinged on their final pool match versus Ireland at Ellis Park, that grand old dame of a South African rugby stadium in Johannesburg. Both the Welsh and the Irish had been brushed aside by the emerging global phenomenon of Jonah Lomu in the pool stages, the All Blacks securing top spot and leaving the Celtic rivals in a straight shoot-out for the other quarter-final place.
The form book was hard to gauge going into the 1995 World Cup: Wales regularly beat Ireland at Lansdowne Road and Ireland regularly returned the favour at the Arms Park. In the end, the Irish, guided by the nerveless Eric Elwood, emerged victorious by a single point (24-23) after tries from flanker Denis McBride, prop Nick Popplewell and replacement Eddie Halvey in an encounter unrecognisable from the pro era.
Wales had a late try from Hemi Taylor to give the World Cup scoreboard a sheen of respectability, but some of their players were never to wear the famous three feathers again after 1995. RugbyPass takes a look at what happened to the last of these Wales amateurs and how they fared when the game turned pro:
15. Tony Clement
Clement was the dashing, counter-attacking full-back who battled it out with the doughty and durable Paul Thorburn for the Welsh No15 shirt. His verve with the ball in hand could be thrilling and was enough to see him travel as a Lions replacement in 1989 at just 21 and again to New Zealand in 1993. World Cups in 1991 and 1995 followed but like so many cavalier talents in Wales, his international career was never fully fulfilled.
14. Ieuan Evans
A veteran of three Lions tours, Evans was nicknamed the ‘Carmarthen Cowboy’ and with 79 Test caps, was a player of genuine quality. He was renowned for his jinking runs, often stepping off his right foot to cut infield. A former Welsh captain on 28 occasions, Evans was a brilliant finisher crossing the whitewash on 34 occasions for Wales. Post-rugby, Evans married the model, Kathryn Smith, and has worked as a regular pundit on Sky Sports for a number of years. His son, Cai, plays for the Ospreys at fly-half and full-back.
13. Mike Hall
Hailing from Brynteg School in Bridgend, which has produced the likes of Gavin Henson, JPR Williams and Rob Howley, Wales’ loss to Ireland in the 1995 World Cup was to be Hall’s final appearance in a Welsh shirt. The Welsh captain leading into the tournament, he was one of the more cerebral members of the Welsh squad having attended Cambridge University. After retiring he became a successful rugby pundit with the BBC and had a high-profile directorship at Cardiff City. He was also a well-known property developer.
12. Neil Jenkins
For a while, Jenkins was the leading points scorer in Test rugby with 1,089 points and his metronomic boot enough to see him travel on two Lions tours, notably in 1997 where his right peg helped the tourists to a notable series win. For Wales, Jenkins was consistency personified, winning 87 caps. Perhaps unfairly pigeonholed as a kicking fly-half, Jenkins had underrated distribution and was fleet of foot in his early years. Since retiring, he spent twelve years as Warren Gatland’s kicking and skills coach and has continued his role with Wayne Pivac. He was an assistant coach on three Lions tours.
11. Gareth Thomas
Where do you start? ‘Alfie’ was the first Welsh player to win 100 caps for his country and scored four tries against Japan at the 1995 World Cup in only his second start. Captain for Wales’ first Grand Slam in 2005, Thomas went on to captain the Lions in the same year and win a Heineken Cup with Toulouse. A gifted athlete and charismatic figure, the Bridgend-born player played on the wing and at full-back and came out as gay in 2009. He has since raised awareness for the LGBT community in sport and is a well-known fixture on the reality TV scene, often championing the rights of minorities. In 2019, he revealed he was HIV positive.
10. Adrian Davies
Like Hall, born in Bridgend and a Cambridge Blue, Davies was the surprise choice at fly-half for the 1995 World Cup. An astute game manager with Cardiff and Neath at club level, Davies ended up playing at two World Cup, 1991 and 1995, but only registered nine caps. On retiring, he was a board member at London Welsh and a chartered surveyor by profession. He now works for the building consultancy, Paragon.
9. Robert Jones
One of only six scrum-halves to have crossed the 50-cap mark with Wales, for a period, Jones battled it out with Nick Farr-Jones as the world’s premier No9. Small with brilliant service, he played for Swansea on 286 occasions and was a combative presence at the base of the scrum on the 1989 and 1993 Lions tours. He formed a feted half-back partnership with Jonathan Davies and after retiring at the 1995 World Cup, he continues to be a respected pundit for BBC Wales. In his day job, he works alongside fellow Wales scrum-half Brynmor Williams at insurance group Thomas Carroll.
1. Mike Griffiths
When Griffiths left the field disconsolate after the loss to Ireland, he thought it would be his last outing in a Wales shirt before making one more appearance three years later in the same country. It was not a happy send-off as Wales went down 96-13 in a notorious capitulation. Built like a brick outhouse and hailing from the Rhondda valley, Griffiths played for Bridgend and Cardiff in a career that saw him represent Wales at two World Cups and the successful 1989 Lions tour. After a stint as scrum coach with Pontypridd, Griffiths now works in civil engineering.
2. Jonathan Humphreys
A nuggety hooker who enjoyed a 13-year association at club level with Cardiff before finishing his career at Bath. At international level, Humphreys’ leadership qualities saw him captaining Wales on 19 occasions where his never-take-a-backwards-step attitude chimed with the Welsh public even though the side had a series of disappointing results. Post playing, Humphreys has gone on to forge a hugely successful coaching career. He spent seven years at the Ospreys before heading up to Scotland to work as a scrum coach for the national team, latterly spending two years at Glasgow Warriors assistant coach. In December he formally rejoined the Welsh set-up to support new boss Pivac.
3. John Davies
A West Walian farmer by profession, Davies locked down the Scarlets and Wales scrum throughout the nineties, winning 38 caps. Famously durable, the tighthead spent 18 years with Neath and Richmond but is perhaps best known for his stint at Llanelli. Born in Cardigan, the prop kept playing at senior level until he was 38 and was still turning out for his local side, Crymych, into his late forties. He has continued farming and sells farm produce in West Wales.
4. Derwyn Jones
The tallest man to play for Wales at 6ft 10ins, Jones was a target – not just for his hookers in a career that earned him 19 caps in the mid-nineties, he was also infamously felled by a Kobus Wiese haymaker when playing against the Springboks. He spent most of his club career with the Cardiff Blues and after retirement, alongside media commitments as a commentator, he made his name as a players’ agent. He is currently the managing director of Win Sports, looking after the likes of Rhys Webb, Justin Tipuric and Dan Lydiate.
5. Gareth Llewellyn
For a period, Llewellyn was Wales’ most capped player. A skilled lineout technician, when he hung up his boots against New Zealand in 2004 he had 92 caps to his name and three World Cups under his belt. The 6ft 6in lock was widely travelled at club level in a 20-year playing career, turning out for Harlequins, Narbonne and Bristol, he is best known for a decade of service for Neath. Now working in the medical services industry after dabbling in coaching, he is keeping involved in rugby through is his son Max, a strapping 6ft 5in centre at the Cardiff Blues.
6. Stuart Davies
Davies played on 17 occasions for Wales as a ball-carrying No8 but is best known for captaining Swansea, turning out for the All Whites 245 times over 15 seasons. After retiring, Davies became a respected commentator and pundit for BBC Wales and returned to rugby on a full-time basis as chief executive of the Dragons in 2015 only to depart nearly three years later as the WRU took charge of the region. He is now working at Morganstone, a construction company in West Wales.
7. Hemi Taylor
He was an uncompromising sort on the field and became the first New Zealander to play for Wales in 1994. Able to play across the back row, Taylor started out with Newbridge but made his name with the Blue and Black of Cardiff where he won 24 caps for Wales in the mid-nineties, which was a period of modest success for Wales. A boiler-maker by trade, Taylor now runs a farm and holiday home near Cardigan Bay with his wife Carys.
8. Emyr Lewis
Nicknamed ‘Tarw’ (the Welsh for bull) for his prodigious strength, Lewis was a hard-running back row who loved to skittle players on their backsides. He turned out for Wales on 41 occasions between 1991 and 1996, captaining the side on occasion and had a distinguished club career with Llanelli and Cardiff before retiring in 1999. Post-career, Lewis has worked for BBC Wales and the Welsh language S4C, while also working in tech sales roles.
June 4, 1995, replacements: Garin Jenkins, Ricky Evans, Stuart Roy, Andy Moore, Wayne Proctor, Dai Evans.
Comments on RugbyPass
Great insight into the performance culture with Sarries and I predict Christie will be a fixture in the Scotland team now for some time to come. However, he is slightly missing his own point around Scotland “being soft” when he cites physicality examples in defence of that slight. The issue is much closer to the example he referenced around feeling off before a game but being told “it doesn’t matter, you can still play well” by Farrell. Until Scotland can get their psyche in that square, they will carry on folding under extreme pressure…
1 Go to comments> We are having to adapt, evolve and innovate more than when we were in Super Rugby where there was only really one style that everybody had to play to gain the most success. Have = able to? Interesting what that one style might be? I thought SA sides still had bad tours now, or at least bad schedule, months away? Those extra few hours flights have to be a killer though, no surprise to see their sides doing so badly at the start of the season each year. I wouldn’t enjoy that unfairness as a supporter.
4 Go to commentsThe problem for NZ, and Aus, is they ripped up the SR model and lost a massive chunk of revenue that hasn’t been replaced. Don’t forget SA clubs went North because they were left with no choice, Argy unceremoniously binned and Japan cast adrift. Now SR wasn’t perfect, far from it, but they’ve jumped into something without an effective plan, so far, to replace what they’ve lost. The biggest revenue potential now lies in Japan but it won’t be easy or quick to unlock, they are incredibly insular in culture as a nation. In the meantime, there is a serious time bomb sitting under SH rugby and if it happens then the current financial challenges will look like a picnic. IF the Boks follow their provincial teams and head north then it’s revenue meltdown. Not guaranteed to happen but the status quo is a very odd hybrid, with the Boks pointing one way and the clubs pointing the other way. And for as long as that remains then the threat is real.
36 Go to commentsI think Etene has had some good tuition, likely while at the Warriors to be a professional that helped his rugby jump, but he was certainly thrown in the deep end way too early. Should have arguably 20 less SR caps, and therefor a way better record that he does at his age, but his development would have been fast tracked by the need to satiate his signing away from league. Again, credit to him and others that he has done it so well. Easy to fall over under that pressure in the big leagues like that but he kept at it when I myself wasn’t sure he was good enough.
1 Go to commentsAwesome story. I wonder what a bigger American (SA) scene might have mean for Brex.
1 Go to comments“Johnny McNicholl and the Crusaders” save a Penney. Who has been in camp this week and showed them how to play?
5 Go to commentsSo, reports of the Crusaders’ demise / terminal decline are perhaps just - slightly - premature/exaggerated…? 🤔 Will we see a deep-dive into that by the estimable Rugbypass scribes, and maybe one or two mea culpas? Thought not.
5 Go to comments1. The Chiefs are rudderless without DMac, which enhances his AB chances 2. Chiefs pack are powderpuffs. The hard men arent there anymore 3. They had their golden title chance last yr and wont threaten this yr. Gone in second round of playoffs.
5 Go to commentsHonestly, why did you have to publish such a foolish article the day they play us? 😂
36 Go to comments> They are not standalone entities. They are linked to an amateur association which holds the FFR licence that allows the professional side to compete in the league. That’s a great rule. This looks like the chicken or egg professional scenario. How long is it going to be before the club can break even (if that is even a thing in French rugby)? If the locals aren’t into well it would be good to se them drop to amateur level (is it that far?). Hope they can reset from this level and be more practical, there will be a time when they can rebuild (if France has there setup right).
1 Go to commentsWhat about changing the ball? To something heavier and more pointed that bounces unpredictably. Not this almost round football used these days.
35 Go to commentsThis is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?
35 Go to commentsWow, didn’t realise there was such apathy to URC in SA, or by Champions Cup teams. Just read Nick’s article on Crusaders, are Sharks a similar circumstance? I think SA rugby has been far more balanced than NZs, no?
4 Go to commentsBut here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.
36 Go to commentsIt could be coincidental or prescient that the All Blacks most dominant period under Steve Hansen was when the Crusaders had their least successful period under Todd Blackadder and then the positions reversed when Razor took over the Crusaders.
36 Go to commentsDefinitely sound read everybodyexpects immediate results these days, I don't think any team would travel well at all having lost three of the most important game changers in the game,compiled with the massive injury list they are now carrying, good to see a different more in depth perspective of a coaches history.
3 Go to commentsSinckler is a really big loss for English rugby.
2 Go to commentsThanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause
36 Go to commentsNo way. If you are trying to picture New Zealand rugby with an All Blacks mindset, there have been two factors instrumental to the decline of NZ rugby to date. Those are the horror that the Blues have become and, probably more so, the fixture that the Crusaders became. I don’t think it was healthy to have one team so dominant for so long, both for lack of proper representation of players from outside that environment and on the over reliance on players from within it. If you are another international side, like Ireland for example, sure. You can copy paste something succinct from one level to the next and experience a huge increase in standards, but ultimately you will not be maximizing it, which is what you need to perform to the level the ABs do. Added to that is the apathy that develops in the whole game as a result of one sides dominance. NZ, Super, and Championship rugby should all experience a boom as a result of things balancing out. That said, there is a lot of bad news happening in NZ rugby recently, and I’m not sure the game can be handled well enough here to postpone the always-there feeling of inevitable decline of rugby.
36 Go to commentsNo SA supporter miss Super Rugby - a product that is experiencing significant head wind in ANZ - the competition from rival codes are intense, match attendance figures are at a historical low and the negativity of commentators such as Kirwan and Wilson have accelerated the downward spiral in NZ. After the next RWC in 2027 sponsors will follow Qantas and start leaving in droves.
4 Go to comments