Clive Rowlands - An appreciation by Alan Evans

Daniel Clive Thomas Rowlands was born in Upper Cwmtwrch on 14 May 1938 and educated at Ystradgynlais Grammar School. In his final school term in 1956 he was selected as one of three scrum-halves to represent the Welsh Secondary Schools on their pioneering summer tour of South Africa. Known as the Young Dragons, they were the first-ever Welsh national squad, junior or senior, to tour overseas. They had a demanding eight-match itinerary in the space of 22 days but Rowlands was to survive only the first two fixtures before injury sidelined him. In what could become a stickler of a question at any sports' quiz, the future 'Top Cat' of Welsh scrum-half play made his debut in the national jersey as a wing-forward – and in borrowed boots!

The date was 7 August 1956 and the opposition a formidable Eastern Province XV in Port Elizabeth. The man himself takes up the story : “I was not expecting to play in the game at all. Howard Merrick had been named at scrum-half in the team and as there were no replacements in those days I was expecting to spend the afternoon watching the game from the grandstand. But in the coach on the way to the ground our open-side wing-forward Leighton Davies was suffering from flu symptoms. So it was decided that as a precaution Leighton shouldn't play and that I was the new (in every sense of the word) wing-forward. I always knew my first game for Wales would be something memorable but I hadn't expected this!”
In front of a crowd of nearly 20,000 Wales, reduced to 14 men for most of the match, slipped to their only defeat of the tour, though Rowlands had the consolation of a second-half try. Four days later he was in his more familiar position of scrum-half but again fate took a hand when a fractured collar bone brought his tour to a premature end, at least in playing terms. For the remaining six fixtures, the other side of his character began to emerge as he willingly grasped every opportunity to assist the management with coaching and, in more relaxed moments, was prominent in the traditional social side of a rugby tour.
There followed an abrupt change in his lifestyle when, on his return home, he immediately began National Service in the RAF and trained as an air radar mechanic. The long-term effects of his South African injury limited his rugby career until another major change in September 1958 saw him begin a three-year course at Cardiff Training College. The renowned rugby nursery brought him into contact with one of the first coaching gurus in the Principality, Roy Bish. On and off the field his horizons widened, eventually qualifying as a teacher and taking up his first appointment at Coed Eva School in Monmouthshire. 

With his eyes firmly set on first-class rugby Rowlands had already dipped his toes into the water with Llanelli. Now based in Monmouthshire, the logical move was to join Pontypool in September 1960. It was an astute decision because he formed a promising half-back partnership with Benny Jones, widely regarded as the best uncapped fly-half in Welsh rugby. But again fate played a hand when a serious knee injury curtailed his season. 

 Within two years, however, the career of Clive Rowlands was to begin an entirely new chapter. Pontypool appointed him club captain in 1962/63 in what was to be a landmark season for him. Drafted into the Probables XV at half-time in the First Welsh Trial in November, he then graduated to captain in the Final Trial in the New Year and the fairy tale was completed when he made his Wales debut as captain against England at Cardiff Arms Park on 19 January 1963. The record books might suggest that it was not an auspicious International Championship campaign for Wales. The worst possible start was the home defeat against England – ironically what turned out to be the last in Cardiff for 28 years during which time Rowlands the Coach was to mastermind several coruscating victories against the Old Enemy. Yet there were extenuating circumstances for that debut defeat on a frozen pitch. The opening exchanges featured a strong start by the inexperienced (there were six new caps) Wales XV. Rowlands' tactical kicking, long and short, twisted and turned the England defence on the treacherous surface only for both Welsh wings, Robert Morgan and Dewi Bebb, to lose their footing with the line at their mercy. Wales also finished strongly with a try but by then the damage was done and England has set the foundations for a 13-6 victory and what for them would be a title-winning season.

Chastened by defeat Rowlands and his team headed north a fortnight later for a match that would achieve notoriety in the annals of the game. Wales' 6-nil victory against Scotland at Murrayfield included a drop-goal – from a lineout, no less – by their scrum-half but what it is remembered for is the extraordinary statistic of 111 lineouts (one wag commented that they stopped counting after 100 so it could have been many more!). It is generally assumed that Rowlands' tactics – he only gave five passes to his fly-half, Dai Watkins in the entire match – contributed to a change in the Laws of the game so that there was no kicking direct to touch outside the '25'. But that change didn't come for another four years and rather overlooks the fact that Rowlands' great kicking skill was to keep the ball marginally in play so that the opposing full-back would return it to touch for a Wales' throw-in. Whatever, for years since the captain has dined out on tales, apocryphal or otherwise, on 'the match of 111 lineouts'. One of the Wales' centres that day was Llanelli's Brian Davies. It was his second and final cap and he still maintains he never received a pass – and was dropped. A good story but probably of the fisherman's variety – the Playfair Annual reports that Davies received a try-scoring pass from number 8 Alun Pask but dropped the ball over the goal-line. Pride of place, though, goes to the man himself when years later he was entering Murrayfield as a radio commentator and the turnstile operator asked him for a pass. “Pass? I never pass at Murrayfield...”

If the rest of the 1963 campaign petered out with further defeats against Ireland and France, and the calendar year itself ended with another Arms Park defeat against New Zealand, the dawn of 1964 was to see the first green shoots of recovery to international respectability. Two wins book ended by an opening drawn match at Twickenham and another against France at Cardiff secured Wales a shared Championship with Scotland. Reality then set in when Wales' first senior overseas tour took them to South Africa in May. Rowlands' satisfaction at being the only Welsh player to tour there as a Young Dragon in 1956 and as a fully-fledged international eight years later was tempered by the heavy 3-24 defeat to the Springboks. It proved to Wales and for their captain to be the darkest hour before the dawn.

What might be called the Rowlands Project, at least as a player, reached fruition in the early months of 1965. Another win at Murrayfield, sandwiched between comfortable victories over England and Ireland at the Arms Park, secured a first Triple Crown for 13 years and saw Clive Rowlands carried off shoulder-high by the exultant fans. Not even a final defeat in Paris could deprive Wales of the Championship title. And then his international playing career when he captained his country in all 14 games ended almost as unexpectedly as it had started. In 1966 the number 9 jersey for Wales – and later that summer the Lions – was worn by Abertillery's Allan Lewis. Wales had forsaken their former captain's kicking and tactical skills and unique leadership style for a swifter passing game. Rowlands, to his credit, reportedly sat out the campaign “cheerfully” as a travelling reserve.

Meanwhile, he continued to give great service at club level in the Principality. In September 1966, having replaced his teaching career in Monmouthshire with employment in the oil industry, he joined Swansea and within weeks was coaxing and cajoling the All Whites' pack to a famous victory over the touring Wallabies. A year later, by then captain of Swansea, he also led West Wales to a pulsating performance on the same St Helen's Ground, taking the legendary All Blacks' side of Brian Lochore down to the wire before losing 14-21. The great Kiwi journalist Terry McLean wrote: “The West Welshmen were charging about like volunteer firemen and Rowlands, their half-back and captain, was striking all sorts of Napoleonic poses with signals, feints, and expressions which were probably a dead ringer for what Bonaparte said to his Old Guard.”
Top Cat had become Napoleon and like all great leaders Clive Rowlands was still one step ahead of the game. He retired from playing in April 1968, still a few weeks short of his 30th birthday. Within seven weeks he was elected one of five vice-presidents of the Welsh Rugby Union and by September he was the coach of the Wales' national squad that toured Argentina. 

The parallels with his playing career were soon apparent. Just as his international debut five years previously had been blotted by defeat against England, so now his first foray as national coach stuttered disappointingly. Albeit with an under strength team shorn of several players who had toured with the Lions that summer, Wales could only draw one and lose the other test to the Pumas in Buenos Aires. No caps had been awarded and by the time the International Championship (gradually metamorphosing into the 'Five Nations' largely at the behest of the media) kicked off in February 1969 the new coach had at his disposal the young guns that would mature into the superstars to light up the glory days of the 1970s. With names like TGR Davies, John and Edwards, the two Brians Thomas and Price, to call on, plus new caps such as JPR Williams and Mervyn Davies, Wales defeated Scotland by three tries to nil at Murrayfield, stopped a Triple Crown seeking Ireland in their tracks in Cardiff, drew a thrilling game with France in Paris, and, finally, inflicted carnage on England in a five-try extravaganza to secure another Triple Crown and Championship.

It had been, by any standards, an astonishing start to a coaching career. In that summer of '69 Wales went on tour Down Under, defeated Fiji and Australia, and not for the last time were themselves put to the sword by New Zealand. More lessons were learned and brought unprecedented rewards in the next five seasons. Clive Rowlands stayed as coach until the spring of 1974, by which time Wales had remained undefeated in home internationals in Cardiff, gained the first Grand Slam in 19 years, and won or shared four Championship titles. The period was dubbed one of 'Crowning Glory' and would continue for the rest of the decade. 

The former coach was still only 36 and alongside a burgeoning business career with his own sports shops, Clive Rowlands would enter a new phase as a respected administrator in the game. He continued as a Welsh selector and in 1978 managed another overseas tour by Wales to Australia. Ten years later he continued to be in demand even further afield. Having been in charge of a 'British Lions XV' that celebrated the centenary of the International Rugby Board with a one-off match against the Rest of the World in 1986, he received the ultimate accolade of manager of the British and Irish Lions' squad that toured Australia in 1989. Some eyebrows may have been raised as this most Welsh of Welshmen married the diverse identities of the four home unions but his legendary inter-personal and man-management qualities triumphed. The Lions won the test series 2-1. Their coach Ian McGeechan later wrote : “Clive always talked to the players about the Lions badge getting bigger as the tour went on. After every success, the badge was getting bigger and his pride in what we were doing was obvious. I remember looking at him and hugging him as the final whistle was blown in the third test; he had tears running down his cheeks, it mattered and I was looking at a very proud man.”

In Wales, of course, Rowlands' success surprised no one. He was manager for the first Rugby World Cup in 1987, when Wales finished third, and the less memorable tour to Australia in 1991 and was national president in 1989/90. By then he had achieved every honour in the game – international player and captain, coach, manager, selector and president. What followed, almost logically, was his recruitment as a summariser for Welsh language rugby commentaries.
Clive Rowlands will always remain a man of the people in the wider world of rugby. In recent years his after-dinner speaking has kept him in touch not just with the great and the good of the game but also the grass-roots rugby community. His wealth of anecdotes have charmed and engrossed audiences across the length and breadth of Wales and beyond.
Right up there with the best is the one about the Sunday evening when a coach load of English tourists were temporarily stranded with a punctured tyre outside Cwmtwrch RFC. Ever the generous host, Clive invited all 40 of them inside for a game of bingo at reduced rates and, as welcome guests, a double cash prize. And so it came about : “Eyes down, first number – deunaw ... deg ar hugain ... pedwar ar ddeg ...” 

Half a century on the English are still paying for that win at the Arms Park when DCT Rowlands was first capped. 

ARGENTINA 1968 JERSEY - WELSH TOUR - An Argentina 1968 player issue jersey without a number from the collection of Clive Rowlands, Wales 1963-65. The jersey was exchanged with the Argentina coach during the Welsh tour of this country. 

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THIS JERSEY IN MORE DETAIL

WRM-0982- mmjyin.ar 1968pliu- rowlands- WRM-ess

AUSTRALIA 1959 - DES CONNOR JERSEY -  A No 7 Australia international jersey from the collection of Clive Rowlands, Wales 1963-65. The jersey was exchanged with Des Connor in 1969 who opposed him as coach in the Australia v Wales test match at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Desmond Michael 'Des' Connor played 12 tests for Australia 1957-59 before moving to New Zealand in 1960. The quality of his play was such that he was soon selected to represent his new country. He had the distinction of playing a further 12 tests for the All Blacks between 1961 and 1964. 

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THIS JERSEY IN MORE DETAIL

THIS JERSEY IS PART OF OUR AUSTRALIAN INTERNATIONAL JERSEY COLLECTION - MORE INFO PLEASE CLICK HERE

WRM-0974- mmjyin.as 1959vebr- connor7- WRM-esss

AUSTRALIA 1966-67 INTERNATIONAL JERSEY -  A No 3 international jersey from the collection of Clive Rowlands, Wales 1963-65. Clive played in Swansea's 9-8 victory over the touring Australians and has indicated that the jersey was given to him by Ken Catchpole at that game. The Aussie tour party played each match with tour numbers. Unfortunately the number doesn't match with Ken's, his was number 13 while number 3 belonged to Stewart Boyce. So we must assume therefore, that this jersey belonged to Boyce.  

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THIS JERSEY IN MORE DETAIL

THIS JERSEY IS PART OF OUR AUSTRALIAN INTERNATIONAL JERSEY COLLECTION - MORE INFO PLEASE CLICK HERE

WRM-1003- mmjyin.as 1966- WRM-uyss

BRITISH LIONS 1989 TOUR of AUSTRALIA JERSEY - A team issue No 23 British & Irish Lions international jersey from the collection of Clive Rowlands, manager of the 1989 Lions. The jersey was Clive's personal jersey for the duration of the tour, team jerseys at matches were numbered up to 21, Ian McGeechan was 22 and Clive 23.

Ref: WRM-1025- mmjyin.br 1989- rowlands23- WRM-lss