The mantle of Wales’ oldest surviving international has passed to Jack Matthews following the death on Monday, 6 September of his former Cardiff clubmate Gwyn Evans.
Back row forward Evans was 93 at the time of his death and won 12 Welsh caps and played 101 games for Cardiff. He made his debut for Wales in the same side as ‘Dr Jack’, against England at Cardiff Arms Park in the first official post-war international on 18 January, 1948.
The 90-year-old Matthews is now the sole surviving Welsh player from that game, which ended in a win for England by 9-6 thanks to a four point drop goal from their outside half Nim Hall.
Evans, whose full christian name was Gwynfryn, was born in Treherbert, but raised in Clydach. He made his debut for Swansea at the age of 18 and also played for Vardre.
He joined the Cardiff City Police Force before World War 2 and then joined the Royal Engineers, doing service in Italy and North Africa. At the end of the war he returned to the Police force and worked his way up thorugh the ranks.
He became a Superintendent in 1968, when he was deputy head of traffic for South Wales Police based in Bridgend, and then became Chief Superintendent of the Barry Division a few years later. He eventually returned to Cardiff Central as Superintendent, where one of his responsibilities was for policing Cardiff Arms Park.
Before leaving the force he was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal and he lived out his retirement in Penarth.
He made two trips to the Millennium Stadium in recent years as a guest of the WRU. Firstly, he attended the summer gathering of former internationals and then he joined Peter Rees, the former Llanelli wing, at the RBS 6 Nations game against Scotland this year.
Those two occasions gave him time to reflect back on his career, and the day he made his debut for Wales at the ripe old age of 29.
“It was a huge honour to be picked to play for Wales and I can still remember running 40 yards to score a try on my debut. To me that was the highlight of my career,” he said at the time.
“I’d played rugby from the age of 11 at school and, just as with every Welshman, it was my dream to play for Wales. It came quite late in the day for me, but I was in the Welsh back row for
three years after my debut.”
His try scoring exploits couldn’t stop Wales from going down 9-6 to England at Cardiff Arms Park on 18 January, 1947, when he was one of 13 new caps. Only full back Howard Davies and skipper and scrum half Haydn Tanner had played before the war.
It was a game that launched the Test careers of future Wales and British & Irish Lions legends Ken Jones, Jack Matthews, Billy Cleaver, Bleddyn Williams and Rees Stephens and Evans was one of five Cardiff players in the side.
“I played for Swansea when I was 18 but, when I joined the Cardiff Police Force they said we weren’t allowed to play rugby because it was a barbaric game. So, I started playing soccer,” he recalled.
“All Policemen under the age of 25 were then called up for WW2 service and I went to North Africa and Italy. I managed to play a few games, where I played a couple of games of rugby.
“When I came back from the Army, at 29 years of age, I had no idea I would be playing for Wales six months later. I joined Cardiff in the 1946/47 season and got picked to play against England in the January
“I was the openside wing forward – as I was for three seasons with Wales and four with Cardiff – and it was my job on my debut to stop Nim Hall from dropping goals. He was the England outside half and a master kicker. I got a try, worth three points in those days, but he did manage to get a drop goal, which then counted for four points.”
The defeat to England was the only one Wales suffered that year as they eventually shared the Five Nations title and also went on to beat Australia. Gwyn played in 12 successive internationals, made 101 appearances for Cardiff and eventually played his final game at the age of 41 at Gloucester.
“The Arms Park had an old wooden stand that had been damaged by a German bomb when I made my debut. It was quite different from the magnificent Millennium Stadium that the current players use,” he added.
Evans, who married Moira O’Brien (d. 2006) on Boxing Day, 1941, is survived by his son, Jeff, and daughter, Gillian, and six grandchildren.
