Jack Williams (rugby union)

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For the Welsh rugby player of the 1930s for Rochdale Hornets, see John Williams (rugby league, born 1907).
Jack Williams
Williams at half time of the 1905 All Blacks clash
Birth nameJohn Frederick Williams
Date of birth(1882-11-18)18 November 1882
Place of birthScethrog, Powys, Wales
Date of death28 August 1911(1911-08-28) (aged 28)
Place of deathNigeria
Height5 ft 11+1⁄2 in (182 cm)
Weight13 st 0 lb (83 kg)
SchoolChrist College, Brecon
Rugby union career
Position(s)
Lock
Amateur team(s)
Years Team Apps (Points)
Richmond F.C.
London Welsh RFC
Barbarian F.C.
Glamorgan
Middlesex		 ()
International career
Years Team Apps (Points)
1905–1906
1908
Anglo-Welsh
 4
1		 0
(0)

John Frederick "Jack" Williams (18 November 1882 – 28 August 1911) was a Welsh international

London Welsh.[1] He won four caps for Wales between 1905 and 1906[1] and most notably was a member of the winning Welsh team in the famous Match of the Century against the original All Blacks
.

International career

1905 Wales squad, Williams, back row, second from left

Of all the Welsh players who played in the 1905 Match of the Century "Champions of the World" team, Williams is the most enigmatic. Over his career he achieved by far the lowest number of international caps out of the 1905 team and played the majority of his career outside Wales. It was said that Williams was a good kicker of the ball and "could pick up like a half, pass like a centre and run like a wing".[1] During his club career with London Welsh he captained the club during the 1907/08 season.

Williams began playing rugby while in school at

Dai Jones in the pack and line out.[2] Williams short international career ended in the disastrous 1906 South African game, where dissent surrounding the pack resulted in a Welsh team without cohesion. The selectors decided a 'clean sweep' was required and very few of that team, including Williams, played for Wales again.[3]

In 1908 Williams was chosen to join Harding's Anglo-Welsh team who toured Australia and New Zealand.

International matches played

Wales[4]

British Isles

  • New Zealand
    1908

Later career and death

In 1910, Williams was sent to

Northern Nigeria, by the Colonial Office to work in the capacity of a commissioner. It was recorded in The Sportsman that shortly after assuming his post, Williams was shot by a local.[5] The paper went on to state that Williams had recovered from the bullet wound, and that the shooting had been an accident. Williams died the next year, at the age of 28, after contracting blackwater fever in Nigeria while on Colonial Service
.

Bibliography

References

  1. ^ a b c Smith (1980), pg 138.
  2. ^ Smith (1980), pg 162.
  3. ^ Smith (1980), pg 188.
  4. ^ Smith (1980), pg 473.
  5. ISBN 0-86254-125-5
    .
Sporting positions
Preceded by London Welsh RFC Captain
1907-1908 		Succeeded by
F.H. Clay
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