A former executive director of Total Oil, he learned his rugby at Ebbw Vale Grammar School and quickly graduated into the town team at Eugene Cross Park. He helped the Steelmen to win the Welsh Championship for the first time in 1951/52 and followed that up with further success in 1953/54 and 1956/57.
He captained Ebbw Vale in 1957/58 and also skippered the combined Abertillery & Ebbw Vale XV that beat the touring Australians in 1958. A powerful, goalkicking centre, he scored more than 200 points in the 1958/59 season.
He won his two caps in the 1957 Five Nations campaign. Wales had lost their opening two matches of the season against England and Scotland and he came into the side with Cyril Davies to form a new centre pairing in place of Gareth Griffiths and Malcolm Thomas.
His debut came against Ireland n 9 March, 1957, and the Irish side arrived in Cardiff having beaten France and Scotland. The two new Welsh caps in the centre – there were four in the side – found themselves playing against the vastly experienced Irish captain, Noel Henderson, and the brilliant Tony O’Reilly, but measured up well to the task.
According to The Times in their match report the following Monday: “The two new centres, C. Davies and G. Powell, were harried by opposite numbers who lay up well – perhaps O’Reilly was lucky to be caught only once and, as it happened, fatally – but showed enough promise for drier days, and conditions were all against C.I. Morgan at stand-off.”
In fact, so bad were the conditions for the game that Scottish referee Jack Taylor, also on his international debut, ordered the Welsh team to change their jerseys 17 minutes into the second half because he couldn’t distinguish the two teams in the mud.
Llanelli full back Terry Davies kicked a penalty after 10 minutes for Wales and Ronnie Kavanagh scored the only try of the game for the Irish, which Cecil Pedlow converted, five minutes before half-time to give the visitors a 5-3 advantage to take into the second half. A second Davies penalty five minutes from time ensured a slender, 6-5, victory.
The Big Five gave their winning team a vote of confidence for the final game of the season, against France at Stade Colombes, although Powell lost his centre partner through injury before the game and was paired with Gordon Wells in Paris. The French had lost off three previous fixtures and went down again, 19-13.
Wales scored four tries for the first time in Paris, all of them from the forwards, in what was to be their last victory on French soil for 14 years. Even so, it was to be the final outing in a Welsh jersey for Powell.
He played for the Probables in an 11-9 Final Trial defeat in Cardiff on 21 December, 1957, and was overlooked for the game against the touring Australians on 4 January, 1958. He did, however, get the chance to play against the Wallabies when he led the combined Abertillery and Ebbw Vale team to a 6-5 triumph at Abertillery Park on Wednesday, 8 January in their very next game.
Born on 17 November, 1932, at Waunlwyd, Ebbw Vale, Powell was a talented all-round sportsman who had a Welsh Schools soccer trial and was Victor Ludorum at Bristol University in athletics. He played rugby for the England Universities and spent three years working as a physics teacher after leaving university.
After that he moved into industry and had a highly successful career working with Shell and then Total Oil. He died on 21 December and is survived by his son Tim and two daughters, Suzanne and Joanna.
The Welsh Rugby Union offers its sincere condolences to the family for their loss.
