But if you go back to Boxing Day in 1908 and 1912 you will come across two other famous wins by a Welsh club over touring teams. The Christmas Bank Holiday was the day Swansea beat the first Australian tourists 6-0 and then followed it up with a 3-0 victory over the Springboks.
When they went on to beat the 1935 All Blacks, they became the first Welsh club to beat all three major southern hemisphere touring teams. Cardiff followed suit when they beat New Zealand in 1953 and Newport were next with their 3-0 triumph over the All Blacks in 1963.
Swansea RFC is well into their 150th anniversary celebrations this season and enjoyed another Boxing Day win this year when they beat arch-rivals Llanelli in the Indigo Premiership at St Helen’s – the same venue at which the Wallabies and Springboks were beaten on the same day over a century ago.
The history of one of the world’s great rugby clubs has been well chronicled down the years, but club historian David Dow has had to re-write a couple of bits of history after a deeper dive into the record books along with celebrated Welsh rugby historians Howard Evans and John Griffiths.
The first change concerns international forward George Hayward, who featured in those two early wins over Australia and South Africa. He also won five caps for Wales, featuring in three of the victories in the first Grand Slam season in 1908 and one of those in the 1909 Slam campaign.
Up until this season, Hayward was thought to have been born in 1887 and to have died in Swansea in 1948. That, in fact, was another George Hayward, who was born in Skewen.
The Swansea player was actually Alfred George Hayward, who was born in Swansea on 13 February, 1886, not as first thought on 30 April, 1888 in Skewen. He died on 12 October, 1946 in Swansea – not 14 February, 1948 as previously recorded.
The ‘other’ George Hayward was a prominent member of the Wesleyan Church in Skewen, a member of his local male voice choir and a cricketer. He died after a short illness at Swansea Hospital at the age of 59.
Swansea were gifted Hayward’s club and international caps many years ago and have recently tracked down some of his family members.
WHO WAS THE REAL GEORGE HAYWARD?
George Hayward
George began with Parochial, a junior team in the Swansea and District League representing the parish of Llangyfelach, and was due to be their captain in the 1905-06 season. Instead, he switched allegiance to Swansea and made his 1st XV debut in a 3-0 win over Newport at St Helen’s. The previous season the club had been unbeaten but weighing in at 15st 2lb, and hovering around 6ft tall, Hayward was an extremely powerful player who managed to force his way into immediate contention into the best side in Wales at the age of 19.
He had such a splendid physique that he once won a medal at Swansea’s Albert Hall for being ‘The Best Built Man in Town’. He was so fit and fast that he often played for Swansea as a wing, and a few games in the centre. He was also a useful place kicker. His trade was listed as ‘butcher’ and perhaps the task of carrying the meat carcuses was at the heart of his strength.
He didn’t make the side that faced the 1905 All Blacks on 30 December 1905 but was then in the teams that beat the first Australian in 1908 and the second Springboks in 1912.
His Wales debut also came in the 2-0 win against Scotland in the 1908 Five Nations Championship at St Helen’s. He had the distinction of winning all five games in a red shirt for Wales and helped them to beat the Australians in 1908 to add to his triumph over the tourists for his club. He also played for Glamorgan against the Wallabies.
The northern raiders were constantly looking for new players in south Wales and Hayward was eventually tempted to head to the Northern League by Wigan. He signed in December 1913 for the unheard of fee of £155, the highest sum ever paid for a Welsh forward at the time.
Swansea had already lost half backs ‘Dodger’ Owen and Sid Jerram to Wigan at the start of the 1912-13 season and Hayward joined them, making his debut against Runcorn on 27 December 1913. His switch came despite a poem posted in the Cambrian Daily Leader 1906 pleading with him not to turn ‘Pro’:
Oh Hayward, Georgie Hayward.
We hope you are not wayward.
We would not like to see you poached up to the North and go.
You’re doing very nicely now
A ripping forward, Sir, I vow
You stick to good old Swansea and never be a PRO.
He went on to play in 58 games over two seasons for Wigan, scoring 16 tries, helping them to win the Lancad have two children. He worked as a labourer on the Swansea Docks for a while. During WW2, his home in St Thomas, Swansea was destroyed by German bombs. He died in Swansea on 14 February 1946, aged 59.
BOXING DAY 1908 – SWANSEA 6 – 0 AUSTRALIA
Having missed out on a fixture with the 1906 Springboks, Swansea made up for their disappointment by beating the first Wallabies in front of a 40,000 crowd at St Helen’s. Edgar Morgan scored the game’s only try and Jack Bancroft kicked a penalty. The gate receipts were a club record for a game in Wales of £2,100. Six Swansea players had faced the tourists with the Glamorgan County XV and seven in the international against Wales.
Bancroft gave Swansea an early lead with a penalty kick and just as it seemed the tourists were getting on top, Morgan lunged over for his try. In the second half, with the wind at their backs, the Aussies used the boot to good effect but the Swansea defence held fast. With ten minutes to go, the referee, the former Llanelli and Wales international Harry Bowen, sent off Wallaby forward Tom Griffin for striking an opponent.
Swansea: Back, Jack Bancroft; three-quarter backs, Harry Toft, Billy Trew (captain), Harry Thomas, Phil Hopkins; half-backs, Dickie Owen and Dick Jones; forwards, Edgar Morgan, Ivor Morgan, David J Thomas, Dai Davies, I Williams, WH Hunt, George Hayward, D Griffiths
Australia: Back, Phil Carmichael; three-quarter backs, Charles Russell, Jack Hickey, Edward Mandible, Arthur McCabe; five-eighth Chris McKivatt; half-back, Fred Wood; forwards, Charles McMurtie, Jumbo Barnett, Tom Griffin, Norm Row, Charles Hammond, Syd Middleton, Pat McCue, Tom Richards
BOXING DAY, 1912 – SWANSEA 3 – 0 SOUTH AFRICA
Swansea were the only unbeaten team in Wales and the Springboks had won all four of their international matches to date on tour. They brought with them all bar one off the side that had beaten Wales a few weeks earlier. It wasn’t enough, though, to tame Swansea as they took another notable scalp. The only try came 20 minutes into the game from international forwards David Thomas. Swansea played a lot of the game on the back foot and skipper Billy Trew withdrew two forwards late in the game to strength his defensive line.
A crowd of 35,000 turned up to watch the game despite horrendous conditions. Torrential rain had flooded the pitch and many feared the game would have to be cancelled. The magical drainage powers of the St Helen’s pitch played their part in clearing the water that was standing on the surface the night before, although drastic measures were also needed and ground staff had to cut drains across the pitch to allow it to dry out. Contemporary reports tell of a tourist washing his hands in a huge midfield pool of water at half time.
Swansea: Dai Williams; Howell Lewis, Billy Trew (captain), Tom Williams, Frank Williams; Sid Jerram, Oswald Jenkins; David J Thomas, Tom Morgan, Edgar Morgan, Ben Williams, Bert Hollingdale, George Hayward, Harry Moulton, George Evans
South Africa: Gerhard Morkel; Johan Stegman, Dick Luyt, Jacky Morkel, Boetie McHardy; Freddie Luyt, Fred Dobbin; Dougie Morkel, Tommy Thompson, Arnold Knight, Boy Morkel, Septimus Ledger, Joe Francis, Billy Millar (captain), John Luyt
