Swansea: 1889/90 and 1989/90
One hundred years may separate them, but the Swansea teams at the tail end of the 19th and 20th centuries were both a force to be reckoned with.
As the club’s archives retell it, the Swansea side of 1889-90 went on to be crowned Welsh champions (the Premier ‘Team of Wales’, as it was then known), in what was the acclaimed W J “Billy” Bancroft’s first season.
Fullback Bancroft, who was also a county cricketer for Glamorgan, would go on to gain 33 consecutive caps for Wales (a record he held until 1954). Swansea boasted the renowned Welsh half-back pairing of brothers David and Evan James, who would make a move to rugby league’s Broughton Rangers six years later.
Featured in the photo are eight capped players (including captain Billy Bowen, who had the honour of leading his country in one of his 13 appearances for Wales).
1889/90 Team Record
Played: 29 Won: 22 Lost: 4 Drawn: 3 Points for: 240 Against: 56. Honours: Premier Team of Wales.
Swansea RFC (1889/90) - Back Row (L to R): Tom Williams, W Williams, Sam Goldsworthy, E C Copus (Official), Ned Charles, Dai Morgan, John Meredith. 2nd Row (L to R): J S Longdon, Harry Bevan, Billy Bowen (Captain), Frank Pearce, Billy Bancroft, Arthur Whapham. Front Row(L to R): Evan James, W H Jones, David James.
Those with only a passing knowledge of Welsh rugby will know the Whites’ captain in the 1989-90 season. Having made his senior debut for the club as a schoolboy, scrum-half Robert Jones was fresh from the Lions’ victorious ’89 tour of Australia.
Wing Arthur Emyr was a key member of the team. He had made his international debut in 1989 with a win against England. That season he would be named Welsh Rugby Player of the Year, playing no small part in the Whites’ amassing of 200 tries that season – an unequalled feat.
The following year would see the formation of Welsh Premier Division (now the Indigo Group Premiership), a title Swansea would have to wait only one season to lift.
Swansea RFC (1989/90) - Back Row (L to R): Alan Reynolds, Les Rutherford, Paul Arnold, Mike Morgan, Paul Morris, Arthur Emyr, Stuart Parfitt. 2nd Row: L to R: Ian Buckett, Robert Williams, Mark Wyatt, Bleddyn Taylor, Kevin Price, Robert Subbiani, Steve Williams. Front Row (L to R): Stuart Davies, Mark Titley, Horace Phillips, Robert Jones (Capt.), Frank Miners, Paul Hitchings, W James, Steve White.
‘WHITE GOLD – The Birth of Rugby Football in Swansea & South Wales” by David Dow will be available soon from Swansea RFC.
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