St David's Day; Welshmen to play for Warrington Wolves

Six of them enjoyed such spectacular careers that they have been inducted into the club’s Hall of Fame – Frank Shugars, George Thomas, Ray Price, John Bevan, Bobby Wanbon and Mike Nicholas.

Pontypridd-born forward Shugars became the first Warrington player to go on tour with Great Britain when he made the trip to Australia and New Zealand in 1910.

Pontnewydd-born forward Thomas played in four Challenge Cup finals (1904, 1905, 1907 and 1913) for the Wire before losing his life on the Somme in 1916, aged 35. 

Bedwellty-born stand-off Price was a key member of the Warrington side that achieved the Challenge Cup and Championship double in 1954.

Winger Bevan and forwards Wanbon and Nicholas all played in the Challenge Cup-winning team of 1974.

Another of Warrington’s Welshmen, Trimsaran-born Jonathan Davies, was crowned Man of Steel in 1994.

Jonathan Davies was the last Wire player to win the Man of Steel prize back in 1994 (Image: NQ Archive)

At the other end of the scale are five players who made just one appearance as a guest player or trialist. They are Syd Williams (1940), Peter Ellis (1959), Jimmy Owen (1971), Dai Jenkins (1972) and a player known only as Maxfield (1927).

Maxfield was a pseudonym used by a Welsh centre so that he could have a go at rugby league in secret without being banned for life by the Welsh Rugby Union for being a professional.

Since rugby union finally turned professional in 1995, the flow of Welsh talent to Warrington and the other Super League clubs has almost dried up.

In fact, the last two Welshmen to play for Warrington were the Bridgend-born twins Ben and Rhys Evans.

Rhys Evans was the last Welsh-born player to feature in a competitive fixture for Wire (Image: Mike Boden)

Controversially, Lee Briers has not been included in the list because despite winning 23 caps for the Wales rugby league team, he was born and bred in St Helens and is more readily identified as English.

The same thinking has been used to exclude Andy Bracek (born in Leigh), Dean Busby (born in Hull) and Tommy Cunningham (born in St Helens) who also played for Wales under the grandparent rule.

Iestyn Harris, though born and raised in Oldham, has been included because of a stronger Welsh identity, starting with his name.

His grandfather, the Abercarn-born Norman Harris, played for Abercarn, Ebbw Vale, Pontypool and Newbridge before heading north to Oldham and winning seven caps for Wales in rugby league.

The list also includes three more players who were not born in Wales but were raised and started playing rugby in the principality, namely wingers Griff Jenkins and Dennis Curling and centre/second row Mal Thomas.

Jenkins was actually born in Warrington when his father Jack was playing for the Wire.    

The full list of Warrington’s 85 Welshmen, with the years they played for the club, is as follows...

Keith Alderton (1950)

Allan Bateman (1990-95)

John Benjamin (1910)

Ivor Bennett (1937-46)

John Bevan (1973-86)

Brian Butler (1975-77)

Bill Chapman (1935-47)

Arthur Child (1923-26)

George Cox (1922-23)

Harry Cox (1912-15)

Dennis Curling (1972-77)

Dai Davies (1903-05)

Dai Morgan Davies (1927-34)

Gareth Davies (1995-97)

Islwyn “Izzy” Davies (1937-39)

Ivor Davies (1945-49)

Jack Davies (1904-07)

Jonathan Davies (1993-95)

Percy “Ponty” Davies (1927-28)

Bryn Day (1947)

Mel de Lloyd (1936-47)

Jerry Donovan (1923-24)

William Dowell (1908-09)

David H Edmunds (1902-03)

Kevin Ellis (1990-94)

Peter Ellis (1959, trialist)

Arthur “Candy” Evans (1931-34)

Ben Evans (2014-15)

Rhys Evans (2010-17)

William Fielding (1904)

Idwal Fisher (1962-63)

Gwyn Floyd (1939)

Tommy Flynn (1925-32)

Phil Ford (1981-85)

Roy Francis (1948-49)

Jack Goodall (1934-40)

Bill Gore (1947)

John Bernard Griffiths (1929-30)

Edgar Harries (1908)

Iestyn Harris (1993-97)

Ben Hawker (1933-38)

Mervyn Hicks (1961-64)

Bill Hopper (1948-49)

Dai Jenkins (1972, trialist)

Griff Jenkins (1934-39)

John “Jack” Jenkins (1906-10)

Clive Jones (1972-74)

Evan Thomas Jones (1898-1902)

Les “Cowboy” Jones (1936-50)

Mark Jones (1995-96)

Roy Lambert (1951-52)

Jason Lee (1994-95)

Richard Mahoney (1903-04)

Maxfield (1927, trialist)

Jesse Meredith (1927-31)

William Morgan (1910-11)

Mike Nicholas (1972-80)

Mike Nicholas (Image: NQ Archive)

Sid Nicholas (1912-19)

Billy O’Neill (1908-10)

Jimmy Owen (1971, trialist)

Dai Parker (1937-39)

Les Perkins (1927-34)

Ray Perkins (1953-55)

Rowland Phillips (1990-94)

James Polson (1910-11)

Stan Powell (1940 & 1947-49)

Ray Price (1953-57)

Frank Reynolds (1971-75)

Billy Rhodes (1926-29)

Glyn Shaw (1974 & 1984-85)

Frank Shugars (1904-12)

“Llandaff” Smith (1899-1900)

Colin Standing (1970)

George Thomas (1903-14)

Mal Thomas (1959-66)

Richard Thomas (1912-13)

Lewis Treharne (1908-09)

Bobby Wanbon (1971-78)

Evan William Watkins (1908)

Glynn Williams (1945-48)

John Llewellyn Williams (1929)

Rhys Williams (2010-13)

Syd Williams (1940, guest player)

Frank Wilson (1977-78)

Charlie Winslade (1961-67)