| Birth name | Rowland B. Griffiths | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | (1886-03-04)4 March 1886 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Tintern,Monmouthshire, Wales | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date of death | 4 May 1914(1914-05-04) (aged 28) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Place of death | Marseille, France | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.82 m (6 ft 0 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 85 kg (13 st 5 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Rowland Griffiths (4 March 1886 – 4 May 1914) was aWales internationalrugby union player. He was selected for the1908 British Lions tour to New Zealand and Australia. Griffiths played club rugby forNewport RFC.
Griffiths first came to note as a rugby player when he represented first-class Welsh team Newport. He joined the club in 1902 as a threequarter and continued to represent the club until 1908. As a Newport player Griffiths faced the touringBarbarians at least once in his career; when in the 1905 Winter tour he scored with a conversion inCharlie Pritchard's win over the Baa-Baas.[1] In 1906 he was selected as part of the Newport team to faceThe Original All Blacks in their first tour of Britain. Again under the captaincy of Pritchard, Griffiths was put into the fullback position by his club. Griffiths did not have a good game; in the first halfCanterbury wingEric Harper easily beat Griffiths to score a try.[2] The tourists furthered their lead with a penalty goal, before Griffiths gave Newport hope with a penalty goal of his own, but despite heroic efforts by scrum-halfTommy Vile, the tourists won the game. Despite becoming the first Newport player to score against theAll Blacks, Vile stated after the match that he believed that Newport lost because Griffiths had been positioned at fullback, and Griffiths "was never a fullback".[3]
Although Griffiths was never selected for theWales team; in 1908 Griffiths was part ofArthur Harding'sAnglo-Welsh team that toured Australia and New Zealand. Griffiths played a part in the games against the regional sides but was never selected for the Test Matches, and thus never capped.
Griffiths later moved to France, where he played for Stade Nantais Université Club (Nantes) withPercy Bush (1910–11) and forRacing Club de France (Paris) where he played on the losing side of the final of the 1912French Championship. In 1912–13, he coached US Perpignanaise (Perpignan, later called "USAP") before settling in Marseilles where he died oftyphoid on 4 May 1914 at the age of 29.[3]