 Watts in Wales jersey | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Birth name | Wallace Howard Watts | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Date of birth | (1870-03-25)25 March 1870 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Chipping Sodbury,England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date of death | 29 April 1950(1950-04-29) (aged 80) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Place of death | Richmond,England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 5 ft11+1⁄2 in (182 cm) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 12 st 6 lb (174 lb; 79 kg) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Wallace Howard Watts (25 March 1870 – 29 April 1950) was anEnglish-born internationalrugby union player who played club rugby forNewport and international rugby forWales. Watts was part of the 1893 Wales team which won the country's firstTriple Crown. From 1892 Watts played for county team Gloucestershire.[1]
Watts first played for Newport in the 1889/90 season, but it took until the1892 Home Nations Championship for him to be chosen for the Welsh national team. Although an Englishman by birth, the rules of nationality were more lax during the period, with three years residency required to represent your adopted country. Watts was one of three new caps in the pack for his first game, alongsideArthur Boucher andFrank Mills, but the campaign was disastrous for the Welsh losing all three games in the tournament, collecting the wooden spoon.
Thenext year saw a complete turnaround in Welsh fortunes when, under the captaincy ofArthur Gould the team won all three games, taking the Triple Crown. Watts played in all three games and continued to represent Wales over the next three Championships, but never to the level of success as in 1893. His final game was the first match of the1896 Championship, a massive 25-0 loss.
In 1896, Watts moved to London and began playing for London exilesLondon Welsh, though he still represented Newport whenever he returned to Wales.[2] He played for London Welsh until 1911, into his forties. He became Honorary Secretary of the club during the 1912/13 season.[3] Watts' son, DRW Watts, a civil engineer and MD ofGeorge Wimpey Construction subsequently became Chairman of London Welsh in the late 1960s.
Wales[4]
