Wales rugby stars from Cardigan, Aberporth and Newcastle Emlyn

Whether someone is a dedicated fan of the sport, watching club, region and internationals or just dips into the international games, it brings a lot of pride to the country.

Since Wales’ first match – a disastrous loss to England – in 1881, there have been 1,184 players to represent their country, with a number from the Teifi region.

Here we take a look at some of those from Teifi region who have represented our country at the highest level.

Brynmor Williams

David Brynmor Williams – known by his middle name of Brynmor – was born in Cardigan on October 29, 1951, and grew up in Aberporth, going to Ysgol Gynradd Penparc, Cardigan Grammar School and Cardiff College of Education.

Brynmor played for a number of teams including Cardiff RFC, Newport RFC and Swansea RFC. He was also capped at Wales U15 and U18 level.

His international success was limited due to the emergence of Gareth Edwards and Terry Holmes in the same Welsh squad as him, with the three vying for the scrum-half position.

In 1974, he played for Wales against Tonga in an uncapped match and had more experience against international opponents in 1975 when he started for Cardiff against Australia.

He has the accolade of being one of the few people who represented the British and Irish Lions before being capped for his country! He toured New Zealand in 1977 with the British and Irish Lions, playing against New Zealand in his first ‘international’ match that June, playing in all three tests but got injured in the final test. He was a member of the team that beat the All Blacks, something not many Welsh internationals can say they have done.

He would then make his official Welsh debut a year later against Australia in Brisbane, making an impact immediately with a try. He would receive two more Welsh caps in the 1981 Five Nations Championship and played for the Barbarians invitational team.

Brynmor – whose son Lloyd has also been capped for Wales and younger son Tom represented the country in the HSBC World Sevens Series – also played rugby league for Cardiff City Blue Dragons and Wales, again as scrum half. He received one cap for Wales, scoring a try

Since finishing his rugby career, he has been a pundit on S4C and was chairman of Fields in Trust Cymru. He is also a patron of Velindre Cancer Centre and Prostate Cymru and a trustee at  the Welsh Charitable Trust. He was given an MBE in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to sport and charity in Wales.

Wayne Proctor

Wayne Thomas Proctor was born on June 12, 1972, in Cardigan.

He was a student at Cardigan Secondary School and represented Wales at the 110m hurdles, making him a Welsh schools international athlete.

He played as a winger and full back for Llanelli RFC and the Scarlets following the introduction of regional rugby.

He made his debut for Wales against Australia in Cardiff in 1992 and went on to make 39 appearances for his country – with just two being on the bench.

Wayne made one appearance in the 1995 World Cup and appeared in 13 Five/Six Nations championship games.

His final match was against Australia nine years later.

He held the record for the most tries in the Welsh league and was a record try scorer for Llanelli RFC. He scored 872 points for the Scarlets.

Wayne worked as a fitness coach for the Scarlets, Wales U21s squad and the Wales Sevens squad.

Aled Williams

Aled Williams was born in Cardigan on January 26, 1964. He played his club rugby as a fly half for Swansea RFC and Bridgend RFC.

He started at Swansea in 1983, leaving in 1987. At Bridgend, he won the Snelling Sevens tournament in 1987, being named man of the tournament and given the Bill Everson Award. He would return to Swansea for the 1991/2 season and won the Welsh Premier Division for two consecutive seasons and won the Swalec Cup in 1994.

He was also in the team that beat Australia in 1992.

His first Welsh appearance came as a replacement against Namibia in 1990 on the wing. He played for Wales again in 1995 in an uncapped match against South-East Transvaal before being capped later that year when he came off the bench against Fiji.

Gareth Davies

Gareth Davies was born on August 18, 1990, and grew up in Newcastle Emlyn. He went to Ysgol Gyfun Dyffryn Teifi in Llandysul and has been playing for the Scarlets since 2006 when he first joined the ranks in the academy.

He played for Wales at U18 and U20 level. He was the Pro12’s top try scorer in the 2013/14 season and was selected to play for Wales in the summer tour to South Africa in 2014.

He came on for his debut off the bench against South Africa on June 14, 2014. He made three further appearances as a replacement and then started all five of Wales’ matches in the 2015 World Cup, scoring five tries – two of which came in his first start for Wales against Uruguay. His three other tries in the tournament came against England, South Africa and Fiji.

He played against Ireland, Scotland, France and England in the 2016 Six Nations and was a replacement against Italy. He scored two tries in this tournament, one against each of Scotland and Italy.

He scored against Argentina in the 2016 Autumn Internationals series.

He went on the 2017 British and Irish Lions as cover – cutting his summer tour of New Zealand and Samoa with Wales short.

He scored a try in the 2017 Autumn Internationals against New Zealand.

In the 2018 Six Nations, he scored against Scotland and Ireland and played all five games in the 2019 Six Nations, winning his first Grand Slam.

He was part of Wales’ 2019 World Cup squad, scoring a try against England in a warmup match before bagging tries against Australia and Uruguay in the tournament.

He scored a try against Italy in the Autumn Nations Cup in 2020 and was selected to tour South Africa with the British and Irish Lions in 2021.

As of the time of writing (February 10, 2023), he has 67 caps.

Gareth Thomas

Gareth Thomas was born on September 1, 1993, in Newcastle Emlyn.

He was educated at Llandysul’s Ysgol Dyffryn Teifi and plays at loosehead prop.

He played at Newcastle Emlyn, Carmarthen Quins and Llanelli RFC before joining the Ospreys in 2014.

He represented Wales at U20 level, being an integral part of the 2013 squad that got to the final of the Junior World Championship.

Gareth made his debut for Wales on July 30, 2021, coming off the bench against Canada. At the time of writing (February 10, 2023) he has played 18 times for Wales with six of these appearances in the Six Nations, six in the Autumn Nations Series and six other test matches.

He has been yellow carded once in his international career and was a member of the Welsh squad that beat South Africa on South African soil for the first time in 2022.

We will look at more of the county's international players next week!