Whatever bolts from the blue Warren Gatland comes up with in his World Cup squad selection for France, the shock is unlikely to rival the call into the set-up of Dai Young and Richard Webster in 1987.
The pair were injury replacements.
Just teenagers at the time, they’d been playing club rugby in Canberra when they had a message to report for Wales duty to play in the World Cup.
When they turned up at the team hotel, they didn’t immediately look the part.
“I though two f*****g hobos had turned up,” recalled tour manager Clive Rowlands years later.
There were holes in trousers and flip flops on feet.
But a visit to a gents’ outfitters put all that right.
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The pair went on to play important roles in Wales achieving their best-ever World Cup finish.
They are included, then, among the Welsh players who came from nowhere to play in a global tournament.
2019
Rhys Carre
He made his debut against Ireland in a World Cup warm-up and whoosh there he was — into the squad for the whole shooting match, all 6ft 2in and 20st 8lb of him. Some wondered whether a 21-year-old prop could handle the challenges of a global tournament campaign, but Carre did extraordinarily well, playing five games off the bench, with his display against Uruguay exciting a lot of people.
2015
Matthew Morgan
“Every legend has a beginning.” So ran the strapline beneath an image of Morgan used to to promote an age-grade match at the start of his career. Gatland didn’t seem in any hurry to buy the hype, though, leaving it until 2014 before handing the then Bristol-based player a debut cap off the bench, with Morgan then slipping off the radar. Back he came for the World Cup after an injury to Gareth Anscombe.
There was a start against Fiji, after which Gatland was asked how he felt Morgan had done. “There were a couple of moments when my heart was in my mouth when he ran from under the posts. But you don’t want to take that away from him,” said Gatland later. Nonetheless, the New Zealander has never given the impression of enjoying the sensation of his heart racing at 300 beats a minute. Morgan hasn’t played for Wales since.
Cory Allen
Allen hadn’t played a game of competitive rugby in five months before the squad was named, with the then 22-year-old landing a place after an injury to Tyler Morgan. Allen had a World Cup debut to remember, scoring a try hat-trick against Uruguay. Injuries plagued him after the tournament, though, with the centre retiring as player late last year at the age of 29.
Dominic Day
It had been a shock when Day was named in Wales’ World Cup training squad. Few expected him to make the cut for the tournament proper, with Wales having locks of the calibre of Luke Charteris, Alun Wyn Jones, Jake Ball and Bradley Davies at their disposal. But Warren Gatland opted for a fifth second row and that man was Day, who featured off the bench against Uruguay. There were to be no more caps after the global bash for the likeable west Walian.
2011
Rhys Priestland
He didn’t start at fly-half for Wales until August 2011. Barely five weeks later, he was wearing the No. 10 shirt when Warren Gatland’s side faced South Africa in their World Cup opener. Priestland shone in the tournament, notably against Ireland in the quarter-finals, before being ruled out of the last-four encounter with France by injury. Another immensely unassuming individual, he has 56 caps and is still playing.
Taulupe Faletau
One of Wales' all-time great players was a bolter once.
Really.
In 2011, the then 20-year-old made his Wales debut against the Barbarians in June and was in the World Cup squad a couple of months later. How did he do? Well, there was a tournament high 83 tackles, with not a single one missed. Many carries also. For a young player, his performances were extraordinary. Still going: of course he is.
Lloyd Burns
A year before the 2011 World Cup he had been worried about losing his job as a bricklayer. Then his rugby career took off, with the former Cross Keys and Pontypool player cementing his place in the Dragons squad before winning a Wales call. A fine campaign followed for Burns, one he enjoyed, with him and his mate Taulupe Faletau inseparable. Sadly, a heart complaint forced the hooker into early retirement just months later.
Ken Owens
Came in for Matthew Rees after the ex-Wales captain missed the tournament with a neck injury. The then young Sheriff faced Namibia in New Plymouth on his Test debut, the first step on an epic Wales journey that has seen him win 91 caps, with there being a more than reasonable chance he’ll lead his country to this autumn’s global bash in France.
Scott Williams
Warren Gatland was embarked on a wholesale rebuilding programme, with young players thrust onto the front line — ring any bells? — and Williams took his place in the big time at the age of 20. Three tries came against Namibia and one against Fiji. A fine Test career was unfolding.
Ryan Bevington
The front rower with the speed of a wing had been propelled into contention with a cap against the Barbarians three months before the 2011 World Cup. His point of difference was his extraordinary work around the field. It was worth paying the entrance money just to see the loose-head unleash a 40-metre surge. He played twice in the tournament, shadowing Gethin Jenkins and Paul James, and went on to take his cap haul to 13. Injuries, unfortunately, were never far away.
Lloyd Williams
Made his World Cup debut three weeks for Wales’ first game. Featured in three matches in New Zealand. It’s been stop-start at Test level since, but Williams has amassed 32 caps will always his role in one of Wales’ most famous tries, the one scored by Gareth Davies against England at Twickenham in the 2015 World Cup, to reflect on, as well as 258 appearances — and counting — for Cardiff.
2007
Will James
Survived a 62-5 mauling on debut against England at Twickenham to claim a spot in Gareth Jenkins’ World Cup squad 16 years ago. Twp further caps followed in warm-ups, plus one in the tournament itself, against Japan. Then thank you, and farewell.
2003
Shane Williams
He’d been in the Test wilderness for 23 Tests and close on two years when he appeared against Romania in the summer of 2003. It was his chance to prove he could cut it in Test rugby: mess up and that might have been that, with history written differently. But he took it, scoring two tries and not only going on to star for Wales in the weeks that followed but going on to carve out one of the great Test careers.
Adam Jones
He was another one who bagged a late ticket to the party in 2003, debuting against England and featuring against Canada in Wales’ World Cup opener. Steve Hansen hauled Wales off after 30 minutes in certain games with the Kiwi doubting his fitness. The question remains to this day: Could he not have waited until half-time rather than embarrassed a young player? The same applied when Warren Gatland did the same at the other end of Jones’ Test career. In between, the big man established himself as one of Wales’ greatest scrummaging props.
Brent Cockbain
Wales experimenting in selection close to a World Cup is nothing new. Cockbain had won caps for Australia at U19 and U21 level but qualified for Wales on residency grounds. He came into the squad ahead of Ian Gough, who claimed he had been “stabbed in the back”. There were four World Cup appearances for the 6ft 8in Cockbain and an important role in Wales’ Six Nations Grand Slam in 2005.
Jonathan Thomas
It says much about Jonathan Thomas’ performance In the 2003 group game against New Zealand that he was singled out by the All Blacks when everyone wanted to talk about the brilliance of Shane Williams. It was the display of a lifetime from the then youngster.
Yet he had only debuted for Wales a few months earlier, bolting into the set-up and proving an unqualified success.
1999
Jason Jones-Hughes
Graham Henry drafted in the former Australia U21 player amid a huge fuss in 1999 with JJH qualifying via his Colwyn Bay-born father. A whole summer seemed to be consumed by the row with the Wallabies distinctly unimpressed. He only won two caps during World Cup IV, though, and pulled on the red jersey just once more. He packed in playing because of a back injury in 2004.
1995
Mark Bennett
“Before we played New Zealand, Mark Bennett said he was going to make sure he put in at least one big tackle on Jonah Lomu. A few of us raised our eyebrows. When the game started, Lomu came on to the ball around 40 metres out and started picking up pace. Mark stood his ground and put in a perfect hit around the ankles. It was incredibly brave. At that time, remember, next to no-one was tackling Lomu, a giant at a time when there weren’t any other wings with his size and pace.”
So ran the reflection of a Welsh player after the 1995 World Cup match between Wales and New Zealand.
It was one of the few memorable moments for Wales in the tournament.
Bennett had been uncapped heading for the event in South Africa.
Jonathan Humphreys
Alex Evans was Wales’ coach and he was sticking with what he knew, using a lot of Cardiff players with Jonathan Humphreys one of them. Like Bennett, Humph made his Test bow in the game with the All Blacks, later going on to captain his country. Made 35 appearances all told for Wales, including a role towards the end when he was recalled as captain by Steve Hansen. The hooker never failed to give his all.
Andy Moore
Just the one World Cup appearances for scrum-half Moore after his call-up under club coach Alec Evans. It was also his Test debut, against Japan. Made three further appearances for his country.
Gareth Thomas
A good season in the Heineken League was enough to catapult the postman from Bridgend in the Wales World Cup squad. “It was a strange experience to get selected. It really came out of the blue and it wasn’t something I was expecting,” he said later. “I’d been training with the squad, but didn’t expect for a moment to get the call.”
A hat-trick followed against Japan in the tournament, with Thomas going on to become the first Wales player to play a hundred times for his country. There was much, much more besides, but time and space dictates it will have to be written about elsewhere.
Greg Prosser
A cap on debut against New Zealand and that was that for Prosser at Test level. He had formed a fine second-row partnership with Mark Rowley at Pontypridd.
1991
Garin Jenkins
Welsh rugby’s’ greatest scrummaging hooker? He’d be right up there. One of the Welsh game’s greatest characters? Tick. Someone to have alongside you in the trenches? Absolutely.
Asked if he was daunted before a trip to France in 1999, Jenkins replied: “Why should I be? We are going out there to play a game of rugby. No one’s going to be signing the Old Rugged Cross at the end of it.”
Debuted for his country in a World Cup warm-up and appeared three times in an ill-starred campaign that saw Wales exit at the pool stage. Went on to win 58 caps.
Ken Waters
Included in the 1991 World Cup squad as Wales looked to freshen up after a summer of woe in Australia.
The Newbridge hooker was a fine player. Won just the one cap at Test level.
Mike Rayer
All all-round Cardiff rugby legend who once confessed to feeling like crying during one difficult time for the club, he made his Wales bow against Western Samoa as a replacement for the injured Anthony Clement.
There were 21 caps for Rayer between 1991 and 1994.
1987
Dai Young and Richard Webster
Young and Webster can be counted as the ultimate World Cup bolters, two tough-nut teenagers playing club rugby in Canberra when they were called into their country’s World Cup squad.
When they answered the call from Wales in 1987, they turned up at the hotel in a state of disarray. “They had holes in their trousers and were wearing flip flops. I’d never seen anything like it. They were like tramps,” tour manager Clive Rowlands later recalled.
“I remember saying to the WRU’s Ray Williams: ‘Do me a favour, Ray, get them down to a gentlemen’s outfitters, and then a sports shop and come back with a full set of new kit.’ When they came back, they looked sharp, tidy.”
They could also play, too.
Young featured as a starter in the quarter-final against England and Webster began the third-place match against Australia as Wales secured their best-ever World Cup placing.
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