Gareth Owen Llewellyn (born 27 February 1969), is a Welsh former rugby union player who gained a record 92 caps for Wales as a lock. His record for Wales caps was surpassed by Gareth Thomas in May 2007. His brother, Glyn Llewellyn, also played international rugby union for Wales. His son, Max Llewellyn, plays for

Cardiff Rugby Cardiff Rugby ( cy, Rygbi Caerdydd) are one of the four professional Welsh rugby union teams. They compete in the United Rugby Championship and in European Professional Club Rugby competitions. Based in Cardiff, the team play at Cardiff Arms ...

Rugby career

Llewellyn started his playing career at Llanharan RFC and then moved on to play first class rugby at

Neath Neath (; cy, Castell-nedd) is a market town and Community (Wales), community situated in the Neath Port Talbot, Neath Port Talbot County Borough, Wales. The town had a population of 50,658 in 2011. The community of the parish of Neath had a po ...

, Harlequins,

Ospreys The osprey (''Pandion haliaetus''), , also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor reaching more than in length and across the wings. It is brown o ...

and Narbonne, and signed for Bristol Shoguns at the beginning of the 2005–06 season. After excelling in the line-out for Neath in their match against the touring

New Zealand All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987, ...

on 25 October 1989, he made his debut for Wales ten days later against the same opposition and went on to win a total of 92 caps, breaking the record of 87 held by

Neil Jenkins Neil Jenkins, (born 8 July 1971) is a Welsh former rugby union player and current coach. He played fly-half, centre, or full back for Pontypridd, Cardiff, Celtic Warriors, Wales and the British & Irish Lions. Jenkins is Wales' highest ever p ...

in the test against Argentina on 12 June 2004. He captained Wales on 7 occasions and appeared in three Rugby World Cups –

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

and

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

. He played his last match for Wales in November 2004 against New Zealand. Such was his longevity that he played international rugby in three different decades and under eight different coaches. Following the 2004–05 season, he announced his retirement from international rugby. He was unlucky not to be selected for the Lions squad in 1993 to tour New Zealand. From the beginning of the 2008–09 season, Llewellyn combined playing with a coaching role at Welsh First Division club Tonmawr.Llewellyn takes on Tonmawr task
BBC Sport, 4 August 2008 Since the 2009–10 season he is head coach at South West One West side Thornbury RFC working alongside Bristol's Darren Crompton and

Rob Higgitt Rob Higgitt (born 12 August 1981) is a Welsh former rugby union player who played as a centre. Born in St Asaph, Denbighshire, Higgitt began his rugby career with Ruthin, for whom his father was the chairman. He played for Ruthin from the age o ...

formerly of

Bristol Rugby Bristol Bears (officially Bristol Rugby Club or Bristol Rugby) are a professional rugby union club based in Bristol, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded as Bristol Football Club in 18 ...

, the Scarlets and

Worcester RFC Worcester Warriors Rugby Football Club is a professional rugby union club, based in Worcester, England, that is currently in administration and which has been suspended and will be relegated from Premiership Rugby, the top division of domestic ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Llewellyn, Gareth 1969 births Living people Rugby union players from Cardiff Welsh rugby union players Wales international rugby union players Rugby union locks Harlequin F.C. players Bristol Bears players Wales rugby union captains Neath RFC players Llanharan RFC players Ospreys (rugby union) players RC Narbonne players