Joseph Booth (1873 – 28 April 1958)
Scrum.com was a Welsh-born

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

forward who originally played club rugby for

Pontymister Pontymister ( Welsh:''Pont-y-meistr'') is a small village in Caerphilly county borough in Wales. Location Pontymister is attached to its neighbour, the town of Risca. History Originally a farm called ''Tŷ Isaf'', the village came about as a n ...

and international rugby for

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

. Booth later joined

West Hartlepool R.F.C. West Hartlepool Rugby Football Club (nicknamed West) is an English rugby union system, English rugby union club who play in Regional 2 North in the English rugby union system, sixth tier of the English rugby union system. History West Hartlep ...

and represented Durham at county level.Jenkins (1991), pg 24.

Rugby career

Booth was the first player to be capped for Pontymister while representing the club, when he was chosen to play for Wales in the country's first match of the

1898 Home Nations Championship The 1898 Home Nations Championship was the sixteenth series of the rugby union Home Nations Championship. Five matches were played between 5 February and 2 April 1898. It was contested by England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. For the second y ...

. Wales had just been readmitted into the

International Rugby Board World Rugby is the governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition. It also organises a number of other international competit ...

after a year of exile due to the events of the Gould Affair. The re-formed Welsh team had seven new caps, with five first time internationals brought into the pack, Booth being one of them. Played away at Limerick, and now captained by Swansea's

Billy Bancroft William James Bancroft (2 March 1871 – 3 March 1959) was a Welsh international fullback, who played club rugby for Swansea, and a county cricketer for Glamorgan, for whom he was the first professional player in 1895. Bancroft was seen as ...

, Wales made an excellent start to the tournament by winning the match 11-3. Despite the victory, Booth was replaced for the next match by

Rhondda Rhondda , or the Rhondda Valley ( ), is a former coalmining area in South Wales, historically in the county of Glamorgan. It takes its name from the River Rhondda, and embraces two valleys – the larger Rhondda Fawr valley (, 'large') and t ...

policeman

Dai Evans David "Dai" Evans (1872 – 29 January 1912) was a Welsh international rugby union forward who played club rugby for Penygraig and international rugby for Wales. Evans was born in Maenclochog, Pembrokeshire, but came to the Rhondda Valley to f ...

, and never represented Wales again. In the autumn of 1898 Booth moved to England, but unlike many of his fellow players did not switch to the professional

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football * ''League of Legends'', a 2009 multiplayer online battle a ...

code, but instead joined union club West Hartlepool. While at Hartlepool, Booth was also selected to play for Durham County, playing nine games over five seasons.

International matches under the union code

WalesSmith (1980), pg 463. * 1898

Bibliography

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Booth, Joseph 1873 births 1958 deaths Durham County RFU players Risca RFC players Rugby union forwards Rugby union players from Abergavenny Wales international rugby union players Welsh rugby union players