Cliff Jones (rugby player)
| Full name | Clifford William Jones | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Date of birth | 12 March 1914 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Porth,Rhondda, Wales | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date of death | 27 November 1990 (aged 76) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| School | Porth Secondary School Llandovery College |
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| University | Cambridge University | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Position(s) | Fly-half | ||
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| Amateur team(s) | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Points) |
| National team(s) | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Points) |
| 1934–1938 | Wales | 13 | (6) |
Clifford 'Cliff' William Jones OBE (12 March 1914 – 27 November 1990) was a Welsh international rugby union fly-half who played club rugby for many teams but is most associated with Cardiff and Cambridge University. Jones was known as a quick and elusive runner, but was also noted for his numerous injuries which limited his international and club appearances.
Jones was a product of the Welsh Secondary Schools Rugby Union system, playing competitive matches while still a schoolboy. Educated at Porth Secondary School, and although wanting to play association football was forced towards rugby union as a schoolboy through the sporting curriculum of Llandovery College. Jones gained his first cap as part of the Welsh secondary schools team and came to the attention of the rugby world in a brilliant display in April 1932 in a Secondary Schools game against Yorkshire Schools. During the 1932/33 season Jones was given the captaincy of Llandovery.
Before his eighteenth birthday Jones was already playing for Pontypridd and Cardiff, but after leaving Llandovery he was accepted into Cambridge and was selected for the university's rugby team. While there he teamed up with Wilf Wooller, though they both found themselves on the same losing side during the 1933 Varsity match.
Jones managed only 22 appearances for Cardiff, mainly due to injuries sustained on the pitch. He suffered four broken bones before he reached the age of twenty, missed much of the 1936/37 season with a broken collar bone and injured his elbow on a comeback game in 1939.
Jones was first capped for Wales in 1934, while still at Cambridge, at Cardiff Arms Park against England. The team is recognised as a mess, with 13 of the players being new caps resulting in an unbalanced pack with slow service. Jones was battered by England's Fry and Hordern which left him in tears during the game. Wales lost the game 9-0 and 5 of the new caps were never selected again, though Jones was not amongst them, returning for the next two games of the tournament against Scotland and Ireland; both saw Welsh wins. Jones returned to the Welsh squad the next year in the 1935 Home Nations Championship, and in the second game of the tournament against Scotland he scored his first International try.
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