Fuelled by passionate national pride, he won Five Nations titles as player and coach
Clive Rowlands, who has died aged 85, captained the Wales rugby union team on his debut in 1963, after which he went on to lead the side as scrum-half in another 13 matches. During that period Wales shared the Five Nations championship with Scotland in 1964 and won the title outright in 1965.
Within a few years he was coaching Wales to further triumphs, taking them to a first Five Nations Grand Slam in 19 years in 1971 and laying the foundations for the great era of Welsh rugby in the 1970s. Later he went on to manage Wales in the 1987 World Cup and the British & Irish Lions in Australia in 1989.
One of the keys to Rowlands’s success was his passionate national pride. The fly-half Barry John, who played under him, recalled a pre-match talk against England at Twickenham in which Rowlands deliberately shoehorned the players into a tiny room to increase the drama of his message.
“Instead of the game, he just talked about Welshness – what it means, why beating England is so important to the people,” said John. “After having us spellbound for a few minutes, he wound up by emphasising just how much support we were receiving back home. ‘Even the dogs are barking in Welsh today,’ he said.”