1994-95 Season (M)

 P W D L Pts. For  Pts. Ag. T  P  D  C
 41 27 0 14 948  747  121  71 2  62

 

CAPTAIN : ANTHONY CLEMENT

MOST APPEARANCES : 32 (DAVID WEATHERLEY)

MOST TRIES : 12 (DAVID WEATHERLEY)

MOST POINTS : 271 (ALED WILLIAMS)

WALES Representation :

v ROMANIA : GARIN JENKINS

v ITALY : ANTHONY CLEMENT; GARIN JENKINS

v SOUTH AFRICA : ANTHONY CLEMENT; GARIN JENKINS; ROBIN McBRYDE

v FRANCE : ANTHONY CLEMENT; STUART DAVIES; GARIN JENKINS; ROBERT JONES

v ENGLAND : ANTHONY CLEMENT; GARIN JENKINS; ROBERT JONES

v SCOTLAND : GARIN JENKINS; ROBERT JONES

v IRELAND : GARIN JENKINS; ROBERT JONES

v JAPAN : ANTHONY CLEMENT; STUART DAVIES; GARIN JENKINS

v NEW ZEALAND : ANTHONY CLEMENT; ROBERT JONES

v IRELAND : ANTHONY CLEMENT; STUART DAVIES; ROBERT JONES

WALES ‘A’ :

v SOUTH AFRICA : ROB APPLEYARD; PAUL ARNOLD; IAN BUCKETT; STUART DAVIES

WALES UNDER 21 :

v ROMANIA U21 : LYNDON GRIFFITHS; CHRISTIAN LOADER; MARCUS THOMAS

v SCOTLAND U21 : CHRISTIAN LOADER; ANDY MOORE; MARCUS THOMAS

v IRELAND U21 : CHRISTIAN LOADER; ANDY MOORE; MARCUS THOMAS

BARBARIANS v SOUTH AFRICA : ROBERT JONES

* Winners of Swalec cup

* Paul Arnold was chosen as man of the match in the cup final

On November 5th 1994 swansea played South Africa at St Helens. The Springboks were touring Britain for the seventh time and for the first time since their return from International isolation in preparation for the 1995 World Cup which they hosted and won. Another famous win over a touring side was not to be, despite a bright start with a try from wing Simon Davies after twenty minutes. A few minutes later, Davies again broke free of the aggressive Springbok defence but was called back by the referee. This was possibly the turning point in the match as the tourists led at half time and came out after the break to destroy the Whites supporters’ dreams of another famous victory.  They scored a dozen tries with Joubert scoring four and converting nine. The final score was 78 – 4 in favour of the tourists.

Despite this reverse, “the Whites” recovered to win the Welsh Cup that season.

The Swansea team on that November day were: A Clement (captain), S Davies, R Boobyer, D Weatherley, S Marshall, A Williams, R Jones, I Buckett, G Jenkins, K Colclough, P Arnold, R Moriarty (M Evans), A Reynolds, I Davies and R Appleyard (Stuart Davies).

Prior to the start of the 1994-95 season, Swansea left these shores for a tour in Argentina in the fine tradition of the Club’s overseas adventures. Former Whites prop Ian Buckett remembers the tour well and recounts his impressions here:-

Pre season Tour of Argentina 1994 – Battle of Tucaman.

Sadly few of the supporters were able to make it over to Buenos Aires and Tucaman for what on paper was an unsuccessful tour by a weakened squad. In fact the main game -against then champions Tucaman- was pretty much in the bag approaching the 80th minute, we were leading by about 2 points if I recall after a bull dozing close quarter try off a maul by Garin Jenkins and it was possibly one of the most torrid games up front imaginable, the Tucaman pack proving reliably Argentinian in their approach to the the scrum and maul.

The referee had been verbally abused for some time by the partisan and hostile (on an almost Neath level) crowd but seeing the match slip away they had become increasingly hostile and as the 8oth minute approached had started throwing (full) beer cans at him. I remember thinking at the time it was a waste of good beer.

Needless to say instead of abandoning the game with a Swansea win, and what would have been pretty great result with a depleted side and strong performances from the likes of an emerging Andy Moore, he played an impossible 8 minutes of injury time. We desperately tried to hold the Argentinians off for the injury time countdown – which clearly seemed never ending to us- but eventually, through sheer force of will – the ref managed to spot an ‘offence’ and awarded the Argies a sitter of a penalty and we could only watch bewildered as the kick slotted through the posts with the inevitable full time following straight on.

Despite this it was a good, well managed tour (although Byron Mugford was a little bit strict at times ;-), I would always recommend Argentina and Canada as the two most hospitable places to go to play rugby and was lucky enough to tour both with the Whites.

By Ian Buckett (Swansea RFC: 1988-89 to 1997-98)