Dai Bishop - Utility forward
Wales RLHeritage No | 351 |
Date Of Birth | 31/10/1960 |
Place Of Birth | Cardiff |
Height | 178 |
Weight | 82 |
Education | St Cadoc's Royal Catholic School |
Clubs | Pontypool, Cardiff, Ebbw Vale, London Broncos, Hull Kingston Rovers, Salford Red Devils |
Honours | Wales RL, Great Britain, Wales, Wales B, Wales Youth RU |
David J. Bishop, also known by the nickname of "Bish", played for Wales in rugby union in 1984 and then four times in rugby league. He also won a Great Britain RL cap. As a scrum-half in rugby union, he made his first-class début for Ebbw Vale before joining Pontypool in 1981. However not long after that, he broke his neck and despite being told he would never play again, he was back playing for Pontypool within a year. His only Wales union cap was against Australia in 1984 where he scored Wales' only try. Dai had played understudy to fellow scrum-half Terry Holmes, and when Holmes switched codes to rugby league in 1985, many expected Dai to finally be given his chance to play for Wales permanently. However, during a match versus Newbridge, Chris Jarman received a broken jaw in an off-the ball incident. Jarman brought a private prosecution resulting in Dai being given a suspended jail sentence and an eleven-month ban by the WRU and was never considered for RU international selection again. Finally in 1988, he was lured to rugby league and he signed for Hull Kingston Rovers, and subsequently played for Salford and London Crusaders. He was Sky Sports' man of the match in the Wales Rugby League comeback game in 1991 when we beat Papua New Guinea 68-0 in Swansea. When rugby union became openly professional in 1995, Dai returned to Pontypool as player-coach. On retirement, he became a businessman and media pundit where he was a regular guest on the Real Sports Phone In on Real Radio.
PLAYER FOR | P | W | D | L | TRY | GOALS | DG | PTS | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Great Britain | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
Wales RL | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | |||
TOTAL | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
Note: The statistics tab shows all of the player’s known appearances for this particular Wales side against international sides or other non-capped recognised first class matches. To see exactly how many full test rugby league caps for Wales (or any other country) that this player has, please click the “Test Summary” tab. Nines individual player records are not shown, please click here for full details about Nines. Please also note that clubs’ current names are used throughout this website, due to the database only being able to feed one name per club (e.g. Wigan will also be known as Wigan Warriors throughout all player profiles).