Tommy Harris - Hooker
Wales RLHeritage No | 232 |
Date Of Birth | 05/06/1927 |
Place Of Birth | Crumlin |
Height | 173 |
Clubs | York City Knights, Hull FC, Newbridge |
Honours | Great Britain, Wales RL |
Invitational | Rugby League XIII |
Managed | York City Knights |
Percival Thomas Harris became Wales' 23rd captain when he led us against France on St David's Day 1959. In addition to his Wales caps, he made 25 Test appearances for Great Britain, a record for a GB hooker, making three trips to Australia, twice on tour with the Lions, in 1954 and 1958, when they regained the Ashes, and also for the 1957 World Cup. He also played in one match in the 1960 World Cup in England which Great Britain won. In addition to his caps, he played in 22 tour matches for Great Britain. Originally a rugby union player with Newbridge, Tommy turned professional in 1949 where there were worries that at 5ft 8in (1.73m) he would be too small for the 13-man game. It took him one reserve team match to persuade the Hull club otherwise. The club's officials had travelled to Wales to sign Bill Hopkins, a team-mate of Harris’s at Newbridge. Harris asked for a trial and in quickly mastering the league hooker’s art went on to become one of the lub’s all-time greats. In a distinguished 14-year rugby league career, he played 444 times for the Airlie Birds, scoring 56 tries. This included Challenge Cup finals at Wembley in 1959 and 1960, the second of which saw him win the Lance Todd Trophy as man of the match despite their 38-5 defeat by Wakefield, the largest losing margin put on any player to receive the trophy. Concussed 10 minutes before half-time – in the days before substitutes – he battled on courageously until 15 minutes from the end, when he was finally taken to hospital. After retiring from playing, he coached York for 11 years, donning his boots again in the mid-1960s to play twice when the team had an injury crisis - with York winning both games. He "went upstairs" in 1966, becoming a director of York until 1987. He died in York on September 27 2006 aged 79.
PLAYER FOR | P | W | D | L | TRY | GOALS | DG | PTS | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Great Britain | 25 | 16 | 2 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 | |||
Wales RL | 8 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 | |||
TOTAL | 33 | 18 | 2 | 13 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
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).