Mel James - Prop
Wales RL
| Heritage No | 299 |
| Date Of Birth | 21/02/1948 |
| Place Of Birth | Swansea |
| Clubs | St Helens, Swansea, Resolven |
| Regions | Glamorgan |
| Honours | Wales RL, Great Britain, Wales B |
| Invitational | Crawshays |
Mel James made his Wales debut against England in the 1975 World Championship. It was his only game in that tournament as injury had kept him out of the early stages. He went onto win a further 10 caps. He was also a Great Britain tourist in 1979 but only played in tour matches, not in the tests. Starting off at his local club, Resolven, Mel James joined Swansea RFC in 1968 and played 183 times for them before turning professional with St Helens in October 1972. He made 321 appearances for the club, scoring 41 tries, and it could have been a lot more had he not suffered a broken leg for Saints against Australia in November 1973 which put him out of the game for 16 months. He was back to full fitness by the 1975/76 season where he helped St Helens to a treble of BBC2 Floodlit Trophy, Challenge Cup Final and Premiership Final wins. He added another Premiership medal in 1977. He retired in 1983 and returned to Resolven where many of his shirts are now on display at the rugby union club.
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).
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