Roy Mathias - Wing
Wales RLHeritage No | 287 |
Date Of Birth | 02/09/1949 |
Place Of Birth | Llanelli |
Height | 185 |
Weight | 89 |
Education | Stebonheath Secondary Modern School |
Clubs | Cardiff City Blue Dragons, St Helens, Felinfoel |
Regions | Scarlets |
Honours | Wales RL, Great Britain, Wales, Wales RU U25, Wales Youth RU, Wales Schools |
Invitational | Barbarians |
After making his Wales debut in 1975, Roy was prolific, winning 20 caps in six years, which at the time put him in second place in the country's record cap holders. This included starring in the famous "Battle of Brisbane" in the 1975 World Championship. He was a Great Britain Lions tourist to Australia and New Zealand in the summer of 1979, winning just the one, which turned out to be his only, GB cap, against Australia in Brisbane. Llanelli born and brought up a stone's throw from the now West Wales Raiders ground, Roy played for Felinfoel and then Llanelli, where he scored 86 tries in 157 appearances. He won two full WRU caps, playing in 1970 and 1971. He was snapped up by St Helens in 1972 and went on to score 218 tries from 412 appearances over 11 seasons, which in 2020 was fifth on the club’s all-time try scoring chart. After 26 tries in his maiden season, he scored 40 the following season and then 26 again in 1974/75 as Saints won the Championship. More silverware followed the following year – with Wembley being the icing on the cake of a trophy treble, Roy scoring twice in the BBC2 Floodlit Trophy Final win over Dewsbury. His final medal was in 1977 as St Helens won the Premiership Final. He was such a loyal servant that when he was granted a testimonial he was allowed two matches – and took the Saints down to play a Welsh XIII at his hometown Llanelli in June 1982 before taking on Pilkington Recs at Knowsley Road. He later played four games for Cardiff City Blue Dragons but remained living in the north, moving to the village of Burtonwood and founding Burtonwood Bridge ARLFC in 1986.
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).