Phil Thomas - Centre
Wales RL
| Heritage No | 14 |
| Date Of Birth | 06/12/1877 |
| Place Of Birth | Neath |
| Clubs | Harrogate, Hull Kingston Rovers, Leeds Rhinos, Oldham RLFC, Tredegar |
| Regions | Yorkshire |
| Honours | Wales RL, Great Britain |
Phil Thomas won the first of his four Welsh rugby league caps at centre in our second ever international, a 35-18 win over England on April 20, 1908 in Tonypandy. He also made one Great Britain appearance in the third test against New Zealand in 1908 in Cheltenham, ending in an 8-5 defeat. Originating from the Tredegar rugby union club, he turned professional with Oldham as an 18 or 19-year old in 1902, played for them 44 times before joining Leeds, and then Hull Kingston Rovers. For Rovers, he made 102 appearances, scoring 26 tries. Signing up to fight in the Great War, he was killed in action on May 25, 1915, aged 31, on the fields of battle in Belgium and he is remembered in the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial in that country.
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).