Howell de Francis - Utility forward
Wales RL
| Heritage No | 13 |
| Place Of Birth | Aberavon |
| Clubs | Wigan Warriors, Bradford Bulls, Aberavon |
| Honours | Wales RL, Other Nationalities |
Howell de Francis was born in Port Talbot, Wales, around 1883. By 1906 he had turned professional with Bradford. On New Years Day 1908, he played in the world's first ever full rugby league international, scoring a try in Wales' 9-8 win over New Zealand in Aberdare. By Christmas of that year, he'd moved to Wigan and made a try-scoring debut in the Boxing Day derby against St Helens. He helped them to win the Championship that season, and played in their 7-3 win over Oldham in the 1909 Championship Final. He followed that up with a Lancashire Cup winners medal later that year. Howell de Francis was considered a "Probable" for the 1910 Great Britain Lions tour of Australia and New Zealand, but ultimately he was not selected for the tour. He also played for Other Nationalities during his career.
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).
Please see the GDPR notice here.
