The London Welsh Rugby Club Podcast

Our guest this week is Director and Head of Men's Rugby, Jonathan Shankland.  Jon came to London Welsh after playing National League rugby in the Midlands and fell in love with the club.  He has played for the club from 2011 until the end of our first season in the Herts and Middlesex league, where he decided to retire and play for the Vets.  He has made life long friends at the club and decided t...

Our guest this week is Rhodri Dawes.  Having watched his dad play for London Welsh and then move away from London, Rhodri began his rugby journey in the Midlands.  He then moved to Herts and played some rugby for school and then made his senior rugby debut with Hertford in the National League and then went on to Shelford Rugby Club and played for them for a couple of seasons.  He came to London We...

Our guest this week is Michael Dawes.  Michael is one third of the London Welsh Dawes dynasty, with his Dad, John Dawes playing, captaining and Coaching the London Welsh sides through the 60's to 90's; and then his son, Rhodri playing for the club across the last three seasons. Michael talks about his days playing for the Minis and Youth throughout the 80's and 90's and recollects some of the grea...

Our guest this week is Club President, John Taylor.   John was born and bred in Watford, with Welsh parents and played rugby at Watford Grammar School and Fullerians during his Youth. A skilled centre in his day who met Gerald Davies at Loughborough and was convinced by his coaches to switch to a backrow forward; where his rugby journey took off. John takes us through is glittering...

London Welsh Rugby Club Podcast Season 2 - Trailer. In this series we continue to catch up with the many characters who are connected with the club.  The podcasts will be less regular this season, but will include some match days news as well as interviews with our main guest.  The podcast series is hosted by Club Director, Gareth Vaughan Jones.

Our guest in this special episode is current Wales captain, Siwan Lillicrap.  She take us through balancing life working as Head Coach at Swansea University, with playing rugby for Bristol Bears and Wales.  We chat about the recent 6 Nations campaign and the likely build up to the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand in Oct 2022 and what their target should be.   We get to understand Siwan's rugby journ...

Our special guest this week is Top International and RFU Referee Luke Pearce.  Luke takes us through his refereeing journey from when he started in Devon aged 16, promoted to the National Panel by the age of 21 and a Premiership referee at the age of 24.   We chat about some of the challenges of refereeing during Covid times and look back at the times he has refereed London Welsh in...

In this episode, Lyn Jones takes us through his decision to come to London Welsh and those magical two seasons' the club had winning the Championship in 2012 and playing in the Premiership the following season. We get to understand what was required to be successful in the Championship and the key matches in his first season in charge.  The success in the play offs and then the tactics at Bedford...

Our guest this week is former Director of Rugby, Lyn Jones.    In this episode we get to hear about Lyn's journey in rugby up until his time with London Welsh.  Where did he develop his love of the game and then playing for Neath in the 80's with Brian Thomas as Head Coach.  We chat about his move to Llanelli, the trophies he won and getting capped by Wales.  We understand a bit about Lyn the busi...

Our guest this week is former Club captain Matt Corker.  Matt is 10th on the all time appearance list, but first on the all time league appearances for the club in his 9 year association with London Welsh.  Matt's rugby prowess came to light only when he went to University in Bath to study Chemistry and went on to play for English Universities; which is where he got noticed by Wasps. Wasps signed...

Our guest this week is former London Welsh Board Director and Youth Chairman, Paul Browne.  Paul is one of our fantastic volunteers at the club who brought all his four children to our Minis and soon got involved in Coaching and inspiring children to play our wonderful game.  He tells us of the odd games he played for the Occies in the back row and how he enjoyed rugby both at Brighton College and...

In our second special, we catch up with former Wales captain, Pontypool player and BBC Rugby Commentator; Eddie Butler.  Our chat starts with Ed paying his tribute to the passing of our Club President, John Dawes.    We cover his career path to the Commentary chair, we discuss why London Welsh chose not to play Pontypool for many years in the 70's; why Wales perform in the 6 Nations and not in the...

Our guest this week is former England International, Newcastle Falcon legend, Toulon, Northampton and London Welsh captain, Tom May.  Tom has had a glittering playing career, playing over 250 games in the English Premiership and someone who really enjoyed playing for London Welsh at the end of his playing career.  He enjoyed it so much, he then played for the club across both seasons as an amateur...

Our guest this week is former club captain and current player, Lloyd Davies.  Lloyd is a product of Monmouth School where he learned to love the game and then went off to Cardiff University to enjoy the social side of rugby and met Morgan Browne and Rhys Howells whilst playing there.  Prior to University, Lloyd went to work in Australia and played for a small town North of Brisbane, wher...

Our guest for our first special episode is Rugby World Cup Winner, Will Greenwood MBE.  The Special episodes are an opportunity for us to hear from different voices connected to the game and to understand how they might relate to London Welsh,  Will discusses the return of the Community game and how he and his family get so much out of playing and coaching rugby at Maidenhead RFC.  ...

Our guest this week is Kevin Bowring.  Kevin came to London Welsh in 1977 after playing with Clive Rees for the Voyagers in an Amsterdam 7's tournament.  267 appearances across 9 seasons, with 3 as club captain, puts him 6th on the all time appearances list.  Kevin loved his time at London Welsh and enjoyed the tours, 7's tournaments and playing in our Centenary season fixtures against Barbarians...

Our guest this week is former Club Captain, Mike Powell. Born and bred in South Wales and started his junior rugby journey at Caldicot RFC where he remains now, helping to Coach the senior team. Went off to study at University and whilst at Uni,  played for Pontypool, Walsall, Exeter and captained Wales Students.  Mike signed professionally for Bridgend and then had a season with Celtic Warriors,...

Our guest this week is Richard 'Barrel' Thomas.  Barrel is a product of our Minis and Youth from the late 70's and early 80's; and was usually at Old Deep Park through his childhood as his father Edgar Thomas played for the club and was then heavily involved in Junior rugby and then with all the Senior Men's squads, as a Club Official.   Barrel went on to play Senior Rugby for the club for 12/13 y...

Our guest this week is former London Welsh player, Alex Davies.  Alex is from the Wirral and only really got into rugby as a teenager as football was his first love.  He played senior rugby for Birkenhead Park at 17 and then some matches for Sale Jets, but couldn't quite get an Academy contract at Sale. He commenced his degree and also went on his first visit to play rugby in New Zealand where he...

Our guest this week is Club Captain, Zoe Jeanes.  She has been with London Welsh Women for over 8 years and takes us through that journey. She took up the sport at University where she signed up at the Freshers' Fair and then took a couple of weeks to decide whether to attend or not  We are glad she did, as that was rugby and London Welsh's gain.  Zoe works in recruitment and informs us of the man...

Our guest this week is former London Welsh, Wales and British & Irish Lions Centre, Rob Ackerman.  Born in Ebbw Vale from great rugby stock, he went to Christ College in Brecon before following in his fathers' footsteps and playing for Newport RFC. Within a year of making his senior debut he was capped by Wales for the centenary test vs New Zealand at the Arms Park as a raw 19 year old up against...

Our guest this week is current player Elis Staines.  Elis is a graduate of Llandovery College in West Wales and managed to finish his education both academic and rugby in New Zealand.  Back in the UK Elis came to University in London and found his way to London Welsh just as our first season got under way with Sonny Parker as our DoR.  Since then, Elis has loved the environment at the club and mad...

Our guest this week is Danny Wilson.  Danny gave up playing rugby after a degenerative back condition in his early 20's meant he had to retire; which meant he focussed on a coaching pathway. Employed the the WRU to grow the game with schools and clubs; he then went to work for Cardiff Blues academy.  He got his big break when London Welsh offered him the forward job in 2008 to work with Martin Jon...

Our guest this week is Colin Charvis. Colin commenced his senior rugby career at London Welsh whilst he was studying in London and stayed for four years having played in the Occies, 3rds, 2nds and over 80 appearances for the first XV.  His club career took him from Swansea, to Tarbes (France D2), Newcastle and Newport Gwent Dragons.  Colin will be remembered for his try scoring ability for Wales,...

Our guest this week is former London Welsh back row forward, Ed Jackson.  Ed played for London Welsh for only two seasons, but what a two years they were for the club.  Promotion from the play offs in the Championship to a season in the Premiership with Lyn Jones as our DoR.  Ed went on to have a successful playing career with Wasps and Newport Gwent Dragons after leaving London Welsh, but he then...