LINK :http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/northwest/halloffame/sport/tony_gray.shtml
Tony Gray
Tony Gray was a Wales rugby international before becoming the national team coach and taking Wales to third place in the 1987 Rugby World Cup.
Born:14 JUN 1942
Place of Birth: Bangor
School: Ysgol y Garth, Ysgol Friars
Trivia: Tony was named European coach of the year in 1988.
Biography: I was brought up in Bangor and started playing my rugby at school as a centre. I played for Bangor Rugby Club, when it was based at a ground in Beaumaris!
Then I went to college in Cardiff and moved to play in the back row. College rugby was a bit different to the level I'd been playing at during my schooldays, as was moving on to the London Welsh team. I was there at a really exciting period in Welsh rugby; from 1964 to 1976, and became captain in 1971. I was on the same team as players like JPR Williams, Gerald Davies, John Dawes and Mervyn Davies, all Welsh internationals. I particularly loved the fixtures against the Welsh teams over Christmas and Easter. It's a tradition they don't follow anymore.
I played for Wales in 1968 against England, Scotland and Argentina. Playing England at Twickenham is such a huge game and it was definitely a really proud moment for me.
I stayed in rugby after retiring from playing, and became Wales coach in 1985 at a really exciting period in the game. We had a group of really talented young players like Jonathan Davies, Robert Jones and Dai Young. It took a bit of time to settle down, but we were heading in the right direction.
We went to the first Rugby World Cup hosted by new Zealand and Australia in 1987, just off the back of winning the triple crown. We had no idea how big a tournament it would become; we had the Five Nations, but nothing like that. We lost heavily to the eventual winners, New Zealand, in the semi finals but did beat Australia in the game for third place.
I finished as Wales coach in 1988, just a year before lots of those great young players went north to play Rugby League. I became a lecturer in the Sports Science department of Bangor University before retiring.
I'm now President of the North Wales Rugby Union. Rugby in north Wales is progressing well - great strides have been made over the last few years. The game is now professional, so the biggest obstacle will be finance, but I am really excited to see the North Wales Regional team get together. The Welsh Rugby Union have realised that there's talent in North Wales and are now doing far more to develop it. This is shown in the increasing amount of players we have involved in the Wales junior teams.
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