David Samuel was a Welsh

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 international rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 forward who played club rugby for Swansea

Swansea RFC

Swansea Rugby Football Club is a Welsh rugby union team which plays in the Welsh Premier Division. Its home ground is St Helens Rugby and Cricket Ground in Swansea. The team is sometimes known as The Whites because of the primary colour of the team strip...

 and international rugby for Wales

Wales national rugby union team

The Wales national rugby union team represent Wales in international rugby union tournaments. They compete annually in the Six Nations Championship with England, France, Ireland, Italy and Scotland. Wales have won the Six Nations and its predecessors 24 times outright, second only to England with...

. He is most notable as being a member of the very first Welsh Triple Crown winning team, in 1893.

Rugby career

Samuel began his rugby, like many players from Swansea

Swansea

Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...

, at Morriston RFC

Morriston RFC

Morriston Rugby Football Club is a rugby union team from the village of Morriston, Swansea in West Wales. The club is a member of the Welsh Rugby Union and is a feeder club for the Ospreys....

. By 1891 Samuel was playing for first class club Swansea, and on 7 March was selected to represent Wales against Ireland as part of the 1891 Home Nations Championship

1891 Home Nations Championship

The 1891 Home Nations Championship was the ninth series of the rugby union Home Nations Championship. Six matches were played between 3 January and 7 March...

. The game saw an influx of Swansea players into the squad, with first caps for Tom Deacon

Tom Deacon

Thomas 'Tom' Deacon was a Welsh international rugby union forward who played club rugby for Swansea and international rugby for Wales- Rugby career :...

, David James

David James (rugby player)

David James was a Welsh international rugby union half back who played club rugby for Swansea. While playing with Swansea, James was paired with his brother, Evan James and together they were nicknamed the 'Swansea gems' and the 'Curly haired marmasets'.- Rugby career :James was first capped for...

, Samuel's brother John

John Samuel

John Samuel was a Welsh international rugby union forward who played club rugby for Swansea and international rugby for Wales. He played just one game for Wales, notable for being selected alongside his brother David Samuel...

 as well as Samuel himself. After losses in the first two games of the tournament against Scotland and England, Wales achieved a narrow win over Ireland to avoid ending bottom of the table. Samuel was at the centre of the match scoring a vital try

Try

A try is the major way of scoring points in rugby league and rugby union football. A try is scored by grounding the ball in the opposition's in-goal area...

, which was converted by Billy Bancroft

Billy Bancroft

Billy Bancroft was a Welsh international fullback who played club rugby for Swansea and a county cricketer for Glamorgan, becoming their first professional player in 1895....

. Despite the success of the Welsh team against Ireland, Samuel was replaced the next season by Swansea team-mate Frank Mills

Frank Mills (rugby player)

Frank Musgrave Mills was an English-born rugby union forward who played club rugby for Cardiff and Swansea and won 13 caps for Wales...

.

In 1893 the Welsh team had achieved early success in the Home Nations Championship

1893 Home Nations Championship

The 1893 Home Nations Championship was the eleventh series of the rugby union Home Nations Championship. Six matches were played between 17 January and 11 March. It was contested by England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales...

. The Welsh selectors had decided to keep faith with a fairly static squad, which had achieved success with wins over both England and Scotland. Under the captaincy of Welsh rugby superstar Arthur Gould, Wales faced Ireland at Stradey Park

Stradey Park

Stradey Park was a rugby union stadium located near the centre of the town of Llanelli in Carmarthenshire, Wales. It was the home of the Scarlets region and Llanelli RFC rugby teams. The stadium was a combination of seating and standing with a total capacity of 10,800...

 in the hope of winning their first Triple Crown

Triple Crown (Rugby Union)

In rugby union, the Triple Crown is an honour contested annually by the four national teams of the British Isles who compete within the larger Six Nations Championship: England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. If any one team manages to win all their games against the other three they win the...

 Championship. Samuel was the only change to the Welsh squad after the win away to Scotland, brought in to replace Harry Day

Harry Day (rugby player)

Henry "Harry" Thomas Day was a Welsh international rugby union forward who played club rugby for Newport and Cardiff. Day was awarded five caps for Wales, and was most notable for being part of the 1893 Welsh Triple Crown winning team...

. Wales won by a single try, taking the Triple Crown for the first time, making Samuel a Home Nations Champion. Although Samuel had played in two winning games, he was not selected for any further Welsh international games.