James Augustus "Gus" Merry (c. 1888 - 14 December 1943) 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

Rugby football

Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...

 hooker who played 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...

 for Pill Harriers

Pill Harriers RFC

Pill Harriers RFC are a Welsh rugby union club based in Newport in South Wales. The club is a member of the Welsh Rugby Union and is a feeder club for the Newport Gwent Dragons..-Club origins:...

 and rugby league

Rugby league

Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...

 with Hull. He won two caps 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...

 at rugby union and later represented the Wales rugby league team

Wales national rugby league team

The Wales national rugby league team represent Wales in international rugby league football matches. Currently the team is seventh in the RLIF World Rankings. The team were run under the auspices of the Rugby Football League, but an independent body, Wales Rugby League, now runs the team from...

 in 1913.

Rugby career

Merry was born circa 1888, in Newport, Wales. A crane driver by profession, he played amateur rugby for Pill Harriers, a notably tough team that played in Newport. Merry made his international debut for Wales during the 1912 Five Nations Championship

1912 Five Nations Championship

The 1912 Five Nations Championship was the third series of the rugby union Five Nations Championship following the inclusion of France into the Home Nations Championship. Including the previous Home Nations Championships, this was the thirtieth series of the annual northern hemisphere rugby union...

, in a much changed team for the encounter with Ireland

Ireland national rugby union team

The Ireland national rugby union team represents the island of Ireland in rugby union. The team competes annually in the Six Nations Championship and every four years in the Rugby World Cup, where they reached the quarter-final stage in all but two competitions The Ireland national rugby union...

. In the first two mathches of the campaign, Wales had lost to England, but then beat Scotland. Despite the win over Scotland, the Ireland match saw the Welsh selectors bring in seven new caps, five of them in the pack. The inexperience of the Welsh team showed on the day and Wales were beaten 12-5, after the Welsh led 5-0 at half time. Merry played one final game for Wales under the union code, the last match of the 1912 Championship, played in his home town of Newport against France

France national rugby union team

The France national rugby union team represents France in rugby union. They compete annually against England, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales in the Six Nations Championship. They have won the championship outright sixteen times, shared it a further eight times, and have completed nine grand slams...

. After a slow start Wales came through to narrowly beat the French, who were a weak team in their infancy.

It is unknown if Merry would have gained any further caps for the Welsh union team as in 1912 he switched to the professional code, joining Hull. He made his debut on 5 September and played 35 games for Hull. On 15 February 1913, Merry was selected to play for the Wales rugby league team, making him a dual code international. His only cap for Wales was against England

England national rugby league team

The England national rugby league team represent England in international rugby league football tournaments. The team has now seen a revival, having largely formed from the Great Britain team, who also represented Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The team is run under the auspices of the Rugby Football...

, played at Plymouth. Wales lost 16-40. In 1919 he made a failed application to rejoin the union code.