Henry Joseph 'Joe' Simpson (1856 - 22 March 1911)
Henry Joseph 'Joe' Simpson (1856 - 22 March 1911)
Henry Joseph 'Joe' Simpson (1856 - 22 March 1911)Joe Simposn player profile ESPN Scrum.com was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

-born 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 Cardiff Rugby Football Club

Cardiff RFC

Cardiff Rugby Football Club is a rugby union football club based in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. The club was founded in 1876 and played their first few matches at Sophia Gardens, but soon relocated to Cardiff Arms Park where they have been based ever since...

 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 won only three caps for Wales but captained the squad for one match during the first years of international rugby.

Rugby career

Although born in England, there were few rules regarding nationality in the early period of national rugby, and when in 1884, in a game against England, Frank Purdon

Frank Purdon

Frank Thomas Purdon was an Irish-born rugby union forward who played club rugby for Newport and Swansea. Purdon was capped four times for Wales including the very first Wales international, against England in 1881.-Rugby career:...

 withdrew in the morning before the game and Simpson was selected to take his place. The game took place at Cardigan Fields in Leeds, which a disappointing crowd of only 2,000 witnessed, and though Wales lost Simpson was reselected for the remaining two games of the 1884 Home Nations Championship

1884 Home Nations Championship

The 1884 Home Nations Championship was the second series of the rugby union Home Nations Championship. Six matches were played between 5 January and 12 April 1884...

. Wales lost again in the second game of the tournament against Scotland, but in the final match of the competition, in a home game at the Cardiff Arms Park

Cardiff Arms Park

Cardiff Arms Park , also known as The Arms Park, is primarily known as a rugby union stadium, but it also has a bowling green, and is situated in the centre of Cardiff, Wales. The Arms Park was host to the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1958, and hosted four games in the 1991 Rugby World...

, Simpson was given the captaincy. This was Simpson's last game but it resulted in a Welsh win with tries

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...

 from Tom Clapp

Tom Clapp

Tom Clapp was an English-born international rugby union forward who played club rugby for Newport and Nantyglo RFC. He won 14 caps for Wales and captained the team on three occasions...

 and William Norton

William Norton (rugby player)

William Barron Norton was a Welsh international rugby union three-quarter who played club rugby for Cardiff Rugby Football Club and international rugby for Wales. He was awarded six caps for Wales.- Rugby career :...

. The 1884 match against Ireland which Simpson captained is often remembered because Ireland arrived two players short, and Wales supplied them with two replacements, both of whom became dual nationals as they also represented Wales.