Phil Waller was an English-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 Newport and Johannesburg. He won six 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...

 and also played for the British Isles

British and Irish Lions

The British and Irish Lions is a rugby union team made up of players from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales...

 in their 1910 tour of South Africa

1910 British Lions tour to South Africa

The 1910 British Isles tour to South Africa was the eighth tour by a British Isles team and the fourth to South Africa. It is retrospectively classed as one of the British Lions tours, as the Lions naming convention was not adopted until 1950. As well as South Africa, the tour included a game in...

.

Rugby career

Waller joined Newport in 1906 and represented the club on 79 appearances. While playing in Britain he represented two county teams, Somerset and Monmouthshire

Monmouthshire County RFC

Monmouthshire County RFC is a Welsh rugby union club that manages an invitational team, known as Monmouthshire that originally played rugby at county level...

. In 1908 Waller turned out for Newport against the touring Australian team.

Waller made his debut for Wales against the same touring Australian team he faced with Newport. The next year he was selected to play in all three matches of the 1909 Home Nations Championship

1909 Home Nations Championship

The 1909 Home Nations Championship was the twenty-seventh series of the rugby union Home Nations Championship. Six matches were played between 16 January and 20 March. It was contested by England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales....

. In his first Home Nations match against England he was joined by fellow Newport player Jack Jones

Jack Jones (rugby player)

John "Jack" Phillips Jones was a Welsh international centre who played club rugby for Pontypool Rugby Club and Newport Rugby Football Club. He won 14 caps for Wales and was known as The Prince of Centres.-Rugby career:...

 and Swansea's

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...

 Jack Bancroft

Jack Bancroft

Jack Bancroft , born John Bancroft, was a Welsh cricketer, and rugby union international. He was a right-handed batsman and a wicket-keeper who played for Glamorgan. Bancroft also played rugby for Swansea RFC...

. Wales won all their matches and won the 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...

. Wales and Waller also faced France during 1909, and after beating them Wales also won the unofficical Grand Slam. Waller played once more for Wales, again against France in a record breaking game in 1910.

Waller was chosen in 1910 to represent the British Isles team in their tour of South Africa. Waller was chosen to play in all three tests, and after the tournament was over, elected to stay in South Africa and played for Johannesburg

Johannesburg

Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...

's Golden Lions

Golden Lions

The Golden Lions is a provincial rugby team based in Johannesburg, South Africa. The team was originally known as Transvaal, before changes to the political landscape in South Africa forced a name change to the Gauteng Lions, before again being changed to the Golden Lions. For sponsorship reason...

. After the outbreak of World War I, Waller enlisted in the South Africa Artillery Regiment. He was killed by shellfire at Arras in North France in 1917.

International matches played

Wales 1908 1909 1909, 1910 1909 1909

British Isles

1910, 1910, 1910