Wales Students head coach Clive Griffiths will bow out of international rugby league coaching on Saturday, after 75 internationals in charge of Welsh side, when Wales take on England in the deciding match of the Student Four Nations Championship at The Gnoll in Neath (kick-off 6.15pm).
The match is the third in a triple-header of encounters against England, with the U16s meeting in the deciding match of their Championship at 11am, with an U17s friendly at 2.30pm. Tickets are available here.
If you are unable to make the matches, they will all be streamed at https://lounges.tv/profile/walesrugbyleague
Saturday’s match will be Griffiths’ 50th in charge of Wales Students, a record that started back in 1988 when Clive had just turned 34-years-old, in what was just Wales Students’ third match, as they beat Scotland 29-28 at Knowsley Road, St Helens. That was the first of 35 wins (so far) for the now 72-year-old as Wales Students head coach.
He then coached up to the 1992 Student World Cup in Australia (below), where Wales finished fourth, by which time he’d just taken over as head coach of the Wales men’s side. He was in that position for nine years, taking charge of 25 matches, still a Welsh record for that side, winning 15 of them and coaching Wales to the semi-finals of the 1995 and 2000 World Cups.
In 2008, he returned to Wales Students again, coaching both of his sons in that side and leading Wales to the semi-finals of two more Student World Cups in 2008 and 2013 (below), taking his personal coaching World Cup semi-final record to five.
Finally, last season, he took over again as Wales Students’ head coach and now hopes to go out with a bang as Wales take on England for the Four Nations title, in their hope of taking the crown for the first time in 14 years.
Griffiths, who continues in his role of Director of Performance of Wales Rugby League, said: “This will definitely be my last game. A couple of years ago, we were in a bit of a mess, and I put my hand up to take this on temporarily.
“And I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it, building the team up again. We’ve had some decent success, just two defeats in the last two years, to England last year, and one in a friendly match against the RAF, something we put right in this year’s encounter against them.
“It’s been really enjoyable and a good challenge, because we were in the doldrums before that, the Wales Students side hadn’t won a game since 2019.
“We’ve turned the tables a bit, and I’ve got to say thank you to the staff as well, that’s Richard Lewis, Rob Apsee, Gareth Groves, Jarad Vanagas, Jemma Salter, and Dai Albertelli, for the help they put in. We’re back to where we were by competing for titles again.
“It’s been a long track for me, with the students, the men, and the students, and the students again, and it’s been an absolute pleasure. I’ve loved every minute, even the stresses and the strains.
“We had the semi-final losses to England and Australia with seniors, but they covered themselves in glory in defeat. We also had semi-final losses with the students against Australia and against New Zealand, but just for us to get there, was a massive achievement.
“There was also the European Championship win for Wales men in 1995, the first time in 57 years, and the students winning the home nations a couple of times, in 2009 and 2012, with my two lads playing in respective teams.”
So, in this, his 75th match in charge of a Wales side, can he go out by coaching his players to another win against England, something he’s done five times already?
“We will have to bring our ‘Category A’ game to The Gnoll,” he said. “Scotland got stuck in from the first whistle, and we had to reset very quickly. If we had sailed through it would not have done us any favours, but we won the game, and we’ve set up a mouth-watering final again.”
