Name Cecil Biggs | ||
Cecil Frederick Biggs (2 May 1881 – 5 October 1944) was a British sportsman who played rugby union at centre for Cardiff and the Barbarians, and as a Cricketer represented Glamorgan. Biggs was one of six brothers to play rugby for Cardiff, and captained the team for a season in 1904/05. Although he was never capped at an international level, he has been described as "...one of the great uncapped Welsh players."
Rugby career
Biggs came from a large sporting family. Six of his brothers played for Cardiff Rugby Football Club, most notably Norman (1886–1899) and Selwyn (1889–1901). Norman, Selwyn and Biggs himself were all captains of Cardiff RFC and all three also played for invitational touring team, the Barbarians, though Cecil never represented Wales, unlike Norman and Selwyn.
Biggs joined Cardiff in the 1898/99 season, and by the next year he had been given his Reserves team cap. By the 1900/01 season Biggs was part of the first team and in this first season he was the team's second highest try scorer with 16. For the next three seasons, Biggs was the club's top scorer with 16, 16 and 24 tries. In the 1904/05 season, Biggs was elected as team captain, after serving as Gwyn Nicholl's vice-captain in the previous season. Biggs chose as his vice-captain Billy O'Neill a prop-forward.
Despite being part of the 1905/06 season for Cardiff, Biggs missed the encounter between Cardiff and the first touring All Blacks team. The next season saw the first tour of the South African national side, and Biggs was part of the Cardiff team to face them. Of all the Cardiff players on that day only Biggs and Dicky David were uncapped at international level, and David would be selected to play for Wales in 1907. Cardiff beat the South Africans 17-0, made all the more impressive by the fact that Biggs was injured in the first few minutes of the game, which as good as reduced the team to 14 men.