Dr Jack, Wales’ oldest international at the time of his death, passed away in his home town of Bridgend last week aged 92. He was the last survivor of the Welsh team that met England at Cardiff Arms Park in 1947 in the first official international after WW2.
One of his opponents that day, the England flanker Mickey Steele-Bodger, was at Llandaff Cathedral to pay his respects to the man he claimed “was the hardest tackler in the game”.
“I still shudder when I think about being tackled by Dr Jack. He was a very tough opponent, but a great man off the field,” said Steele-Bodger, the long standing President of the Barbarians.
“The game has lost one of its greatest players and warmest characters. He was feared and revered in equal measure, but was always great company off the field.”
Steele-Bodger’s England team won the game in Cardiff in 1947 to ruin Dr Jack’s first of 17 Welsh caps. He also went on to play in six successive Tests for the British & Irish Lions on their 1950 tour to Australia and New Zealand.
Gethin pointed out that Dr Jack became so well known that his “surname became superfluous”. He was simply known, and loved, as ‘Dr Jack’.
“The former All Blacks scrum half and coach Fred Allen once told me that once Jack Matthews committed himself to a tackle the next person to arrive on the scene should have been the rag and bone collector,” said Gethin.
“He provided full front shock treatment to his opponents, and with surgical precision to the stomach area – so much for the hippocratic oath! The was the hardest tackler Welsh rugby had seen since Claud Davey.”
Former Wales hooker Brian Rees, an eminent surgeon, gave an appraisal of Dr Jack’s 50 year career as a medical GP.
“His commitment to both rugby and medicine was equal. When he went on the 1950 Lions tour he had to pay for a locum to take over at his Practice to work in his place while he was battle the All Blacks,” said Rees.
“His life would fill the script of a Hollywood movie, but then Dr Jack wouldn’t have liked that. He gave freely of himself to Cardiff and to Wales and made friends wherever he went.
“He carried on as a GP well after the retirement age and was welcomed into people’s homes as an extension of their family. One of his proudest boasts to me was not about rugby, but the fact he had never lost and hurt a baby in delivery throughout his long career.”
Rees was joined by a host of other former Welsh internationals such as CD Williams, John Dawes, Barry John, JPR Williams, Gerald Davies, D Ken Jones, Brian Davies, Alun Priday, Onllwyn Brace, Rob Norster, John O’Shea, Stuart Roy, Rob Howley, Alan Phillips and current cap Jamie Roberts.
Dr Jack’s former Cardiff and Wales team mate Cliff Morgan, who was unbale to attend, sent a special note to the family which was read out by Canon Graham Holcombe.
“Dr Jack looked after me from my very first game for Cardiff when I was only 18. He was my first captain and it was a privilege to play with him and Bleddyn Williams,” wrote Morgan.
“He became my inspiration. He then made the transition from a super rugby star to a much loved doctor who brought both my daughter, Catherine, and son, Nick, into this world.
“Dr Jack wanted to join the Air Force during WW2, but was ordered to continue with his medical studies. They needed more doctors than pilots. He once told me that 85% of his the pilot intake he had hoped to be among had died in training.
“Our generation, he used to say, the ones who survived or who were spared, have spent the rest of our lives trying to make every last minute count one way or another. It was the deal we struck privately with ourselves to keep our sanity and to honour those who didn’t make it. That’s what it has all been about.
“Many people walk in and out of your life, but only true friends leave footprints in your heart. Dr Jack will live in my heart forever.”
