Born in Porth, he won Welsh Schoolboy caps from Porth County Grammar before heading to St Luke’s College, Exeter, to train to become a schoolteacher. The Devon teacher-training establishment was a hot-bed of rugby, and full of Welsh students, and in three years in the 1st XV he hardly ever ended up on the losing side.
He played for his home town team, Tylorstown, before switching to Cardiff and made his debut in ‘blue and black’ at Penarth on 24 September, 1958, in a 9-8 victory. He started in the back row, moved into the second row before establishing himself as a rock solid prop.
Between 1958 and 6 November, 1971, when he played his last game for the club against Oxford University, he played a club record 413 games, captain Cardiff in the 1967/68 and 1968/69 seasons. He was also vice-captain for three seasons between 1962-65.
He played at No 8 in the rather unpleasant clash with the Springboks at Cardiff Arms Park in the 13-0 defeat n 1960, but was at prop for the club when they took on the 1963 All Blacks and the 1966 Wallabies. New Zealand triumphed 6-5, but Australia were beaten 14-8 on 5 November, 1966.
Howard took his first step on the ladder towards a Welsh cap when he was selected in the back row for the ‘Whites’ in the first trial at Pontypridd on 7 November, 1959. The ‘Reds’ won 9-3 and he didn’t progress into either of the remaining trial matches.
He next appeared in a Welsh Trial was as a tight head prop in the ‘Reds’ side in the first trial of the 1961/62 season. He packed down with Cardiff clubmate Kingsley Jones and Newport’s Bryn Meredith, but ended up on the losing side, 14-3, at Tredegar on 4 November, 1961.
There were no more trials before the ‘Big Five’ decided they had seen enough and called him up to win his first cap in the final game in the 1963 Five Nations Championship against France in Paris. It had been a poor campaign for the Welsh team, who had lost at home to England and Ireland and won in Scotland, and the selectors made six changes, one positional, for the trip to the French capital.
Norris, then 28, came into the side as the only new cap and took the place of club colleague Kingsley Jones. Cardiff hooker Billy Thomas was also recalled and Denzil Williams completed the front row. With the wind at their backs the Welsh side put up a great fight and took the lead through a 50 metre penalty from full back Graeme Hodgson.
But the French hit back with a converted try and went on to dominate the second half before running out 5-3 winners. They finished as joint runners-up to England with two wins, while Wales were left clutching the wooden spoon for the first time in 14 years.
As quickly as he had entered the international arena, Howard found himself on the outside as Wales toured South Africa in 1964 and won the Triple Crown in 1965. But he was back in the ‘Reds’ team of the first trial at Tredegar on 6 November, 1965, although relegated to the ‘Possibles’ for the second trial on 11 December at Neath and then the final trial on 1 January, 1966.
He didn’t make the team for the start of the 1966 Five Nations Championship, but was announced among a group of 17 players after the Scotland fixture to take on the French in the championship decider in Cardiff. He got the nod ahead of Denzil Williams to pack down against France in a game that was won by Wales 9-8 to clinch the title for the second season in a row.
His selection on the loose head for that game came a week after he had been announced as one of 11 Welsh players among the 30-strong British & Irish Lions touring party to Australia and New Zealand – quite an honour for a man who had only been capped once up to that point.
What made his selection all the more remarkable was that he was on the cusp of his 32nd birthday and the Lions selectors were notorious for not picking any player over the age of 30.
“We played 35 games on that tour, something that would be laughed at these days. We landed in Invercargill for the New Zealand leg of the tour on my birthday. The boys from the team had bought me a present – a beer tankard with ‘Happy 30th’ written on it. They were in on the joke – it was in fact my 32nd birthday, but I had lied about my age to the selectors who didn’t consider anyone over the age of 30,” Norris told a Cardiff magazine in 2008.
Howard made 17 appearances on the tour and played in the first three of the four Tests against the All Blacks in New Zealand. Injury ruled him out of the fourth Test.
The Lions won both internationals against Australia, but ran into one of the best New Zealand sides in the history of the game. Howard’s size and power earned him a place in the front row in New Zealand and he packed down at tight head in the first and second Tests and then loose head in the third. The All Blacks won all four games, although the second Test in Wellington was close at 16-12.
At the end of the tour Howard and three other Lions were invited to represent the New Zealand Barbarians, but after arriving to play in the game they were told their insurance had run out after the final tour fixture and they were unable to play. They did, however, leave the country with a jersey each!
He captained the ‘Possibles’ in the first trial of the 1966/67 season at Maesteg, but his international career was over. He had one final outing against the All Blacks for the Barbarians at Twickenham on 16 December, 1967, when he was one of five Cardiff players in a side that lost 11-6 to an injury time try from Tony Steel.
As well as captaining Cardiff for two seasons – 1967/68 P 46 W 32 D 2 L 12 and 1968/69 P 45 W 33 D 3 L 9 – he also took over the captaincy of the Athletic XV for the second half of the 1970/71 season when John Davies was injured. He later served on the Cardiff RFC committee and maintained his contact with the game through coaching.
He taught at Fitzalan High School in Cardiff for many years. He was pre-deceased by both his wife and son. The Welsh Rugby Union would like to offer sincere condolences to the rest of his family and friends.
