The Mike Hall Story: How Welsh Rugby Nearly Changed Forever And Cardiff City Reached The Premier League: The Autobiography

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So with both rugby and football having played a huge part in his life, which sport is he more engaged by now? John Moloney is a former Ireland and British and Irish Lions player, having toured South Africa with the Lions in 1974. A product of the proud St Mary’s College RFC club, he captained them to the centenary IRFU All-Ireland Cup in 1975. He also had the distinction of captaining Ireland among his 27 caps. I didn't want to come home after because it was such a crushing disappointment not to qualify." Iconic images Paul Dean represented Ireland from 1981-89, amassing 32 caps and 19 points. He was a Triple Crown winner with Ireland in 1982 and 1985 and he played against Wales and Australia at the inaugural Rugby World Cup in 1987. Dean went on win 32 caps for Ireland between 1981 and 1989, scoring 19 points. He was selected to travel with the British & Irish Lions on the 1989 tour of Australia and featured in the opening match against Western Australia before injury prematurely ended his tour. Dean is an honorary life member and former past president of St. Mary’s College RFC. In November 2016, he became Ireland Team Manager. I think we have the best coach. I think Warren Gatland is unique and the best Welsh coach we’ve ever had. He is also very good at getting a team to peak at the right moment.

I remember I had lots of people writing to me saying I should take him to court, but it never even crossed my mind. Read more: You can get the latest rugby headlines sent straight to your inbox every day by signing up for our free newsletter. On the highlights of the trip, he said: "There were some seal colonies off the coast of California, they were pretty cool, and there were some eagles in Turkey." Hall, from Harrogate, North Yorkshire, had set off from Fremantle in Western Australia on 18 March 2017 with other riders for the Indian Pacific Wheel Race. After 12 days and about 3,000 miles, he had crossed most of the continent to reach Cooma in New South Wales and was second in the competition.

Alan and Bob [Norster, Wales team manager] were building something. Davies turned around Welsh rugby in the early 1990s by creating this club atmosphere and we won the 1994 Five Nations. As it turned out, we went to Ponty on the Tuesday night and beat them, which I think shows the character of the club and him at that time. We were able to take the adversity and then we won the cup the next year. I still want to do something. I am 56, I am not ready to retire. It’s on to the next chapter now, that’s the interesting thing.” I played there for Cardiff in a Heineken Cup semi-final when we beat Leinster on their own patch, which was a really good performance.

Fellow Cardiff centre Mark Ring passes to Hall during Wales training at Sophia Gardens in November 1989 We all blended in with each other and Finlay Calder led from the front as skipper. He was a fabulous guy. Like granite, intelligent, physically hard. Hall, though, does not hold the world cup appearances as outstanding highlights of his playing days, mainly given the results and Wales’ propensity to shoot themselves in the foot.Every single player who played under Alec at Cardiff at that time will have a story of how he helped them.