Dai Young

Who is Dai Young?

David "Dai" Young is a Welsh former rugby union and rugby league player, presently Director of Rugby at London Wasps.

Born in Aberdare in 1967, Young lived in Penywaun for many years, and was regularly seen training with his father on the local sports field, now occupied by the Welsh-language school Ysgol Gyfun Rhydywaun.

Young played rugby union at club level for Swansea and Cardiff. Having not been selected to play for Wales in the 1987 Rugby World Cup, Young, then 19, travelled to Australia for the summer to play for Northern Suburbs. When Stuart Evans broke his foot playing against Tonga, Young was on the right side of the world at the right time and was called up to the Welsh squad. He made his debut for Wales against England in the quarter-finals.

Young played rugby league for Leeds and Salford. When he moved to Leeds his transfer fee was a then world record of £150,000. He captained Wales in the 1995 Rugby League World Cup.

Young won 51 caps for the Wales national rugby union team, a record number for a prop, and three caps for the British Lions. He is the only man to have toured with the British Lions in three separate decades: 1989, 1997 and 2001.