Evan Sloane Richards was a Welsh

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 international rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 forward who played club rugby for Swansea

Swansea RFC

Swansea Rugby Football Club is a Welsh rugby union team which plays in the Welsh Premier Division. Its home ground is St Helens Rugby and Cricket Ground in Swansea. The team is sometimes known as The Whites because of the primary colour of the team strip...

, captaining the club through three seasons during the 1880s. Richards' father was Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Ceredigion

Ceredigion (UK Parliament constituency)

Ceredigion, formerly Cardiganshire, is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Created in 1536, the boundaries have remained remarkably unchanged for nearly five centuries...

, Evan Matthew Richards.

Rugby career

Richards first came to prominence within rugby as a club player for Swansea. Before being selected to represent the Welsh

Wales national rugby union team

The Wales national rugby union team represent Wales in international rugby union tournaments. They compete annually in the Six Nations Championship with England, France, Ireland, Italy and Scotland. Wales have won the Six Nations and its predecessors 24 times outright, second only to England with...

 team, he was made captain of Swansea in the 1883/84 season. The next season Richards was capped for Wales in the opening game of the 1885 Home Nations Championship

1885 Home Nations Championship

The 1885 Home Nations Championship was the third series of the rugby union Home Nations Championship. Four matches were played between 3 January and 21 February 1885. It was contested by England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales...

 against England. Captained by Newport's Charlie Newman

Charlie Newman

Charlie Newman was a Welsh international three-quarter who played club rugby for Newport. He was awarded ten caps for Wales and captained the team on six occasions. An original member of the Newport squad he captained the team in the 1882/83 season.-Personal life:Newman was born Newport in 1857 to...

, Wales lost the match by three tries

Try

A try is the major way of scoring points in rugby league and rugby union football. A try is scored by grounding the ball in the opposition's in-goal area...

 and Richards lost his place for the next game.

Richards was again Swansea captain in the 1886/87 season, and was awarded his second and final Welsh cap in the Scottish game of the 1887 Home Nations Championship

1887 Home Nations Championship

The 1887 Home Nations Championship was the fifth series of the rugby union Home Nations Championship. Six matches were played between 8 January and 12 March. It was contested by England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales....

. Wales were beaten heavily in a one-sided game, and Richards lost his place to Edward Alexander

Edward Perkins Alexander

Edward Perkins Alexander was a Welsh international rugby union forward who played club rugby for Cambridge University and London Welsh and international rugby for Wales. Alexander also represented several cricket teams, including Llandovery College.-Early life:Alexander was born in 1863 at...

. Richards would captain Swansea in the 1887/88 season, and during 1888, he refereed two matches in the New Zealand Māori's

New Zealand Maori rugby union team

New Zealand Māori is a rugby union team that traditionally plays teams touring New Zealand. A prerequisite for playing in this team is that the player is to have Māori whakapapa or genealogy. In the past this rule was not strictly applied. In the past non-Māori players who looked Māori were often...

 tour of Europe

1888-1889 New Zealand Native football team

The 1888–1889 New Zealand Native football team was a New Zealand football team that toured Britain, Australia and New Zealand in 1888 and 1889. The team was composed mainly of players of Māori ancestry, although several Pakeha were included in the squad. The tour was a private endeavour, and was...

; the matches against Welsh clubs, Cardiff

Cardiff RFC

Cardiff Rugby Football Club is a rugby union football club based in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. The club was founded in 1876 and played their first few matches at Sophia Gardens, but soon relocated to Cardiff Arms Park where they have been based ever since...

and Newport.