Frederick Ernest Nicholls (2 September 1868 - ?) was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

-born 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...

 wing who played club rugby for Cardiff Harlequins

Cardiff Harlequins RFC

Cardiff Harlequins RFC was a rugby union club located in the Welsh capital city of Cardiff. The team provided several international players during the late 19th century, most notably Gwyn Nicholls, who after leaving the club not only represented Wales but also played for the British Isles on their...

 and international rugby for Wales

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...

.

Rugby career

Nicholls was born in London in 1868, but moved to Wales where he settled in the capital city Cardiff

Cardiff

Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...

. He played rugby on the wing for second tier team Cardiff Harlequins. The Harlequins at the time were an emerging club that showed promise in cup competitions and tour events, but had only just produced their first international player, forward Percy Bennett

Percy Bennett

Percy Bennett was an English-born international rugby union forward who played club rugby for Cardiff Harlequins and international rugby for Wales...

. Nicholls was first chosen to represent Wales in the final game of the 1892 Home Nations Championship

1892 Home Nations Championship

The 1892 Home Nations Championship was the tenth series of the rugby union Home Nations Championship. Six matches were played between 2 January and 5 March. It was contested by England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales....

, an away game at Lansdowne Road

Lansdowne Road

Lansdowne Road was a stadium in Dublin owned by the Irish Rugby Football Union that has been the location of a number of sports stadiums. It was used primarily for rugby union and for association football matches as well as some music concerts...

 against Ireland. Under the captaincy of Welsh rugby legend Arthur 'Monkey' Gould, Nicholls came in at threequarters on the opposite wing to Cardiff RFC

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...

, stalwart Norman Biggs

Norman Biggs

Norman Witchell Biggs was a Welsh international rugby union wing who played club rugby for Cardiff and county rugby for Glamorgan. Both Biggs and his brother Selwyn played international rugby for Wales, though they never played together in the same match for Wales...

 as a replacement for William McCutcheon

William McCutcheon

William 'Billy' McCutcheon was a Welsh international rugby wing who played club rugby in the union code for Swansea and represented Oldham under the league code...

. Despite a wealth of talent the Welsh team had lost the opening two games of the Championship and the Irish and Welsh teams faced each other in an attempt to avoid bottom place. Wales lost the game 9-0 and Nicholls was replaced in the next game by a returning McCutcheon, and never represented Wales again.