James Bridie was a Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

-born 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...

 scrum-half who played club 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...

 for 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, international 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...

 and county rugby for Monmouthshire

Monmouthshire County RFC

Monmouthshire County RFC is a Welsh rugby union club that manages an invitational team, known as Monmouthshire that originally played rugby at county level...

.

Rugby career

Bridie was born in Greenock

Greenock

Greenock is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council area in United Kingdom, and a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland...

 in 1857 and was educated in Madras College

Madras College

Madras College is a secondary school in St. Andrews, Fife in Scotland.-History:Madras College, founded in 1832, takes its name from the system of education devised by the school's founder, the Rev Dr Andrew Bell....

, St. Andrews, before moving to Wales. In the 1881 census he was described as a rope agent and was living in the centre of Cardiff with his wife Marion. Although playing for several south-eastern Welsh clubs, he is most notable as a Newport player; and it is as a Newport player he was capped for the Welsh national team. His one and only international appearance

1881-82 Home Nations rugby union matches

The 1881-82 Home Nations rugby union matches are a series of international friendlies held between the England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales national rugby union teams. This was the last season before the introduction of the Home Nations Championship and was the last time the teams involved faced...

 was against Ireland in a friendly match before the Home Nations Championship

Six Nations Championship

The Six Nations Championship is an annual international rugby union competition involving six European sides: England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales....

 was introduced. The match against Ireland was only the second international Wales had played, and included eleven new caps, a reaction to the terrible defeat in the first Welsh game against England. Under the captaincy of Charles Lewis

Charles Lewis (rugby player)

Charles Prytherch Lewis was a Welsh international rugby union player, who won five caps between 1882 and 1884.-Life:...

, Wales not only won the game, but Bridie found himself on the scoresheet when he scored one of four Welsh 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...

.

Although Bridie was not part of the team to face England

England national rugby union team

The England national rugby union team represents England in rugby union. They compete in the annual Six Nations Championship with France, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, and Wales. They have won this championship on 26 occasions, 12 times winning the Grand Slam, making them the most successful team in...

 in the opening match of the 1883 Home Nations Championship

1883 Home Nations Championship

The 1883 Home Nations Championship was the inaugural series of the rugby union Home Nations Championship. Five matches were played between 16 December 1882 and 3 March 1883...

, he was selected for the second game, away to Scotland

Scotland national rugby union team

The Scotland national rugby union team represent Scotland in international rugby union. Rugby union in Scotland is administered by the Scottish Rugby Union. The Scotland rugby union team is currently ranked eighth in the IRB World Rankings as of 19 September 2011...

. The Scottish Rugby Union

Scottish Rugby Union

The Scottish Rugby Union is the governing body of rugby union in Scotland. It is the second oldest Rugby Union, having been founded in 1873, as the Scottish Football Union.-History:...

 rejected his inclusion due to his original nationality, and he was withdrawn from the team, and never played for Wales again.

During the 1885/1886 season, Bridie had found work in Bradford

Bradford

Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...

, and left behind his connections with Welsh rugby. Still wishing to continue playing rugby he joined local club Manningham RFC. After just playing one game for Manningham he turned out for bitter rivals Bradford

Bradford Park Avenue A.F.C.

Bradford Association Football Club, previously also known as Bradford and since its reformation in the 1970s now referred to as Bradford Park Avenue, is a football club based in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England...

, before switching back to Manningham RFC. The Manningham supporters, created a chant based on the derogatory nursery rhyme, Taffy was a Welshman

Taffy was a Welshman

"Taffy was a Welshman" is an English language nursery rhyme with anti-Welsh lyrics, which was popular in England between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19237.-Lyrics:Versions of this rhyme vary...

; despite the fact that Bridie was deemed not to be Welsh by the Scottish rugby fraternity.

Bridie was a Welshman

Bradford was a thief.

Bradford came to our house,

and now we are in grief.