Tal Harris
Encyclopedia
Charles "Tal" Harris 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...

 scrum-half who represented 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 played club rugby for Aberavon
Aberavon RFC
Aberavon RFC is a rugby union club located in the Welsh town of Port Talbot, although the club's name refers to the older settlement of Aberavon which lies on the western side of the town...

.

Rugby career

Harris played for Aberavon during their 'golden era' which saw the team crowned Welsh Club Champions four consecutive years from the 1923/24 to the 1926/27 season. While playing for Aberavon, Harris was awarded his one and only Welsh cap against the Touring Australian Waratahs. The match took place on 26 November 1927 at the Cardiff Arms Park
Cardiff Arms Park
Cardiff Arms Park , also known as The Arms Park, is primarily known as a rugby union stadium, but it also has a bowling green, and is situated in the centre of Cardiff, Wales. The Arms Park was host to the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1958, and hosted four games in the 1991 Rugby World...

, and although the Welsh forwards showed strength and commitment, were out-classed by the tourist back play.

In 1931, while still with Aberavon, Harris was part of the joint Neath
Neath RFC
Neath Rugby Football Club is a Welsh rugby union club which plays in the Welsh Premier Division. The club's home ground is The Gnoll, Neath. The first team is known as the Welsh All Blacks because of the team colours: black with only a white cross pattée as an emblem...

 / Aberavon team that narrowly lost to the 1931 touring South Africans
1931-32 South Africa rugby union tour
The 1931-32 South Africa tour of Britain and Ireland was a collection of friendly rugby union games undertaken by the South Africa national rugby union team against the four British Home Nation teams. The tour also took in several matches against British and Irish club, county and invitational teams...

. Harris was challenged to the position by Neath's Cliff Evans, but Harris was considered more experienced and tougher. The match was a close contest, and with three minuted left on the clock the score line was 3-3 after the Welsh side had taken an early lead; but the tourist fought back and scored a try with the last move of the game. During the match, Harris and his Aberavon team mate Wilf Selby were considered the better pairing than the South African
South Africa national rugby union team
The South African national rugby union team are 2009 British and Irish Lions Series winners. They are currently ranked as the fourth best team in the IRB World Rankings and were named 2008 World Team of the Year at the prestigious Laureus World Sports Awards.Although South Africa was instrumental...

 duo of Danie Craven
Danie Craven
Daniël Hartman Craven , more famously known as Danie Craven or simply Doc Craven, is a former Western Province, Eastern Province, Northern Transvaal and Springbok rugby union player as well as arguably South Africa's best and best-known rugby administrator...

 and Bennie Osler
Bennie Osler
Benjamin Louwrens Osler was a rugby union footballer who played internationally for South Africa. Osler played mainly at fly-half for both South Africa, and his provincial team of Western Province....

, but the Welsh team's threequarter line was believed to have let them down with slow distribution.
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