When he led out his country for Saturday’s Guinness Six Nations opener against Ireland, Ken Owens joined an illustrious list of Scarlets who have captained Wales while at the club.
Starting off with WH Thomas way back in 1891, the roll of honour includes Scarlets greats such as Albert Jenkins, Terry Davies, Delme Thomas, Phil Bennett, Ieuan Evans, Stephen Jones, our current head coach Dwayne Peel and current Scarlets captain Jonathan Davies.
Owens led the Scarlets for a record seven successive seasons and also captained the British & Irish Lions on their 2017 tour of New Zealand, but before Saturday he had never skippered his country.
The list includes Derek Quinnell, who captained Wales for an uncapped match against Romania in 1979.
Our club historian Les Williams has been through the archives and six players have captained other countries while at the Scarlets – Dave Hodges (USA), Salesi Finau (Tonga), Inoke Afeaki (Tonga), Simon Easterby (Ireland), Deacon Manu (Fiji) and John Barclay (Scotland).
Scarlets who have captained Wales
WH Thomas 1891
Alban Davies 1914
Albert Jenkins 1923 & 1928
Idris Jones 1925
Ivor Jones, 1927, 1929 & 1930
RH Williams 1960
Onllwyn Brace 1960 & 1961
Terry Davies 1960 & 1961
Norman Gale 1967 & 1968
Delme Thomas 1972
Phil Bennett 1977 & 1978
Derek Quinnell* 1979
David Pickering 1986
Jonathan ‘Jiffy’ Davies 1987 & 1988
Ieuan Evans 1991-1995
Nigel Davies 1996
Scott Quinnell 2000
Stephen Jones 2003
Dwayne Peel 2007
Matthew Rees 2010
Scott Williams 2015
Jonathan ‘Fox’ Davies 2019-21
Ken Owens 2023
(*uncapped match)