Every so often sport throws up a player who becomes the greatest of his or her generation. In rugby union, Haydn Tanner dominated the period around the Second World War, playing scrum half for Wales as a teenager in 1935 and concluding his international career 14 years later with a reputation which survives comparison with his fellow countryman Gareth Edwards, so often regarded as the best of any generation.
Nor did he play in a vintage period. British and Irish rugby in the 1930s was of limited quality, but Tanner forced himself on a wider public when, aged 18, he played at half back with his cousin, Willie Davies, for the Swansea side which beat New Zealand 11-3 in 1935. “Don’t tell them at home we were beaten by a pair of schoolboys,” Jack Manchester, the All Blacks captain, was supposed to have told the travelling media party.
The game promoted Tanner into the national side and, on his debut, he shared in the 13-12 win by an injury-hit Wales side over New Zealand.
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Thereafter he never missed a game for Wales except against Australia in 1947, when he was injured. In an era when selectors so frequently tossed players aside after one poor performance, that alone was testimony to his quality. He was captain on 12 occasions and also led the Barbarians on their first meeting with an overseas touring side (Australia) in 1948.
He was born and brought up in Penclawdd — his grandparents ran the village pub which was the local club’s headquarters. Tanner and Davies, who lived next door, played with Penclawdd in their early teens and at 17, while still at Gowerton Grammar School, Tanner joined Swansea, one of Wales’s so-called big four clubs along with Llanelli, Cardiff and Newport.
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“Among all the scrum halves I have known and played with, he would reign supreme,” Bleddyn Williams, the Wales centre who played with Tanner for Cardiff after the war, said. “He was a totally great player, a schoolboy international who grew into a master tactician. He had a superb pass, the best I ever played with. His service was even better than Gareth Edwards’.”
Tanner, then 21, was one of three scrum halves picked to tour South Africa with the Lions in 1938 and was the last surviving member of that squad. Although considered junior in experience to George Morgan (Ireland) and Jimmy Giles (England), he forced his way into the XV for the second international with the Springboks, the heat-wave match in Port Elizabeth, which the home side won 19-3, and would have held the position but for injury.
His particular forte was the reverse pass, which could cover half the width of the playing field, but he also possessed a strong break and a keen rugby brain. He studied chemistry and mathematics at Swansea University (which made him a Fellow in the 1980s) but was granted permission by the university authorities to tour South Africa.
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After the war he taught at Bristol Grammar School and played rugby for Cardiff. But in 1948 he became an industrial chemist in London, working in the wood pulp trade for Thompson and Norris, later taken over by Reed International for whom Tanner became a buyer, travelling extensively in North America and Scandinavia.
Reed sent him to Harvard Business School and he became purchasing director for Reed Paper and Board UK. But he retained a strong affection for rugby; he organised cocktail parties at his home in Thames Ditton, Surrey, before the England-Wales game at Twickenham, was a member of London Welsh and helped to coach Esher.
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Vera, his wife for 60 years, predeceased him. He is survived by their daughter.
Haydn Tanner, rugby player, was born on January 9, 1917. He died on June 4, 2009, aged 92