JPR Williams: rugby union player and orthopaedic surgeon

The surgeon JPR Williams—the fleet footed, Welsh rugby icon with the signature sideburns, long flowing hair, the grace of a ballet dancer, and the strength and stamina of a prize fighter—may have had the most famous sporting moniker since that of another illustrious medic, “WG.” Notching up 126 centuries and 2809 wickets, the Bristol GP WG Grace (1865-1908) dominated English cricket in the late 19th century, just as JPR dominated Welsh rugby in the golden decade of the 1970s.

Both innovators, WG and JPR shared one other critical trait—aggression—but JPR was unquestionably more physical and violent. In his 2007 book JPR Given the Breaks—My Life in Rugby, he declared, “I used to say that I spent half my life breaking bones on the rugby field, then the other half putting them back together in the operating theatre.”

This was not the flippant comment it may seem. Also a gifted racquet player, he reflected in 2008 that he would then have opted for tennis not rugby. He explained, “I’d have done so because tennis is much more lucrative now and much more enticing—and because of the dangers of rugby. It’s much more physical than when I played.”