Wales and England Deaf meet

Wales Deaf have met England Deaf twice before Each side has won once Now they meet again, this time at Pontypridd at lunchtime on Saturday

Wales are the World Champions, having won the inaugural  Deaf Rugby World Championships in New Zealand in 2002 The next World Championship is in Wales this year

Wales have already had a match, beating Scotland 37-12 In 2003 Wales beat England 27-0 and in 2004 England won 14-11

Richard Davies said, The challenge after we won the World Championships, was to keep the momentum going and we have attracted new players, but there are still a lot of people who don't know we exist or think theres a stigma attached to being in this team, but thats not the case at all Many of our  players play club rugby throughout Wales with some in England

The players in the squad all have varying levels of hearing loss and use a combination of signing, lip-reading and speech to communicate
 
Players do not need to be profoundly deaf to be eligible to play for a deaf team Any player with an average hearing loss of 25 decibels across both ears can play.

Teams:

Wales Deaf: 15 Mike Watkins (Bedwas), 14 Ben Pritchard (Barry), 13 Gareth Thomas (Bonymaen), 12 Richard Hardy (Pontyberem), 11 Nigel Francis (Pertemps Bees), 10 Mark Withy (Cwmbran), 9 Ioan Jones (Trimsaran),8 Matthew Campbell (Barry), 7 Joe Jones (Maesteg Celtic), 6 Luke Blackburn (Reading Abbey), 5 Andrew Rees (Haywards Heath), 4 Richard Watkins (St Julians), 3 Andrew Lloyd (Ynysybwl), 2 James Evans (captain) (Birchgrove), 1 Ceri Davies (Llandovery)
Replacements (from): 16 Tyrone Hughes (Maesteg Quins), 17 Steve Burnett (Cefncribbwr), 18 Chris Ratcliffe (Old Reigatians), 19 Gareth John (Tonna), 20 Timothy Parkinson (St Leonard's), 21 Steven Lloyd (Penygraig), 22 Chris Haddock (Cwmbran)

The England Deaf squad: Richard Jackson (Hove),  (captain), Darron Hall (Stourbridge) (vice-captain), Robert Hill (Chinnor), Tim Sawyer (West Hartlepool), Andrew Millership (Boston), Craig Pothecary (Handsworth), Brett Pruce (Aylestone St James), Nick Todd (Petersfield), Steve Bloxham (Crawley), Ian Collins (Blackheath), Danny Piesley (Old Halesonians), Daniel McAllister (Luton), Brett Hanratty (Blaydon), Tony Stoyles (Northampton Mensown), Peit Everett (Sidcup), Toby Borradaile (London Cornish), Nick Doyle (Bishop Stortford), Nick McKen (Burnham On Sea), Samuel Smith (Andover), Thomas Potts (Tewkesbury), Jason Hooper (Old Leamingtonians), Charlie James (Huntingdon)

Coaches: Chris Burton, Lee Puttock, Neil Zanger

Date: Saturday, 5 February 2005
Kick-off: 12.30
Venue: Sardis Road
Referee: Gary Davies (Wales)
Touch judges: Leighton James, Gareth Saunders (both Wales)