In 1881 Newport Athletic secretary
Richard Mullock needed to quickly form a Welsh team to face
England after a successful application to the
Rugby Football Union. He turned to two of
Wales' main rugby clubs,
Newport and Cardiff, to form the bulk of the team. Mann was vice-captain of Cardiff RFC during the 1880/81 season and was one of four players that represented Cardiff during the period to make up the first Wales team; the other three members were
Leonard Watkins,
Barry Girling and
William David Phillips. The Welsh team was poorly organised before the game began, with no trial games organised, and a group of players who had very little experience of each other's style of play. Many members of the team were picked on their college background or the geographic location of their club. The game began poorly when Mann and
Lewis were both injured after just ten minutes of the match and eventually had to leave the field. The game ended in humiliation for the Welsh team, with England winning by eight goals to nil. Eleven players were dropped from the next Wales game, Mann being one of those to never play at an international level again. Mann later emigrated to the
United States and he died in Los Angeles in 1948. He is buried in Bellevue Cemetery,
Ontario, California. == Bibliography ==