ENGLAND rugby star Billy Vunipola is a hard but disciplined number eight. He has rarely been yellow carded during his professional career because he learnt a lesson from a former Welsh referee who has been a stalwart of Thornbury RFC – and sport in South Gloucestershire – for generations.

Although David Parry Jones is 71 years old now, he still gets up on Sunday mornings to officiate with Thornbury RFC’s junior teams as well as the other strings to his bow which are acting as an umpire for Thornbury Hockey Club and also officiating at Almondsbury Cricket Club.

Vunipola will step out onto the MIllennium Stadium pitch in Cardiff tomorrow night to play for England against Wales in the RBS 6 Nations and, when the battle becomes white-hot, that rugby moment in time in Thornbury will ensure he does not lose his cool.

Parry-Jones – DPJ to everyone who knows him – said: “I sent Billy off four or five years ago when he was at Castle School. I always remind him of that when I see him and say that I sent you off to make you disciplined.”

Even then, the big young back row was a one-man battering ram.

DPJ said: “Billy was so big and strong that all the teams he played for used to do was give him the ball and he would score.

“There were times when he used to run through everyone and stop short of the line to pass to someone else to score.”

DPJ is one of those unsung heroes that all sports clubs have and who, without them, they would find a lot of things difficult.

The former teacher at what is now Patchway Community School has dual loyalties. He was on the Welsh Rugby Union’s referee panel and officiated throughout the grades to the top-flight.

In fact, he had to ensure he had Welsh connections from a small area near his home of Pontypool to be a WRU ref. Even though he has lived in Thornbury for decades, he said: “I was always known as David Parry Jones (Griffithstown) because I had to say I was in Wales to be on the WRU panel.”

But he is firmly established on this side of the Severn Bridge in all respects and has been the Gloucestershire Rugby Football Union’s disciplinary panel secretary for years.

And he has also refereed at Twickenham taking charge of England Under-19 internationals against New Zealand and Scotland.

DPJ's sporting prowess is not, though, confined purely to the rugby pitch.

He also became a hockey umpire when his daughters began playing and officiates regularly with Thornbury Hockey Club.

And DPJ is no mean master with the bat and ball. He was a cricketer of some real repute, playing for Glamorgan County Cricket Club's second team and captaining the Welsh Schools team in his youth.

And, he recalls, when he began is teaching career over this side of the Severn Bridge, he was quickly snapped up for Almondsbury when his headmaster looked at him, with one of those looks with which you knew what the answer he wanted was, and said: “You WILL play for Almondsbury, won’t you?”

Thornbury RFC are also grateful to DPJ for helping raise thousands of pounds over the years for the club as their sponsorship secretary, although he admitted: “It is hard these days because there is not the money around.”

Not content on having Vunipola - and his brother Maku who is also in England’s 6 Nations squad - as arguably their most famous products in recent years, DPJ believes that there is another rising star on the horizon – but this time, he is an official.

He said: “We have a young referee who I believe will go far. His name is Richard Timbrell. I have been pestering him for years to give up playing and go into refereeing.

“He has taken it up and now he is doing Level Six games and is moving up to do Level Five matches. He is 19-years-old now and has potential. He does what a lot of other people learning to be a referee don’t do – he listens.

“I am now hoping he will go on and do well because the opportunities are there for referees these days.”

But should England beat Wales on Friday night, he is surely going to get a lot of leg-pulling from Thornbury when he walks into the club? DPJ has an easy way out of that. “I just wear my English RFU jacket and they don’t bother me then!”