The story of Welsh rugby's lost generation, the superstars who walked out at the peak of their powers

The story goes that the then Widnes rugby league coach Doug Laughton didn’t exactly have rose petals thrown his way when he turned up on a scouting trip to watch Wales union wing Elgan Rees in the 1970s.

A Neath official told him: "You can get out of here. And you can take the big thug you've brought with you, too."

The chap standing alongside Laughton was, to borrow Raymond Chandler’s classic description of his character Moose Molloy, “a big man but not more than six feet five inches tall and not wider than a beer truck. His skin was pale and he needed a shave. He would always need a shave…he looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of cake.”

The Wales youngster capped last year who could soon fill Liam Williams' boots

That was Jim Mills, a legendary rugby hard nut who would have made Jaws, the James Bond film villain, send out for reinforcements, and tell them they had better show up pretty sharpish. Laughton replied to the official’s request: “I will go, but only after you’ve told him to leave, too.”

We must assume the pair went nowhere. Happy days.

But imagine what it was like in the late 1980s and early 1990s when the 15-a-side code in Wales seemed to be losing a player a week to league. Stellar talents too, the lost generation to our game in many ways.

Just how did that lost generation of Wales union stars fare in 13-a-side and what happened after? We took a look…

“Targeted? I felt like I was a dartboard! I got battered, I really did,” Bishop said recently of his time in rugby league. He had been a magnificent player in union but found it tougher in league. You can read our interview with David Bishop on his life in Welsh rugby here.

His debut for Hull Kingston Rovers saw the former Pontypool RFC