Alan Baguste (Halls 54-59) reports: "Taffy Evans told me some years ago that
he considered Tom Newsham the best forward he had coached at the School."

We don't know WHEN exactly Taffy said this, but Alan's quote is fairly recent and so I am assuming it was said near or soonish after the closure of the school. As a threequarter, I have to grudgingly admit that whatever success we had in the threes depended entirely on the pack, whose "heavy lifting" is mostly done in unsung semi-obscurity. The task relentlessly drummed into them by Taffy was fight like the Devil to give the ball to the threes as fast as possible, then follow up like fury to get to the breakdown and do it again .....

Now Taffy wasn't exactly given to dishing out praise left, right and centre, so what he said about Thomas has a huge amount of weight, and I have no record of him saying anything similar about any other player, though of course there are several he might have paid a similar compliment to - but we'll never know unless the latter out themselves.

Thomas Newsham is therefore declared a WHS Rugby
Legend, having been a massive contributor to the
fine sides he played in at the end of the 50s.
Chris Snuggs - Berners/Halls 58-65 - October 2020

PS There is a case for the entire team shown above to be considered as legends, since until I read about the 70-71 XV
I always considered this team led by England triallist Bill Coutts to have been the finest ever to play for WHS.