SIR TOM Jones says he is shocked by the call to ban his hit Delilah from Wales rugby games as critics claim it trivialises murder.

Former Plaid Cymru president and folk singer Dafydd Iwan also alleged the song, which is about a man killing his adulterous partner, is inappropriate because it promotes domestic violence.

But the Pontypridd star said: "I love to hear it sung at rugby games. It makes me very proud to be Welsh.

"I think if they're looking into the lyric about a man killing a woman, it's not a political statement. It's just something that happens in life that it's a woman was unfaithful to him and he just loses it.

"The great thing about the song that everyone picks up on is the chorus. I don't think that they are really thinking about it."

Sir Tom - who performed at the BBC Music Awards with Paloma Faith - continued: "I wasn't thinking that I was the man that was killing the girl when I was singing the song, I was acting out the part and that's what the song is.

"If it's going to be taken literally like that then I think it takes the fun out of it. I think it takes the spirit out why it's being sung."