NPR

A true legend of rugby

Well that’s a bugger although not a complete surprise. Part of so many of my sporting memories.

RIP Phil.

You didn't see too much Rugby in Ireland, but you'd get the 5N, & the Lions, & the 1977 Lions is probably my earliest memory of the. "Foreign game".

Legend RIP.

Sad news, a true great of the game. RIP

Farewell to another legend. RIP

Sad.
My age too, to the month.
Will be remembered forever for sparking that try.

A sad day for rugby. Never saw him play because I discovered rugby much later but 10 years after he played, his name came back regularly in the French TV commentary. One of these men known for ever home and abroad. RIP

convoluted wrote: Mon Jun 13, 2022 12:41 am Sad.
My age too, to the month.
Will be remembered forever for sparking that try.

A sad loss. Another try he'll be remembered for

Worked with my father in the steelworks.
Coached me as a youngster.
RIP Phill..

Slick wrote: Sun Jun 12, 2022 8:32 pm A true legend of rugby

A legend indeed
RIP

Love this.

Just been talking with my father about him, he remembers him starting in the steelworks, quiet as a mouse, dressing billots down the Old Castle end of the works, 5 1/2 day week then, so he'd work Saturday morning, have his kit with him and walk over to Stradey to play in the afternoon.
Tbh, he didn't look very well at the unveiling of his status in Felinfoel recently..

My dad had this Max Bradford record when I was a kid. I had only ever seen snippets of the great Welsh and Lions teams of the sixties and seventies. My dad would tell endless stories about watching Barry John and Phil Bennett play at Kings Park. They were absolute heroes to him and this was his favourite part of the record.

THE OUTSIDE-HALF FACTORY
by
Max Boyce

I'll tell you all a story, 'tis a strange and a weird tale:
Of a factory in my valley, not fed by road or rail.
It's built beneath the mountain, beneath the coal and clay.
It's where we make the outside-halves, that'll play for Wales one day.

Down by the council houses, where on a quiet day
You can hear the giant engines digging up the clay.
No naked lights or matches where the raw material's found
In the four-foot seams of outside-halves, two miles below the ground.

We've camouflaged the mouth with stones, from Bradford Northern spies
From plastic 'E-Type' Englishmen with promise in their eyes.
And we've boarded up the entrance for the way must not be shown;
And we'll tell them all to **** off and make their ******* own!

My Dad works down in arms and legs where production's running high.
It's he that checks the wooden moulds and stacks them forty high.
But he's had some rejects lately, 'cos there's such a big demand;
So he sells them to the northern clubs, and stamps them 'second-hand'.

It's there where Harry Dampers works, it's where the money's best,
But now his health is failing and the dust lies on his chest.
But he'll get his compensation though his health's gone off the rails
When he sees that finished product score the winning try for Wales.

But now the belts are empty, came a sadness with the dawn.
And the body-press is idle, and the valley's blinds are drawn.
Disaster struck this morning when a fitter's mate named Ron
Cracked the mould of solid gold, that once made Barry John.

Old Harry Dampers (struck with grief), received the final call.
And old Harry has been taken to the greatest outside-half of all.
Whose hands are kind and gentle, though they bear the mark of nails,
So Harry stamped him 'Number Ten', 'cos he was made in Wales.

And the wheels will go on turning, and trams will run on rails,
To that factory 'neath the mountain making outside halves for Wales.


The end

Makes me wonder who in the modern game will be considered a legend of the sport in 50-60 years.

Dan Carter maybe?

tabascoboy wrote: Mon Jun 13, 2022 7:28 am ... Another try he'll be remembered for

The Welsh players of that era were epic. A golden age of sparkle.

And they inadvertently saved Australian rugby.
I'll indulge in another 'How it happened' reminisce for those too young at the time or unborn.

In mid-1976 I went to Western Australia seeking high-paid laboring. My first full day in Perth was on the weekend, and wandering the CBD there was the billboard for that day's newspaper: Tonga beat Wallabies.
By the next year, rugby in Australia was so dispirited that the ARU was virtually broke and the game was in its death throes.

But over in NSW at Matraville High School the rugby coach there, Geoff Mould, was so enamored of the golden Welsh that he forever played tapes of them to his young charges. Skipper was Lloyd Walker (Aboriginal I think) who later played for Australia, the hooker was an Eddie Jones, but crucially there was a trio of talented Aboriginal brothers, Mark, Gary and Glen Ella. All the Matraville players aspired to duplicate the flamboyance of their Welsh idols.

At the end of that year, an Australian schoolboys side was selected to tour Britain. Geoff Mould was the coach, and all three Ellas were included, as were a Wally Lewis, Michael O'Connor, Tony Melrose and other future Wallaby and League stars.

Mould imposed a flat, attacking, pass and back-up style with dire threats should there be any pointless kicks.

After just a few games The Australian newspaper began highlighting the tour, while the crusty Brit rugby journalists also jumped aboard in rapturous excitement at the sheer brilliance and dazzle of those Aus schoolboys, still regarded to this day as the most innovative and glorious union or league team to ever tour Britain.

Invincible, they revived the game in Australia, spearheaded by the Galloping Greens, the Randwick club in Sydney, with Bob Dwyer as Randwick coach, the Ella brothers, Eddie Jones, and a team philosophy of 'Run, don't kick.'

Wally Lewis switched to league, convinced that he would never be more than third or fourth Wallaby choice at first or second five.

Slick wrote: Mon Jun 13, 2022 3:10 pm Makes me wonder who in the modern game will be considered a legend of the sport in 50-60 years.

Dan Carter maybe?

A combo of skill, personality and a little of the undefinable. Someone like Wilko will go down as a legend before Pollard ever will. He just had that bit extra that lends itself to building a legend.