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Playfair Rugby Football Annual 1971-72


By gregory p
June 25 2015

I was looking for bargains in the book section of my local Oxfam shop and found – for 99p – the Playfair Rugby Football Annual 1971-72, reporting on the 1970-71 season.  The 1972 cover price was 60p (about the price of three pints) so it really was a bargain now coming in at the price of a quarter of a pint.  The real attraction was that 1970-71 was the season that I first started playing rugby at school and took an interest in the game.  Until then my heroes had been Jimmy Greaves and Pat Jennings.  Suddenly I had the dynamism of Gareth Edwards and the poetry in motion of David Duckham to admire.  Adding in the prospect of beer (as I got older) and very rude songs sealed the deal.  I was hooked on the game.

The cover features a sepia tinted Barry John as player of the season.  I'm not sure who made the award but it was correct.  John was a Welsh fly half who was as slight but supremely balanced and talented as George Best but without the drinking problems and other baggage.  There really wasn't much of him but once he got his sidestep going he was so hard to nail.  He also popularised round the corner kicking – until then most kickers had given it the Bob Hiller style straight up and down toe punt hoof.  For a little lad John gave it a great whack.  The best contemporary comparable (in style if not yet achievement) is probably George Ford – I really do rate Fordy – but I'll be burnt at the stake in west Wales for that comparison.  Burning at the stake is still seen as a good night out in parts of Carmarthenshire, particularly if the bingo is closed.

The logo free Welsh jersey and the cigarette card style pose could put the image in the 1940s or 1950s but the sideburns and lengthening hair firmly tonsorially carbon date the shot to the early 1970s.  Sideburns were big then in every sense.  I think that there's a great coffee table book still to be written – "Sportsmen's Haircuts through the Ages"……chapter 9 "The Mullett Years".  There's a facial hair supplement in there too – as the 1970s turned into the 1980s the Sancho Panza moustache was as rife in Union as the hipster's beards now are in Hoxton.  Barry John also had the sense to quit while he was ahead – he hung up his boots in 1972 and let the almost as prodigiously talented Phil Bennett take over the 10 shirt for Wales.  Bennett was the man who started "that try" for the Barbarians with one of the greatest series of sidesteps ever.  He also did a good line in sideburns too……hmmm….side burns, side steps…….there may be some connection there?  That's another chapter in the Sporting Haircut book sorted then!

Aside from John's individual brilliance, he was a key player in a grand slam winning Welsh side that still sets the standard for those periodic golden eras the Welsh are fond of…..and fond of letting everyone else know about too.  Ear defenders should be standard issue when you hand over your fiver on the Severn Bridge.  In truth the side that Wales could put out was nothing short of a one in a hundred year event.  They combined a tough old pack – ugly as a stag night in Porthcawl, who really were mostly steelworkers and miners during the week – with a frankly sublime set of backs, led by the cerebral John Dawes.  The names should still be familiar:  Gerald Davies, JPR Williams, Dawes, John Bevan, Barry John and Gareth "Oh that fellow" Edwards.  The least known was the centre Arthur Lewis who was still good enough to be a Lion; and this side formed the basis of a Lions side that went to New Zealand.  They did what no other British side has done before or since – they won a series 2-1 with one draw. The success of the Lions in NZ – and the unbelievable unbeaten Lions in South Africa in 1974 – gave me hugely unrealistic expectations for every subsequent tour.  I really thought we could turn over the southern hemisphere sides on a regular basis.  I've paid for that in beer, hangovers and lost credibility with Anitpodean work colleagues ever since.

But, so what if this was the best Welsh side ever, the best Lions side ever…….what you all really want to know is what sort of season did Quins have?  Us, parochial? Surely not?  The London clubs each get a bit of a write up so I thought I'd reproduce Quins end of term report in full.  DOK – don't worry it must be out of copyright now and if it isn't no one will give a monkey's!  I've added a few editorial interjections:

“Harlequins’ results show a more or less break-even position and this is indicative of the type of season they had. [Not much changes does it, having just had a less than breaking-even season?]. The season started disastrously with large losses against Northampton and Llanelli [Scarlets in new money], followed by small margin defeats against Leicester and Swansea [That’s Ospreys, kids]. Quins then beat Gloucester, Coventry and Waterloo [No, not the station, it’s rugby club on Merseyside], lost to London Welsh [Who had probably the best club side in the land in 1971 – haven’t times changed?] and then beat Bristol, Richmond and Oxford University and drew with Cambridge.  Bristol were beaten twice in the season and the best victory was against Llanelli at Llanelli when Harlequins triumphed with a considerable leavening of reserves.[There are apochyrphal stories of mass outbreaks of twinged hamstrings among first teamers whenever an away trip to Wales appeared on the fixture list.  This was the height of Quins being the City slickers.  Four hours both ways down the M4, dogging it out on wet afternoon in Neath against a bunch of grizzlies with only Brains in the clubhouse bar didn’t have much attraction for the fancy Dans – mind you it still doesn't these days!  It does remind me though of a game a couple of years ago where the best part of a Quins A team unexpectedly nicked a great result in Llanelli against Scarlets in the LV Cup.]

Individual Quins players won representative honours and the biggest turn out was for the England v Presidents’s XV when the Harlequins [Spot the definite article!] were represented by RB Hiller [Still to be seen at the club – a great player and great club man], NC Starmer-Smith [He later became a commentator for the BBC], P Dixon [RLeQuin – this was the Peter Dixon who played for Gosforth and England so his Quins career must have been brief?] and CB Stevens [Also known as Stack Stevens, a balding, lardy old Cornishman –he was the antithesis of the City Slicker.  How did he end up at Quins? RleQuin – any insight on that?].  Hiller and Dixon have also been picked for the Lions tour [to New Zealand] and Starmer-Smith, Stevens and Lloyd [No, I’ve no idea either] are going on the England Far East tour [Stevens in fact got a call up to the Lions squad], Novak and Davis [RleQuin – help, please!] were travelling reserves for England and a recent member, David Barry, was travelling reserve for Ireland.  Hiller captained the victorious Surrey XV [County rugby mattered in those days – it was step up from club rugby and a useful way of identifying talent given how thinly talent was spread among the clubs] and there were a number of Harlequins in the Surrey team [even though the Stoop is firmly in Middlesex.  County rugby allegiances were very flexible although not apparently quite as flexible as today’s international eligibility criteria.]

Quins record for the season was in a fact a respectable won 14, lost 14 and drew 3, so marginally better than our won 10 lost 12 in the Premiership last season.  London Welsh won 28, drew 3 and lost 5.  Spare a thought for Wasps, still in Sudbury, who won only 6, drew 2 and lost 27.  At the risk of stating the obvious there were no leagues, not even "merit tables", and clubs were gauged by the quality of their fixture lists.  Blackheath and Met Police both get write ups but have fallen furthest off the radar since professionalism.  The Met must have been a popular fixture if only for the quality of the Imber Court pitch and facilities, but more importantly a subsidised bar.

The article doesn’t mention that Quins reached the final of the Middlesex Sevens, losing to London Welsh in the final, 18-9 which would have been 6 tries to three.  Welsh featured Gerald Davies who would have been deadly in the open spaces of a sevens game.  The best modern comparable to Davies is Shane Williams.  They could both “beat you in a phone box” and both had 0 to 60 acceleration that a Porsche would kill for.  Davies was truly mesmerising and fitted in captaining Cambridge, playing for London Welsh, Wales and the Lions.  He became one of the rugby correspondents at the Times.  Quins’ path to the final involved wins over Sidcup (18-11 and closer than you’d think), Edinburgh Wanderers (18-10) and Guy’s Hospital (25-3).  Welsh breezed past St Luke’s College Exeter, Rosslyn Park and Loughborough Colleges.  I’d forgotten just how important college rugby was to the flow of talent.  Loughborough Colleges that season featured that well known double act, Fran Cotton and Steve Smith who both played for England and formed Cotton Traders.

In the Surrey side that won the County Championship (astonishingly for the first time in Surrey’s history) were Mervyn Davies (of Wales and Lions fame) at no 8 and the feisty John Taylor (also of Wales and the Lions) at flanker.  The team featured four Quins – all in the backs – and with the forward also benefitting from the Scots international Alistair McHarg of London Scottish.  Nothing changes – a good pack of forwards takes you a long way.

The article also doesn’t mention that Quins’ games against Oxford and Cambridge were both played at Twickenham – no wonder we were thought of as the “establishment” club.  No attendance figures are given but it wouldn’t have taken many fingers to count the crowd I reckon.

There was no cup competition of any sort to report on – that innovation awaited for the 1971-72 season when it was entitled a sponsor free “RFU Club Knock Out Competition”.  It did what it said on the tin but it soon acquired a sponsor in John Player cigarettes – the irony of the tobacco industry's mass sponsorship of sport really didn't register with us back then.  I still miss the old fashioned “names in a hat” style of competition and would like to see it come back in some form – the Premiership clubs should be forced to field A teams maybe and it otherwise being open?  I'm not sure they'd find a sponsor or a TV company that interested regrettably.

It also publishes the 1971-72 fixtures – Quins opened with an away game on 4 September at Harrogate of all places and closed at Bristol on 15 April 1972.  I was once told that in those days to play before September or after May needed dispensation from the RFU.

 

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Playfair Rugby Football Annual 1971-72
Discussion started by ComeAllWithin.co.uk , 25/06/2015 21:17
ComeAllWithin.co.uk
25/06/2015 21:17
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Bedfordshire Boy
25/06/2015 21:57
A great read Gregory.
I remember the early seventies only too well, spending half of my working time in West Wales, very painful at times. Have to admit, that Welsh side must go down as the best British Isles international team ever.

Stooperman
26/06/2015 08:29
Cracking article, I am just about old enough to remember that Welsh team. My personal hero was JPR, what a step, what a swerve!

He was also a doctor and played for Guys Hospital, and they played against our old boys team up in Croxley Green. Those were the days when our fixture list included the likes of Wasps, Met Police, London Welsh and Richmond. Happy days.

Thanks for all those memories smiling smiley

Mark W-J
26/06/2015 08:38
"John was a Welsh fly half who was as slight but supremely balanced and talented as George Best but without the drinking problems and other baggage."

Sadly Barry suffers from many of the afflictions of his good friend George. There was a very painful documentary on BBC Wales a couple of years ago, showing him flitting from pub to pub and trying to engage random strangers in conversation. But it also showed footage from the early 70s of the two of them talking about their shared love of escaping from the limelight via the medium of booze.

Humble Pieman
26/06/2015 09:12
JPR was at St. Mary's, not Guy's. Novak, mentioned in the article, was a Guy's man. JPR did have a good swerve, but the Gerald Davies sidestep eclipsed it. He remains the best stepper I've ever seen. He could step off either foot at top speed, with no deceleration.

London Welsh were spectacular in those days. Early in the 71/2 season, with all their Lions still taking a well-earned break, they crushed Quins at Twickenham. I think the score was something like 48-6, with tries still only worth three points.

gregory p
26/06/2015 09:58
Mark W-J - thanks for that update and I'd missed that. I was under the impression - from his few media appearances - that BJ had led a fairly normal life. I know in the early 1970s he felt under immense pressure.

Stooperman
26/06/2015 10:37
Quote:
Humble Pieman
JPR was at St. Mary's, not Guy's. Novak, mentioned in the article, was a Guy's man. JPR did have a good swerve, but the Gerald Davies sidestep eclipsed it. He remains the best stepper I've ever seen. He could step off either foot at top speed, with no deceleration.
London Welsh were spectacular in those days. Early in the 71/2 season, with all their Lions still taking a well-earned break, they crushed Quins at Twickenham. I think the score was something like 48-6, with tries still only worth three points.

You are absolutely right it was St Marys, that's what happens when you get to his age. The memories are sepia tinged and a bit cloudy. I seem to remember having a conversation with him in the bar after the game, but that could be the old memory playing tricks as well. One thing I do remember was the size of the man's shoulders in real life, absolutely enormous, mind you he had probably filled out a bit since his international days! But still made monkeys out of our boys. Not sure anyone laid a finger on him all afternoon smiling smiley

Tigergeezer
27/06/2015 13:38
This article is stone brilliant - loved every word. Thanks for posting it.

_____________________________________________

The lowest depth to which people can sink before God is defined by the word 'journalist'.

Soren Kierkegaard

blakedownquin
01/07/2015 11:41
Aah yes I remember it well !
My Dad and I were part of the very small crowd echoing around Twickenham at those autumn home matches .
On the other hand the Middlesex Sevens filled Twickenham to capacity and everyone was allowed onto the pitch between the semi final and the final for a gigantic kick about with five or more rugby balls provided by Twickenham .

Bedfordshire Boy
01/07/2015 20:13
Quote:
blakedownquin
Aah yes I remember it well !
My Dad and I were part of the very small crowd echoing around Twickenham at those autumn home matches .
On the other hand the Middlesex Sevens filled Twickenham to capacity and everyone was allowed onto the pitch between the semi final and the final for a gigantic kick about with five or more rugby balls provided by Twickenham .

What a great day out the sevens were every year, then came professionalism and the commercial guys became involved, fiddled and fiddled with the format until it finally died.

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