ON THIS DAY 1973

The Paris peace accords were signed that ended the US involvement in the Vietnam war.

Can't believe that was 39 years ago today. Time flies...!
What a try though...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwCbG4I0QyA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

maestegmafia wrote:Can't believe that was 30 years ago today. Time flies...!
What a try though...

You'll have to add a decade to that 30 years of yours mate.

biltongbek wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:Can't believe that was 30 years ago today. Time flies...!
What a try though...

You'll have to add a decade to that 30 years of yours mate.

I pressed the 0 instead of the 9

That damned keyboard. Edit it now then no one will be the wiser.

I edited it before you posted your previous post. Now there are more posts on here relating to my inaccurate index finger than the glorious try scored by The Great Gareth Edwards.

sorry bud, didn't want to be pedantic, was in stead trying to be a smart ass.

maestegmafia wrote: Now there are more posts on here relating to my inaccurate index finger

Hmmmm. And where exactly was your finger? And what was it doing?

For me, simply the best call of a sequence of play. Ever.

index typing on an iphone..!

The whole game was great, terrific rugby by both teams.

It's poor by todays standards.

Time to move on.

doctor_grey wrote:

maestegmafia wrote: Now there are more posts on here relating to my inaccurate index finger

Hmmmm. And where exactly was your finger? And what was it doing?

For me, simply the best call of a sequence of play. Ever.

I wonder if the call today would run more along the lines of:

"Kirkpatrick to Williams. Pass looked forward. Phil Bennett clearly obstructing, chased by Alistair Scown. Blatant, Oh, that's blatant. John Williams... Pullin, John Dawes. Is the linesman a dummy?. David, Tom David, the half-way line. What happened to the advantage? Foot in touch by Quinnell. This is Gareth Edwards. A dramatic start!..but we'll have to have a ten minute delay whilst the TMO reviews that and then makes a controversial call"

Didnt do a backflip over it though did he, poor mans shane williams.

"Oh, that fellow Edwards!"

The try was very early in the match. My dad tells me that he missed it (he was about 9 at the time) because his mam was given the incorrect number of Green Shield Stamps at Merthyr Tescos and they had to go back to sort it.

Great try, great commentary.

I know its the Baa Baas playing but somehow it feels Welsh to me.

Why wasn't Bill McLaren commentating?

When you look back at that game, at the time it was played and copare it to todays game, their was a lot of high tackles (Head High, around the neck)

It that was today half the team would of been sent to thew sin bin.

Still it was a fantastic try though.

Messymesina wrote:The try was very early in the match. My dad tells me that he missed it (he was about 9 at the time) because his mam was given the incorrect number of Green Shield Stamps at Merthyr Tescos and they had to go back to sort it.

Great try, great commentary.

I know its the Baa Baas playing but somehow it feels Welsh to me.

Why wasn't Bill McLaren commentating?

It was basically the Lions team that beat the All Blacks in '71.

Barry John had retired by then, maybe the year before so Bennett was now the greatest playing flyhalf in the World. I think Mervyn Davies had a cold or stomach bug that meant he pulled out the night before and they brought in Tom David.

Reading the commentary above Pullen is the only player in that move who was not welsh, so I can understand your confusion, there were seven Welshmen on the pitch that day. There were between seven and nine Welshman in the Lions match day fifteen touring in '71.

Cheers Maest,

I was never confused (in the style of the pub landlord!).

It would be fantastic if The Baabaas reinvented themselves once more as the best the British Isles could offer at the end of a proper NZ tour.

I take pride from the fact that the greatest Lions '71 and '74 had our greatest Welsh players amongst them.

Messymesina wrote:I know its the Baa Baas playing but somehow it feels Welsh to me.

Its all of us bro. But I understand how you feel. Great Welsh players. Played in Cardiff.

Messymesina wrote:It would be fantastic if The Baabaas reinvented themselves once more as the best the British Isles could offer........

Can't agree more. Great tradition. Great for everyone. Challenge is how to figure out their role and cut a place in the overcrowded Rugby calendar. Traditions like this help Rugby grow, too.

The commentator was the great Cliff Morgan.

doctor_grey wrote:

Messymesina wrote:I know its the Baa Baas playing but somehow it feels Welsh to me.

Its all of us bro. But I understand how you feel. Great Welsh players. Played in Cardiff.

Messymesina wrote:It would be fantastic if The Baabaas reinvented themselves once more as the best the British Isles could offer........

Can't agree more. Great tradition. Great for everyone. Challenge is how to figure out their role and cut a place in the overcrowded Rugby calendar. Traditions like this help Rugby grow, too.

Well it is all about priorities, if the fans want a Barbarians team with British players not random ring ins as we have had the last decade or so then that is what should happen. If the fixture is important enough then it should be made way for.

Modern professional rugby union has its priorities very wrong in many areas.

Time to retire the Lions and Baa Baa's. It's sentimental nonsense like the dredging up of this crusty old video that needs consigning to the scrapheap.

I guess at least the Lions gave some of those Welsh players of the 70s a chance to beat NZ though. I reckon they just needed a bit of help

Messymesina wrote:

Why wasn't Bill McLaren commentating?

I am not sure why it was Cliff Morgan Not Bill McLaren. I found this to explain who Cliff was for you.



http://www.rugbynetwork.net/main/s95/st27023.htm

Also found these wonderful McLaren quotes:


PHIL BENNETT COVERING. He's like a demented ferret up a wee drainpipe chasing that ball this young lad from Llanelli. That kick's an awkward one even though Bryan Williams thumped it like it was three pounds o' haggis.

CHASED BY ALISTAIR SCOWN: That big fella from Taranaki is a real a handful at flanker and he's as quick as a trout up a burn as well. He plays in the backs as well back home.

BRILLIANT... OH THAT'S BRILLIANT: Gracious did you just see that? They say down at Stradey that if ever you catch young Bennett you get to make a wish. Well there's four Kiwis – Scown, Kirkpatrick, Hurst and Whiting – who will be going home empty handed for sure.

JOHN WILLIAMS: Doesn't he just frighten you to death. I'm no hod carrier but I would be laying bricks if he was running at me


BRYAN WILLIAMS: He won't be happy with that tackle on JPR. He was like a raging bull with a sore head going in with that one. That could have put him in Ward Four! He'll be buying him a pint tonight and saying sorry.

PULLIN: Would you believe it? What’s he doing there? These front row fellas turn up everywhere, they're as cunning as a bag of weasels.

JOHN DAWES: The skipper doesn't just give a pass, he presents it to you on a plate with silver service.
GREAT DUMMY: Even I bought that one and I left my wallet at home just in case.

DAVID... TOM DAVID. They will be chuffed to bits with that down at Stradey. Their man only got called in this morning when Mervyn Davies went down with flu. Know the feeling.
THE HALF WAY LINE: I'll tell you what. I always reckon a day out of Hawick is a day wasted but I'm enjoying this.

BRILLIANT BY QUINNELL: That Derek Quinnell, he must have been born when meat was cheap I'm telling you. He's like a wildebeest on the charge. When he hits you its like the roof has just fallen in.

THIS IS GARETH EDWARDS. A DRAMATIC START. WHAT A SCORE! OH THAT FELLOW EDWARDS. WHO CAN STOP A MAN LIKE THAT?
That's simply brilliant. Gareth Edwards arrived like a shaft of lightning out of the gloom and its left the All Blacks with faces like the crack of doom. He loves those Hawick balls I dish out down at training. I tell you what son, you can have the whole packet after that.

maesteg -
Thanks. Fantastic reading that. And, you know, its a bit vague, but I think I remember a few of those. Much appreciated.

And I agree Rugby has many priorities wrong. Most likely because there is no singular global vision. Easy for me to write, but feck-hard to execute. But with that one vision, with all unions and clubs moving in the same direction.......we could conquer the world.

SafeAsMilk. Of course its all sentimental nonsense. but it is great sentimental nonsense. Thats part of the reason we love 'em. Hope they grow and grow.

I'd Just sat down to watch that match in 73, and wow what a match, with that try being one of the greatest ever in the first 2 minutes or so, incredible to watch it unfold live, what a game!. But also look at some of David Duckhams jinking runs, and the aweful high tackles by the AB's on JPR, which were disgraceful and could have led to him being maimed. Had this game happened in the present era the AB's would have finished with about half a team. The Baa Baa's were magnificent and it was truly some of the greatest running Rugby i have ever seen and was made more interesting by the fact that there was no love lost between the teams and everyone seemed to dislike, Sid Going and Grant Batty.

Watching the Lions on TV is great but nothing in sport compares to the camaraderie shown by the British and Irish fans on tour.

The rivalry between Sid Going and Gareth Edwards for the accolade of best scrum half in the world was a big thing back then.

The all blacks had had a hell of a tour losing to Northwestern counties, Llanelli, The midland Counties, they had drawn with Ireland and with Munster. Then they lost to the Baabaa's.

British rugby was in good form.

Thanks Maest, my grandfather, 80 next month reckons Cliff Morgan was at same level as John, Bennett and JD1.
The other great commentary of the 70s was IMHO "they'll never believe it in Pontypool"

Cymroglan wrote:Watching the Lions on TV is great but nothing in sport compares to the camaraderie shown by the British and Irish fans on tour.

s'truth. Best experience short of sex.

"On this day 1973".

I wasn't born.

Messymesina wrote:Thanks Maest, my grandfather, 80 next month reckons Cliff Morgan was at same level as John, Bennett and JD1.
The other great commentary of the 70s was IMHO "they'll never believe it in Pontypool"

Aye he was an amazing player, a cross between John and Bennett. Five foot five and eight and a half stone on a rainy day.

Played in a great backline for Cardiff RFC, Wales and the lions with Dr Jack, the rock solid inside Center, same size as Morgan but his tackles would make jerry collins shudder with fear. Outside Dr Jack was Bleddyn Williams, the greatest rugby player I have ever seen. His running and vision, pace and guile were worth a months pay check to watch. Imagine a cross between Brian O'Driscoll and Christian Cullen.

maestegmafia wrote:

Messymesina wrote:Thanks Maest, my grandfather, 80 next month reckons Cliff Morgan was at same level as John, Bennett and JD1.
The other great commentary of the 70s was IMHO "they'll never believe it in Pontypool"

Aye he was an amazing player, a cross between John and Bennett. Five foot five and eight and a half stone on a rainy day.

Played in a great backline for Cardiff RFC, Wales and the lions with Dr Jack, the rock solid inside Center, same size as Morgan but his tackles would make jerry collins shudder with fear. Outside Dr Jack was Bleddyn Williams, the greatest rugby player I have ever seen. His running and vision, pace and guile were worth a months pay check to watch. Imagine a cross between Brian O'Driscoll and Christian Cullen.

My GF agrees with you. He doesn't shut up about him.

Are you the guy that posted from St Tropez?

Great post Cari. But this is about rugby not about you.

I did post when I was there on holiday last autumn. I am lucky enough to have friends with a wonderful house and retirement business in Cogalin.

Probably the most famous and talked about try in rugby history. I often get it out to remind me how good NH rugby can be.
Seriously though the whole match is worth watching. Duckhams runs were also memorable.

David Duckham is the only player I've ever seen throw a dummy that's fooled the cameraman. He was awesome that day.

Grrrr why are all the "best try ever" "try from the end of the earth" etc scored against us?

You should be flattered nganboy. Any try scored against NZ is an achievement.