rip Cliff Morgan

Just seen that Cliff Morgan has died. Rest in peace Cliff.

“What a score!”

His voice is burned into my mind - "This is Gareth Edwards... A dramatic start!!!"

Great man.

One of the great flyhalfs, both for Wales and Lions. A true legend.

A genuine legend of the game, never lucky enough to have seen him play live but seen plenty of footage and talked to family members who were old enough to see him play and they backed the footage up.

A true gent of the game and someone who commentators these days could learn a huge from.

RIP Cliff your fellow Legend and true Gent big Bill is waiting for you in that big commentary box in the sky. RIP

Greatly saddened by the news. It wasn't unexpected - CM was 83 and had fought a horrible illness for a long time - but it represents the severing of one of the last links to the more carefree amateur days.

I realise that many people will prefer the most hard-nosed brand of rugby that the professional era has fostered (in more ways than one), but there was a lot to be said for the type of game which Cliff exemplified and then broadcasted and wrote about with such distinction.

He was a bit of a hero to this youngster back in the early 70s, as a legendary, almost mythical, stand-off, but above all as a commentator with a voice as mellifluous as Bill McLaren's, which seemed to embody all the great romantic aspects of rugby. Still remember his anchoring of Sport on 4 on Saturday morning radio, in which he would imbue even the dullest recesses of various sports with his own brand of enthusiastic stardust.

I think the best compliment I could pay CM is that he was the finest antidote to cynicism I ever heard. "If the greatest writer of the written word had written that, no-one would have believed him." Rest peacefully, top man, and thanks for helping to make youth so enjoyable.

That leaves Williams, Griffith, Gwilliams and Meredith from the 53 Welsh side along with Tanner, Davis, Skinner and McCaw from NZ. Times bloody relentless.

Time takes us all.

RIP

I started supporting Cardiff RFC in the mid-'50s, and was lucky enough to see Cliff Morgan play quite a lot until he retired in 1958.

He brought a joy and impishness to the game, besides enormous talent, which also showed later in his time as a commentator and tv sport boss. He was one the first two captains on A Question of Sport, the other being Henry Cooper.

A great example of Cliff's skills and sense of fun occurred in a Cardiff home game against an English club - I can't remember which one. The ball came via the scrum-half to Cliff from a lineout.  There seemed to be nothing on for him as fly-half but to kick for touch, the touchline being about 10 yards away.

But instead Cliff ran, darting like an electric mouse, straight for the bulk of the opposing pack who were getting organised after the lineout. He jinked through them, not a hand laid on him, and headed across the field. The opposing backs couldn't get him either. Several would-be tacklers were left lying on the grass.

Cliff reached the other side of the pitch, with absolutely no ground gained, where he banged the ball into touch!  A present-day coach would have had a fit. As far as I could make out, he did it for sheer joy and, of course, because he could!

There's a nice little tribute here...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-23882640

"Morgan inspired first Cardiff, and then Wales, to victory against the mighty New Zealand All Blacks. In 1955, he dazzled for the Lions on their tour of South Africa, scoring a crucial try against the Springboks in Johannesburg. The Lions' 23-22 victory, in front of a crowd of 96,000 in the rarefied air of the Transvaal, was considered by Morgan to have been the greatest day of his sporting life."

What a couple of victories - don't know if any Welsman will ever repeat this feat! RIP to a great man

Before my time but identifiable as a great man in the game, be it as a player or speaker. Such an inspiring sporting legacy! RIP

Im too young to remember watching him play but his voice was part of my childhood...he didn't talk when commentating, he sang..

Legend as we all know is an overused word, Cliff Morgan was a true legend, as a player, commentator and person. RIP Great Man, RIP.

Farewell Cliff,one of my child hood Heroes not many played in sides that beat both NZ,andSA
TWICE.Member of the great Wales midfield with Bleddyn Williams an Jack Mathews and member of THE Greatest Lions side SA 1955.Never attempted a drop goal in his career considering it a waste of possession.

In many ways the greatest British flyhalf, as he inspired so many to follow in his fighting footsteps, to toy with the opposition.

He played and loved skill over brawn and was the epitome of the flyhalf wizard.

Listening to commentators describing him made my mates and me want to play rugby, a birthday trip to Cardiff to see him made us want to play the game the way it should be played.

I was saying to the local lads earlier today if you are playing number ten this weekend for your club, I urge you to throw caution to the wind take a big sides step past the on coming defender and see what might happen. For the memory of Cliff...!

Never ever to be forgotten.

Very impressive coverage in English Daily Mail yesterday.
One of those people nobody has a bad word for.

RIP

It's a shame too many are too you g to have seen him play. He was a magician, part of one of the greatest backlines Cardiff, Wales and the Lions ever fielded.

Cliff
Dr Jack
The Prince

From his former employers the BBC

Sir Tony O'Reilly pays tribute to the late Cliff Morgan

Irish rugby legend and successful businessman Sir Tony O'Reilly has paid tribute to his former British and Irish Lions teammate, the late Cliff Morgan.
Wales rugby international and broadcaster Morgan has died after a long illness aged 83.
Ex-Ireland wing O'Reilly toured with Morgan on the Lions tour to South Africa in 1955

"I suppose that inside the Hall of Fame, there is a special Hall of Fame for the very few," he said.
"Cliff Morgan would be among the first to be admitted, in that he would both honour the game and shape the spirit and comradeship of rugby union football."

“Someone asked me recently could he play in any era, and I thought about it and said without a moment's hesitation that he would still dominate the game”


Tony O'Reilly on Cliff Morgan

Morgan won 29 caps for Wales, his first in 1951, captained the British and Irish Lions and also played for Cardiff and later became a respected commentator, writer and head of BBC outside broadcasts.
O'Reilly won 29 caps for Ireland between 1955 and 1970 and scored 38 tries in 30 appearances for the Barbarians, toured with Morgan on the Lions tour of South Africa in 1955.

"I played on two tours with Cliff—one Lions; one Barbarians. He was never less than great, and he was sometimes essentially transcendentally brilliant," O'Reilly said.
"In the first [Lions] Test since 1938, in Johannesburg in 1955, with 14 men against 15, in front of 110,000 people at Ellis Park, we led 23-22, and South Africa had a conversion by Jack van der Schyff to save the match.

"His kick slid by the outside post and Billy Williams of Swansea turned to Cliff and said: "Cliffie, it's a good thing we went to church this morning!

"Someone asked me recently could he play in any era, and I thought about it and said without a moment's hesitation that he would still dominate the game.

"His pace, elusiveness, kicking, handling, courage and surprisingly, his size—being well over 14 stone weight—would have been as destructive today as it was then.

"Most important, his unquenchable spirit as a leader of back lines which included Dick Jeeps, Jeff Butterfield, WPC Davies, Gareth Griffiths, Bleddyn Williams, and Ken Jones was a dominant one, and as Jack Matthews said: "If you could stay with him, you would score!
"Somewhat like [Will] Genia today in Australia, it was almost impossible to know where he would run next, off either foot.
"He organized and led the choir on both our tours.

Tony O'reilly won 29 caps for Ireland
"We were delayed two days at Nairobi and got off at the Jan Smuts Airport, and all 30 players formed the choir to be led by Cliff into what was essentially then the Boer National Anthem, Sarie Marais.
"There were 10,000 people in tears as the team arrived. It was the PR coup of all tours."

Morgan moved effortlessly from player to broadcaster, first with the BBC in Wales before making the move to London, where he was editor of Grandstand and head of outside broadcasts.

"As the voice on the BBC, he could be equalled only by Richard Burton, with whom he was particularly friendly, and Saturday mornings with Cliff on the BBC became a standard diet for great broadcasting in his era," O'Reilly added.

"To have played with the man was a unique experience, but to have known him, to have been his friend, to have toured with him and to have known his family is to know the architecture of rugby and the people of Wales.

"He stood for everything that was good in both."
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