Alastair Hignell: my Bristol, Gloucestershire and England debuts

I made my debut for Bristol as an 18-year-old scrum half on a Wednesday afternoon away match at Pontypool Park in 1974.

I made my England debut as a 19-year-old full-back against Australia at Ballymore Stadium in Brisbane.

In between I made my debut for Gloucestershire as a fly-half in a county championship quarter-final against Hertfordshire at Bristol.

In two of those matches Gloucester prop Mike Burton was sent off, earning extra punishment from RFU officials for an exaggerated bow to the crowd on the way off the pitch at the Memorial Stadium and extra opprobrium from the world’s media by becoming the first Englishman to be sent off in a Test Match – within two minutes of the start in Brisbane.

And, of course, the incident has become part of rugby’s folklore, not surprisingly from the lips of that master-raconteur, Mike Burton himself. On being told that he was being sent off for a late tackle, legend has it that he protested his innocence by claiming “I got there as soon as I could!” while Bill Beaumont, coming back on to the field after treatment at the same as Burton was leaving it was credited with saying, with a pointed gesture at the stadium clock which now registered three minutes past three, “Well, he couldn’t have been that bloody late, could he?”

Great stories, polished over time. Does anyone now really know what was actually said by whom and when? I suspect not. As the great after-dinner speakers always say, “ Never let the truth get in the way of a good story!”

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