Murray Mexted: 1979, England v. New Zealand

I was lucky enough to have played for the All Blacks against England a number of times, the first was at Twickenham in 1979.

It was a cold & miserable day, brightened by a hard earned, albeit narrow victory. The majority of the team were playing at Twickers for the first time & had never experienced being able to soak in an old fashioned, white porcelain bathtub of which there were approximately eight spread around the changing room. The norm of course for antipodean rugby players was the basic shower. We were further amused to learn that the baths were filled with hot water only, to a specific level, at half time which apparently cooled during the second 40 minutes to the perfect temperature.

As you can imagine the novelty was such that we were late arrivals at the after match function.

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