Rugby fans should be enjoying a special treat this summer - a Lions tour to South Africa. At the moment, it is in doubt, because of COVID-19. It could still go ahead, but it’s unlikely that the usual army of Lions supporters will be able to make the journey. Australia has offered to provide an alternative venue and there have been suggestions that the tour could be postponed to 2022. With the World Cup scheduled for 2023, the one-year postponement would be far from ideal.
Given the uncertain situation, what better time to look back half a century, at what was arguably the greatest of all Lions tours? Managed by Doug Smith, coached by Carwyn James and captained by John Dawes, the 1971 Lions made history with a first-ever series win over New Zealand. It was a tour which still resonates with me and made for one of the most memorable summers of my life.
1970/1 was my first year at London University. I was at one of the out-of-town colleges, not far from what is now that monument to stationary traffic known as the M25. I threw myself into student life and played for the college first XV, but I also tried to attend as many top-flight club matches as possible. Far and away the most exciting team of the era was London Welsh, captained and coached by Dawes. They played some irresistible rugby, with established international stars like JPR Williams, Gerald Davies, John Taylor and Mervyn Davies in their ranks.
Dawes had captained Wales to a Five Nations Grand Slam, so it was no surprise to see the Lions tour party stacked with Welsh players. Thirteen made the pick, with London Welsh represented by the five already mentioned, plus lock Mike Roberts. Their contingent was to rise to seven, when Geoff Evans came out as a replacement, in mid-tour.
Back in those days, the traditional end-of-season jamboree came in the shape of the Middlesex Sevens. It was not to be missed and I arranged to meet up with a friend in RIchmond, on the Saturday morning. As we began our walk down the A316, we saw a group of players practicing on the back pitch at Richmond Athletic Ground. When we got closer, we realised that this was a Lions training session. We immediately stopped and looked on for about half-an-hour. Apart from excitement, our main reaction was delight, mixed with some surprise, that the greats of the game cheated and skived in training, every bit as much as Coarse Rugby players like ourselves.
Down the road in Twickenham, London Welsh, despite the absence of their superstars, romped to another sevens title and we went to the pub and prepared for a summer of excitement from Down Under. The Lions flew out from Heathrow the following week. I was among a small group of fans seeing them off and managed to collect the autographs of nearly all the party.
The tour of New Zealand was prefaced by matches against Queensland and New South Wales, with the Brisbane game being played only a couple of days after they arrived there. Not surprisingly, the team was suffering from severe anti circadian dysrhythmia (jet lag) and the Australian province beat them by fifteen points to eleven. The result and performance prompted the Queensland coach Des Connor (a former Wallaby and All Black scrum-half) to immediately dismiss the Lions as the worst team ever to be sent to New Zealand.
Two days after the Queensland game, a friend and I went camping (and drinking) in Henley-on-Thames. The famous riverside town still boasts numerous pubs in a small area. There were even more, back in 1971! Before setting off on our Friday night crawl, we had sneakily pitched our tent on the edge of the local cricket field, just over the river from the town centre.
When we woke up on Saturday morning, I switched the radio on and was relieved to hear that the tourists had scraped a narrow win over New South Wales. We celebrated all day, having made an early departure from the cricket club to erect the tent in some woods outside the town, before visiting the pubs we hadn’t reached on the previous night.
After the narrow victory in Sydney, the Lions moved on to the main course - New Zealand. Local supporters, who had viewed them as another flock of lambs to the slaughter, were soon changing their tune, as the tourists swept all before them in a run of ten victories before the First Test. This was a twenty-six-match tour!!
They began with a 25-3 win over Counties-Thames Valley and followed it up with a 22-9 victory over King Country-Wanganui, who included the legendary Colin ‘Pinetree’ Meads. He suffered two broken ribs after only two minutes, but had them strapped up and played for the whole game. Afterwards, he observed (perhaps ruefully?) that the Lions pack was a unit to be taken seriously.
Waikato (35-14) and New Zealand Maoris (23-12) were then seen off, before a trip to Wellington to take on one of the country’s strongest provinces. The hosts were swept away by a devastating display of attacking rugby. Welsh winger John Bevan scored four of the nine tries in a 47-9 rout. With today’s scoring values, that would be 65-9! After the game, Wellington captain Graham Williams joined other experienced critics in hailing “The greatest Lions ever”. From the worst to the greatest in just three-and-a-half weeks!
Back home, even non-rugby fans were beginning to take notice and televised highlights were being screened in midweek. I have to confess that my studies were not my first priority. Three more victories followed. 25-6 against South Canterbury-North Otago, 21-9 against Otago and 39-6 against West Coast-Buller - a game in which David Duckham ran in six tries.
Next up were Canterbury at Lancaster Park, the stadium which has since been devastated by the 2011 Christchurch earthquake. This was not a game of rugby. It was a battle, a disgusting display of thuggery by the home side and one of the most notorious games in Lions history, punctuated by violence which could never happen today.The photographs of prop Sandy Carmichael’s battered face are still as chilling as they were at the time. Displaying great courage and no little skill, the Lions showed that brains can beat brawn and brutality and registered a magnificent 14-3 win. Victory, though, came at a cost. The nauseating attacks on Carmichael had ended his tour, while fellow prop Ray McLoughlin broke his thumb while defending himself and was also ruled out of the rest of the tour, just a week before the First Test, in Dunedin.
The Lions licked their wounds and cruised to a comfortable 31-12 midweek win against another combined side, Marlborough-Nelson.
And so to the First Test, at Dunedin’s ‘House of Pain’, Carisbrook - another famous old venue which has been consigned to history. This was the first chance to hear live radio commentary from New Zealand, albeit at the highly antisocial hour of 4 a.m. Today, we expect to see every Lions game live on TV. Fifty years ago, the only live coverage was on the radio, in the middle of the night and limited to the Test matches.
I had a busy time in the week leading up to the game. On the Thursday night, I attended a party in Oxford, where I, um, enjoyed the friendly company of two pretty nurses, but not at the same time. The following day, I went back to London, for my college’s end-of-term bash. This time, I received the even friendlier attention of a young lady from my year. I managed to tear myself away from her clutches in time to sneak back to my own room, in time to tune in for the game in Dunedin,
In those days, radio broadcasts from the other side of the world left much to be desired. Commentary would often disappear in a cloud of static, but that did nothing to dampen my joy as the Lions registered a backs-to-the-wall 9-3 win. After the departure of the two first-choice props, Ian ‘Mighty Mouse’ McLauchlan and Sean Lynch had been named in the Test line-up and it was McLauchlan who scored the game’s only try, as he charged down a clearance kick and dived on to the ball to score. The rest of the game was marked by Barry John’s masterly tactical kicking, which ran All Black fullback Fergie McCormick ragged (and ended his international career) and heroic Lions defence, in the face of sustained New Zealand pressure.
Later that day, a group of us went in to the West End, to see a matinee of The Merchant of Venice, at the Old Vic. Being impecunious students, we had bought tickets up in the gods. The exertions of the previous two nights had left me so stiff and exhausted that I could barely walk and almost had to be carried up the stairs, much to the amusement of my unsympathetic mates. ‘Larry’ himself, Sir Laurence Olivier, had been playing Shylock in that production, but he did not appear in this performance. I’m afraid I can’t remember who took over the role, but I do remember that Joan Plowright (Lady Olivier) was Portia and that the cast also included Jim Dale and a young Derek Jacobi. When I went to bed that night, I slept long and well. A Lions win and the Immortal Bard. What a day.
There were three games before the second Test, which would be played back at the scene of the battle against Canterbury. The Lions comfortably beat Southland 25-3, before holding out for a 14-9 win over Taranaki, who outscored them by two tries to one. The midweek game before the Test was against New Zealand Universities, back at Athletic Park, where Wellington had been put to the sword. It ended in a 27-6 Lions win and included a try which, to this day, remains one of the most remarkable I have ever seen.
The Lions won a scrum inside the Universities’ 22, directly in front of the posts. Barry John received the ball and dummied a drop at goal. He then jinked to the left and weaved his way past a series of defenders, none of whom laid a finger on him, and touched down between the posts. After seeing it in the highlights package, I had to wait forty years to see it again, in Eddie Butler’s wonderful 40th anniversary documentary about the tour. Unfortunately, I have mislaid the DVD on which I recorded the programme, but I can still see that try. After a similar piece of wizardry in that year’s Five Nations clash at Murrayfield, the great Scottish journalist Norman Mair wrote of ‘King’ John: “It is with relief to see Barry John enter a room by the doorway rather than materialise through the wall.”
Almost as remarkable as that try is the fact that the star of the team was playing on the Tuesday of a Test week. Another thing that wouldn’t happen today!
An old school-friend had asked me to sing in the choir at a family wedding in Staffordshire that weekend, so the early hours of Saturday, June the 26th found me lying on a camp-bed, earphone in place and tuning in on the little transistor radio. This time, it was an unhappy experience, as the Lions suffered what was to be their only defeat on New Zealand soil. The winning margin was 22-12, with the highlight being a spectacular try by New Zealand flanker Ian Kirkpatrick. The Lions produced two glorious tries of their own, both scored by Gerald Davies. After the game Carwyn James famously told his team that he was more confident than ever that the Lions could go on to win the series.
Next up were Wairarapa-Bush and the Lions cruised to a 27-6 win. That was followed by an unsavoury encounter with Hawke’s Bay. At one point, Barry John showed his contempt for the opposition’s tactics by sitting on the ball, beckoning them to tackle him, then standing up and thumping the ball downfield. Once again, the class of the Lions was too much for the home side, as four magnificent tries by Gerald Davies guided them to a 25-6 win.
The next two games were again close-run affairs. In midweek, East Coast-Poverty Bay, captained by Kirkpatrick, were beaten 18-12, with Dawes landing a last-minute drop goal to clinch the victory. Three days later, it was the skipper’s last-minute try which made the game safe, as Auckland were beaten 19-12.
With no midweek game ahead of the Third Test, the Lions headed off for some R & R in the Bay of Islands. While they were up there, I was also down at the seaside. I was singing with an opera group, who had a two-week run in Budleigh Salterton, in Devon. The final performance was on Friday, July the 30th. Not surprisingly, there was a lively end-of-tour party, so I was not in the best of shape when I crawled into my sleeping bag, shortly before the game in Wellington kicked off.
We were students, so it was basic accommodation, with the men billeted in the local scout hut and the ladies next door, in the guides hut. I showed extraordinary restraint, not to mention commendable consideration for my fellow hut-dwellers, as I somehow stopped myself from screaming with excitement as the Lions roared into a 13-0 lead after eighteen minutes. I can still see Gareth Edwards’s hand-off on Bob Burgess, as the scrum-half’s dynamic burst sent John in for a try. There is a memorable image of Burgess’s head being jarred backwards, with his flowing locks going in all directions. The Lions did not add to their score, but the All Blacks never looked like coming back and could only muster a consolation try to end up 13-3 losers. The result meant that the Lions could not lose the series. After the game, Colin Meads congratulated them on drawing the series, before saying that they were the best side to tour New Zealand in his time.
Three provincial games remained, before the crucial final Test. Manawatu-Horowhenua were thrashed 39-6, with John Bevan scoring four of the Lions’ eight tries. North Auckland, fielding three Going brothers - Sid, Brian and Ken - proved a tough nut to crack, in a game which ended 11-5 in favour of the tourists. Bevan scored the last of their three tries, to equal Tony O’Reilly’s record tally of seventeen, in the 1959 tour.
The provincial clean sweep was completed with victory over Bay of Plenty, in another close-run contest. It ended 20-14 to the Lions, with a late drop goal by John making the game safe. Again, the star playing four days before a Test, let alone the decisive Test?
The weekend of the final Test, at Auckland’s Eden Park, I made another visit to my pal in Staffordshire. No wedding involved, just the simple pleasures of eating and drinking well, and this time I was in a proper bed as I listened to the last eighty minutes of a historic tour.
It was a tight and nerve-wracking contest. At halftime it was level at eight-all. A penalty apiece in the second half made it 11-all, before JPR Williams landed a memorable long-range drop goal to put the Lions ahead. Another abiding image of the game was that of the Lions full-back turning to the main stand and saluting the rest of the squad. He had never dropped a goal in his life, but, on the way to the ground, had jokingly predicted that this would be the day. Another New Zealand penalty levelled things six minutes from time and the Lions held on for the draw which secured a series win. Before the tour, manager Doug Smith had predicted that the Lions would win the series 2-1, with one game drawn. Eat your heart out, Nostradamus.
History had been made and rugby was making the headlines, back in the British Isles. When the team returned in triumph, a huge crowd was waiting to welcome them at Heathrow. Years later, Gerald Davies recalled their reception. “The reaction when we came back was as if we were the Beatles. Heathrow was so crowded there was no room to move. It brought home how phenomenal an achievement it was, but I am not sure we would have succeeded without Carwyn as coach. Thanks to him, we were true to our talent.”
They certainly were true to their talent, and what talent it was. If I live to be a hundred, I know that I will never see a backline to match that of this great team.
JPR Williams - courageous, daring and skilful. One of the tries in the 2nd Test defeat was created when he gathered a kick near his own line and ran out of defence. In the final Test, his head-on tackle flattened the charging eighteen-stone prop Jazz Muller, a few metres from the line. JPR just turned and walked away. Muller lay pole-axed on the ground.
Gerald Davies - the greatest sidestepper I have ever seen. He could step off either foot without losing speed. He was also a wonderful reminder that small men with skill can beat big men with bulging muscles. In recent years, the likes of Christian Wade and Cheslin Kolbe have followed his example.
John Dawes - an unsung hero. There have been few better passers of the ball and he was still showing his skill eighteen months later, in the memorable Barbarians win over the All Blacks at Cardiff, in 1973. “Great dummy!” roared Cliff Morgan, in the build-up to the classic Gareth Edwards try.
Mike Gibson - in the build-up to the final try in that epic Barbarians win, Cliff was moved to exclaim ‘His genius!’. He truly was a genius, with an unmatched rugby brain. He never seemed to do anything spectacular. He never needed to, as he was always in the right place at the right time. If you never saw him play, he really was as good as Brian O’Driscoll.
David Duckham - another dazzling runner, whose skills lit up that Barbarians game. Welsh supporters regarded him so highly that they affectionately called him Dai. Wales were outstanding enough without him. How much better would they have been if they had discovered a Welsh granny? A measure of his greatness was the fact that he managed to shine in a series of poor English teams.
Barry John - nearly twenty years after that tour, I was visiting New Zealand and staying on a farm in the Bay of Plenty. One evening, after dinner, I sat on the porch with the owner, Doug, a man in his sixties. Not surprisingly, we talked rugby and I will never forget him leaning towards me and saying, in tones of hushed reverence “I saw Barry John play!”. If a Kiwi says that about a rugby player, you know that that player must have been very special.
Gareth Edwards - G.O.A.T. Enough said.
The backs were the superstars in that team, but such a stellar group could never have performed without the forwards, who were heroes to a man. Leading them was Willie John McBride, on his fourth Lions tour and destined to lead them to even greater glory in South Africa three years later. At a twenty-fifth anniversary reunion, he reflected: “We went out for the first time, believing in our hearts that we could win. We went on previous tours, hoping that we could win. We didn’t really believe it. For the first time, in 1971, we believed that we could beat the All Blacks.”
That great team has regularly marked milestone anniversaries with big reunions. You can be sure that a fiftieth anniversary bash would be one for the ages. Let’s hope that it will take place.
Sadly, the turnout will be lower than that for the last reunion, as the Grim Reaper has been hard at work on this team of legends. Seven of them are no longer with us.
Carwyn James (coach) died in a hotel room in Amsterdam, on January the 10th 1983, aged 53.
Dr. Doug Smith (manager) died on the 22nd of September 1998, aged 74
Gordon Brown - Broon frae Troon - died from non-Hodgkin lymphoma aged 53 in March 2001.
Mervyn Davies - Merv the Swerve - died of lung cancer on March the 15th 2012, aged 66
Alastair Biggar died of cancer on February the 6th 2016, at the age of 69.
Brian ‘Stack’ Stevens suffered from a rare and serious neurological condition and died on 10 October 2017, aged 76.
After a long illness, John Pullin died on February the 5th this year, aged 79.
They may be gone, but their spirit lives on and the memories of their achievements will never die.
“We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep.”
Memory added on July 13, 2021
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