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David Townsend, Headingley Rugby Voices: 1978, Great Britain v. Australia

I had been to loads of Leeds matches at Headingley when the old ground had been pretty full, but it was nothing like the atmosphere for the deciding Test of the 1978 series between Great Britain and Australia.

Looking back, I still can’t believe that the official attendance was given as just under 30,000.

The ground officially held 33,000 then and an hour before kick-off we were jammed in solid and just couldn’t move.

I looked round at this sea of faces everywhere and the old place was packed at every point.

We ended up jammed in near the floodlight on the corner of the South Stand and the Eastern Terrace.

It wasn’t our favoured position but it was as near as we could get to where we wanted to be and it was directly in line with the tryline- so we were in the perfect position to see all the early Australian tries that effectively won the series!

The atmosphere was sensational especially because there were no away fans, obviously, and we were all screaming ourselves delirious as the sides came out.

The Boulevard and Wilderspool are known for their hostility towards visiting teams but I would have been intimidated if I had been an Australian player that day- not that they let it show.

There was such a mixture of people there too, almost every club shirt must have been represented, and we were wedged between Hull and Hull KR fans who had obviously travelled together despite their differences which had been put aside for the day.

We were used to changing ends or nipping out for a drink at half-time but it was impossible that afternoon, in fact I can remember feeling horrified when one of the big lads from Humberside shouted ‘mind yer back’ and proceeded to wee into a large Coke bottle during the break.

David Townsend

Originally published in 'Headingley Rugby Voices' Recollections of supporters, compiled by Phil Caplan.

www.scratchingshedpublishing.com Twitter @scratchingshed2

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Memory added on September 18, 2012

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