EDWARDS’ WARNING FOR EDDIE
SIR GARETH edwards’ mobile phone rings in a hospitality box at Cardiff arms Park. ‘I’ve got a journalist with me,’ he tells his friend. ‘Wants to know what I think about the Six Nations.’ there’s a pause. ‘ah, that’s right.’ he turns to me, saying: ‘We were hoping Dylan hartley would be made england captain. he might get sent off early.’
In picking his first england squad, eddie Jones has indeed gambled on the errant hooker having reformed himself from an eye-gouging, elbowing, referee-abusing brawler.
edwards, scorer of rugby’s most famous try, son of the upper Swansea valley, sporting deity of Wales and — by a vote of his international peers in 2003 as well as by common consent — the greatest rugby star who ever threw a ball, never played that way.
he remains, aged 68, an advocate of sportsmanship. ‘You always play to win, to perform at your absolute best,’ he said. ‘Sometimes in rugby in my day people were reluctant to say that. But I never had a problem with that. You need that approach to be successful. Play hard but play fair.’
the values edwards practised — and now preaches — have won him an enduring fame that has followed him around the world.
he once took a three-hour flight in an old Soviet helicopter from Murmansk to the north-western fringe of Russia.
there, in the Kola Peninsula, awaited a fabulous river as wide as the thames and full of salmon. the village’s young mayor recognised edwards and one day told his visiting fishermen that he had something to show them.
he flicked on the Tv and suddenly they were all watching the Barbarians v New Zealand, January 1973. there was a freedom of expression in the crafting of ‘that try’, as it has become known. things are different now. ‘When I go in and see the Wales players at their training base they say to me, “I am just looking at my tackling stats on my computer,”’ smiles edwards.
‘there used to be room for spontaneity but in today’s game nothing is left to chance. But there are a few players who excite me. George Ford with england. he has something extra, some savvy. he needs to be looked after, not dropped after one average game. eli Walker on the wing for Ospreys and Wales, he is exciting.
‘In Wales we like Danny Cipriani. he has individuality. I’m not saying he fits into england’s model but he is the sort of player who’s great to watch.’
For all that rugby has changed in the professional era, edwards is full of enthusiasm ahead of the Six Nations.
‘I think it might be a bit of a mish-mash: teams winning two and losing two,’ he says.
‘there are four years to go until the next World Cup and this is the start of the journey towards that. as a Welshman I would love to see Wales win, of course. But, for me, the most interesting thing will be to see how the new guys perform; which youngsters put down a marker.’
Scotland’s opening match against england at Bt Murrayfield also intrigues. eddie Jones has already made his mark on the competition — and that’s before a ball has been kicked. ‘eddie Jones (left) endeared himself to the whole rugby world when his Japan side beat South africa in the manner they did,’ says edwards. ‘It will be interesting to see whether he can impose that style — a quicker, more open game — on england. It may take a little time.
‘Of course, eddie Jones is a good coach. But the Six Nations is different from anything he has experienced before. When Graham henry came over from New Zealand to coach Wales, he said, “It’s just another competition. the pitch at twickenham is the same size.”
‘No. he hadn’t grasped it. human frailties are exposed in the Six Nations. and he couldn’t get his breath when he saw 50,000 people in Wales shirts on the streets of Dublin and edinburgh. the Six Nations is accessible. Father and son handing the baton down from generation to generation.’
edwards’ own generation was, of course, a gilded one for Welsh and Lions rugby.
Between his international debut on april Fools’ Day 1967 until his farewell on St Patrick’s Day in March 1978, edwards was its most celebrated son.
he won seven Five Nations Championships, including three Grand Slams and five triple Crowns to set alongside the triumphant Lions tours of 1971, in New Zealand, and 1974, in South africa.
his 53 caps were compiled consecutively, injury astonishingly never ruling him out of selection. that consistency of fitness is hardly achievable in the modern game, with its relentless physicality. ‘there are too many international games now,’ says edwards. ‘they used to be occasions, now they are saturating the game.
‘tell me, honestly, can you remember the quarter-finals of the World Cup? Bits of them, yes, but not all of them.’