How Wales dominated Golden Era of the 70s
Brendan Gallagher’s history
The 1970s were a very Welsh decade culminating with Grand Slams in 1976 and 1978 to set alongside the earlier triumph of 1971. It was unquestionably a golden era in style and substance, but it wasn’t without its challenges and bumps along the way.
Wales’ key players put in massive shifts for the 1971 and 1974 Lions and that must have drained them; Barry John retired prematurely which was a shock and their refusal to travel to Dublin in 1972 arguably cost Wales another Slam although Ireland fans will rightly insist the men in green were on a roll and still live contenders themselves.
The enforced retirement of Mervyn Davies in 1976 was also a heavy blow as was the shock of the Lions’ ‘failure’ in 1977 down in New Zealand. The large Welsh contingent came under fire and Wales coach John Dawes – doubling as the Lions coach – did not enjoy a happy trip. Yet somehow he and Wales bounced back immediately in 1978, a massively underrated achievement.
Let’s first revisit the triumph of 1976 with Davies skippering the side during a majestic campaign with all the legends in top form. Wales dismissed England, Scotland and Ireland in short order before the decider against perennial rivals France. The big one.
Wales won a mighty clash 19-13 in a game full of incident with the goalkicking of Phil Bennett, Steve Fenwick and, would you believe Aberavon lock Alan Martin getting them home. Martin, with an old style straight on toe punt, landed a timely three points from some 45 yards out, on an acute angle, with a kick that needs to be replayed more often.
JJ Williams also scored a fine try but it was France who generally looked the more dangerous and they bagged two tries. The last by Jean Luc Averous, however, came after JPR clearly beat the French wing to the touchdown. Irish referee John West thought otherwise, but had Wales slipped to defeat the controversy would still be raging.
Two years later came another Grand Slam decider against the same opponents but this time it signalled the end of an era. Gareth Edwards and Bennett announced their retirements after the game along with Gerald Davies who had missed the match after pulling a hamstring playing for Cardiff against Orrell the week before. Only JPR of the immortals was left to soldier on for a few more years.
“Down in the changing room I sought Gareth out for a quiet word and whispered to him that I was calling it a day,” recalls Bennett. “Gareth smiled: ‘Bloody hell, you’re getting out as well. That’s my lot too’.” He had made the very same decision that week and both had kept it to themselves so as not to detract from their team’s preparation.
The Triple Crown match against Ireland a fortnight earlier had been brutally hard and come the day of reckoning with France only Wales’ class and unbreakable team spirit saw them through.
At training down at Aberavon beach on the Sunday before the match – amateur days, remember – they were such a bleary-eyed dysfunctional rabble that Dawes sent them home early. They staggered over the finishing line with their last gasp – unlike the magical teams of 1971 and 1976 who tore opponents to shreds. It also has to be acknowledged that the France team of 1978 – not far removed from their formidable team of 1977 – were incredibly difficult opponents to put away. Somehow Wales still prevailed. Two well-taken tries by Bennett helped them to a precarious 16-7 lead but thereafter they were desperately hanging on. A shoulder charge from JPR on Jean Francois Gourdon with a try certain – a red card and penalty try under today’s laws – helped keep the French at bay along with the Arms Park crowd.
Sensing their predicament, the Welsh supporters sang like never before. Perhaps subconsciously they also knew in their Celtic hearts that this was farewell. It was 27 years before they had another Grand Slam to sing about.
“The noise of the crowd’s singing seemed to intensify and somehow we held on,” recalls Bennett. “I never normally noticed the crowd when I played for Wales. I blotted them out and kept my mind on the game. But that day they refused to be blotted out. It was as if their noise, their desire came on to the field as an extra force. They became part of our weaponry, part of us as a team. I had never known anything like it. It was a victory based on guts, spirit and formidable support.
Playing ability was way down the list.”
Bennett enjoyed the morale-boosting experience much later that night of putting a massive bar bill – Jean Pierre Rives and co insisted on ordering only vintage wines with their Welsh friends – on the Welsh Rugby Union tab at the Angel Hotel in the certain knowledge that he wasn’t going to be around during the following weeks as the hapless treasurer conducted his inquest.
All was forgiven any way and he duly led his side to a reception at No10 Downing Street where Prime Minister and Cardiff MP Jim
Callaghan was mine host. And then the ‘Golden Era’ was no more and some would say unbeatable.
For all the sparkling Welsh brilliance in the 70s and their three Grand Slams there is a decent argument to be made that France were their equal, especially the class of 1977.
Yes, Wales did, in the course of the decade get the better of Les Blues in head to heads, but consider this. France defeated the All Blacks not once, not twice but three times during the 70s including a famous win at Eden Park in 1979 when skipper Rives played most of the game with a partially dislocated shoulder. Even that Wales team of the 70s failed to beat the All Blacks. On the world stage France had the edge.
So I’m going to score it even stevens. Put it this way – if there had been a World Cup in the mid-70s France would have been just as likely to win it as Wales.
Les Blues 77 were a particular steely, earthy and robust vintage.
France in the 70s could really turn it on when they chose but with skipper Jacques Foroux calling the shots they often decided route one rugby was best.
During the 1977 campaign they used the same 15 players in all four games, no replacements, no selectorial brainstorms. This contrasts with their previous Grand Slam of 1968 when they made a total of 17 changes over the four games.
The 1977 side was one of only two teams in the Championship’s history not to concede a try, the other being England in 1913. They exerted a vice-like grip on their games and in the four matches conceded just 21 points – seven penalties.
It all stemmed from the pack with Foroux snapping at their heels, shepherding beasts of burden nearly twice his size. Add in to that the big controlling boot and dropped goal expertise of Jean Pierre Romeau and you have a formidable rugby machine.
In the old style French team picture, shown above left, with forwards in the back row in strict size order, there are some mighty names and reputations to conjure with.
From left to right we have hooker Alain Paco and prop Robert Paperemborde who were as tough and durable as any forwards in the game before we come to two back row legends in the Toulouse pair of Jean Pierre Rives and Jean Claude Skrela. Rives looked like a beach bum but was a street fighter, Skrela was all lean pace and class, he could have played Test rugby at centre.
Then we come to the three big beasts who ruled the jungle. Gerald Cholley was huge by the standards of the day as a prop and mean with it while the two locks Jean Francois Imbernon and Michel Palmie were both x rated performers. Completing the pack is tall No.8 Jean Pierre Bastiat who didn’t share his lock’s thuggish tendencies; indeed he was a skilful ball handler and line-out expert who focussed on the rugby while some of the others concentrated on the fight.
This team, this pack or as near as damn it, then went and won a series in Argentina that summer and beat New Zealand 18-13 in Toulouse before they finally ran out of steam a little with a 15-3 defeat against the Kiwis a week later at the Parc des Princes, a rare defeat at their citadel. They made handsome amends with that famous win in Auckland in 1979.
“The Welsh supporters sang like never before. Perhaps they knew that this was farewell”