You’ll have to have an incredibly in depth knowledge of rugby to get this (or perhaps not as a Welshman) but I had an odd experience yesterday. Had to visit a solicitor around my retirement. All sorted easily, once the work was done he thanked me and told me I was his final client, as he is retiring this week also. I asked how he was going to fill his time and he replied by commentating on rugby - Wasps and Coventry - for the BBC, and a bit for the commonwealth games too. Turns out he used to play scrum half for Harlequins in the Carling era - Richard Moon. Lovely bloke. His brother Rupert played for Wales a few times in the same position I think, though he wasn’t Welsh….. …..you’ll definitely remember him, king of the dive pass.
Yes, England should have won that day. Campese's deliberate knock-on! We had a great piss-up in the car park afterwards, though.
Yes - Rupert’s Mum used to come to our company’s pre-international functions in Cardiff, she was a close friend the MD’s and my (FD) secretary. The Moon family hailed from Walsall, which is where our secretary came from. I think that Richard was also involved in the English Players Rugby Association - their trade union, so to speak. Rupert played for Neath, before moving to Llanelli.
I was at school in South Wales for a bit where we had Brian Price as our ‘games’ teacher (joined a bit later by Brynmor Williams). Both Wales and Lions players in their time. Always remember Brian Price talking us through his tours one rainy day, showing his collection of rugby shirts and always remember his huge cauliflower ear (it was like a war wound/trophy to us kids then). Brynmor wasn’t a very nice guy, young, brash and a bit of a bully as my memory recollects. Had some good rugby matches though as a prop in those school years (though I was always envious of the kids who couldn’t play rugby and were banished to the football pitch - I would have rathered play with the round ball than the oval).
After hanging up my football boots, I got involved in first class rugby, honorary/admin side. (I was later similarly involved with one of the Regions for 3 years - but not as enjoyable, rugby had changed). Anyway, as a result of my initial involvement, I met Brian Price a few times back in the 1990s - I was introduced to him by his ex-team mate in the Wales second row, Brian Thomas. (Brian P referred to Brian T as his ‘minder’ on the pitch - bloody hell, Brian P was no shrinking violet himself, as the Irishman Noel Murphy would attest - there was uproar when Brian P decked Murphy in front of a young Prince Charles ) Brian P did a lot of rugby co-commentary/match analysis back in the day, and was also a very good after dinner speaker. I’ve heard similar things about Brynmor. He was unlucky to be around at the same time as Gareth Edwards and Terry Holmes - 2 vastly superior scrum halves.
Ray Gravelle was my cousin. And allegedly the other half of the family are related to the Johns. Mind you in Llanelli everyone is related to a Gravelle or a John
This is great.... In the early 80's I played junior club rugby, this was way before the game became professional, there was what was known as junior rugby clubs, basically guys who just played the game for the hell of it, trained twice a week and played for clubs who played clubs in the same locality and there was senior rugby, those were the teams who's results were reported on Grandstand every Saturday evening and who were shown on Rugby Special on a Sunday, in London that was the likes of Wasps, Rosslyn Park, Richmond, London Welsh, etc...... Anyway working for the Civil Service at the time, they had a National Side that played the Army, Navy and Air Force and I was decent enough to play for the National side a few times in the Civil Service side included the likes of Mark Ring and Paul Turner, both of whom were Welsh Internationals...... we also played against Rory Underwood as he was a serving RAF person....... Man they were different class to the rest of us......
I know that Derek Quinnell married Barry John’s sister…. But as you say, it seems that everyone from Llanelli is related to the Johns or the Gravelles (or claim to be )
Those were the days - and the players weren’t the physical monsters they are today. No wonder that clubs like Harlequins and Gloucester are using instrumented mouth guards to monitor concussion / player welfare
Stat of the day....before kick off, eight of the ten outfield players starting for Scotland tonight have scored for the national team. Scotland lead 2-0, and the two goal-scorers.....the two that hadn't scored before! Talk about sharing your goals around the team, would be nice if we saw stats like that at QPR next season
That's the thing, when I played the game it didn't really matter what size you were, invariable the Scrum Half and Hooker were the smallest players on the side, plus you were taught how to tackle properly. The backs looked to exploit space and get around the opposition, none of this crashing into contact with the defence spread across the pitch....... We'll never see the likes of Gareth's try again, despite the forward pass.......
I too went to school in South Wales in the 70’s. My form master and sports teacher was Terry Cobner, Pontypool and Wales flanker. Hard as nails but thoroughly nice guy to boot. Used to give us free passes for midweek games at the park. He even got the Welsh squad to sign a birthday card for my Dad, who was rugby mad. Used to be taken to a few big games growing up, the Easter fixtures in Newport - v London Welsh and the Baabaas, we’re always great days out. Also had to go to Abertillery regularly as Dad was a member there, best days were when Rupert Moon and Byron Hayward were the 9 and 10. Highest level Abertillery ever got to.
Terry Cobner was an excellent player. Ponty had a great pack in those days: Charlie Faulkner, Bobby Windsor, Graham Price, John Perkins, Jeff Squires and Cobner himself - all Welsh internationals and 4 of them were Lions. Moon joined Neath from Abertillery before moving to play for the Turks (as Llanelli are known in these parts).
