DAY THAT SHOOK WELSH RUGBY
DECEMBER 13, 1997, was quite simply a day that shook Welsh rugby to its core.
Even now, 20 years on, the ugliness of events at Cardiff Arms Park ensure the date commands a degree of infamy that the most humiliating defeats for our national team cannot come close to matching.
It marked the end of the playing career of Gwyn Jones, Wales captain at the time, who damaged his spinal cord after receiving a heavy blow playing for Cardiff against Swansea.
Later in the game, played out in a surreal, subdued atmosphere following Jones’ conveyance to hospital, Swansea hooker Garin Jenkins scaled the perimeter railings after hearing the anguished cries of his mother as his father, Eirvil, collapsed with a major heart attack.
Eirvil never recovered and tragically passed away the following year.
The famous old ground had never known a day like it.
Two decades on, this is the story of that day through the eyes of those who were there...
A match that epitomised the very best qualities of the old club system
JONES might have sustained his injury in any game, at any venue. That it happened in one of the most eagerlyawaited fixtures of the day just meant the descent from fever- pitch anticipation to a sense of being totally bereft and bewildered was all the more marked for players and spectators alike.
This was a huge east versus west derby between Wales’ biggest clubs and had been stoked two years earlier following the country’s exit from the 1995 World Cup at the pool stages.
Cardiff boss Alex Evans had been parachuted into the Wales job on a caretaker basis following the resignation of Alan Davies and there was a falling out between Cardiff and Swansea players.
The recriminations had already led to some spicy battles and Swansea were fired up for the December clash after being beaten 33-26 by Cardiff in the final of the Welsh Cup the previous April, the last match to be played at the National Ground next door before it was demolished to make way for the Millennium Stadium.
“There was talk about getting revenge for that cup final defeat and it was an unofficial Welsh trial ahead of the Five Nations,” recalled Swansea’s full-back that day, Matthew Back.
“I lived in Cardiff and made my own way to the ground. I remember walking through the crowd and people were buzzing.
“It was a massive game and had been ramped up because of the cup final.
“John Plumtree was in his first year as our coach and certainly knew how to fire up a team. Both teams wanted to win badly, so we piled into each other from the kick-off.
“Back then there weren’t so many television cameras and you had more chance of getting away with some skullduggery. It was part of the game and the crowd loved it.”
Garin Jenkins had been made Swansea captain by Plumtree and was raring to take on Jonathan Humphreys in the battle for the Wales hooker’s jersey.
Humphreys had been Wales skipper, but that job had passed to Jones for the summer tour of North America, something which had given Jenkins a chink of light.
“Garin was always up for it and there was rivalry between him and ‘Humph.’ There was no way we were going to take a backward step,” said Swansea lock and future Wales skipper Andrew Moore.
Jenkins recalled: “There were two tough packs and two sets of players vying for international positions. It was a great sporting occasion and a big game with a huge crowd.
“We had called in Johnny Evans at prop at the last minute because of injuries and were coming up against an all-international front-row of Spencer John, Jonathan and Dai Young.
“I can remember being fired up for it. It was a derby, full of passion but there was nothing nasty about it, you just wanted to get one up on your opponent.”
Young said: “Whenever Cardiff played Swansea the players would go at it hammer and tongs because there was a lot of competition for Wales places.”
Gwyn Jones was tipped for greatness
AT 6ft and 15st, flanker Jones had made his international debut a year earlier and was immediately a standout player.
He was appointed Wales captain the following summer and led his country to five victories in six fixtures. Jones had skippered Wales at under-15 level and been an under-18, under-21 and A international.
Injuries had blighted his senior career with Llanelli, but he had joined Cardiff as they opened the professional era by recruiting a squad of stars.
“Gwyn was my Welsh Schools and Wales captain. We had been on tour in the USA that summer and his knowledge of the game, as it is these days as a rugby pundit on television, was firstclass,” said Back.
“He backed it up as a player. Gwyn was like Justin Tipuric is nowadays and Martyn Williams was.
“It seemed like they were all cut from the same mould because of their intelligence as rugby players.
“Everybody respected Gwyn for his ability as a rugby player. He was a captain you would listen to and follow. I’m sure, if his career hadn’t been cut short, he would have become a great.”
Jones was emulating his great- uncle Ivor – also a flanker and captain of Wales as well as a Lion who was revered in New Zealand – when he was appointed to lead his country.
Gwyn Jones’ Wales coach Kevin Bowring said: “There is no doubt that in Gwyn’s short playing career he has earned enormous respect. As a player, we will never replace him.”
Tragedy struck in the 13th minute
CARDIFF v Swansea all but ended in terms of being a recognisable fixture before even the first quarter had been played out.
Jones went into a breakdown to try to win turnover ball and was hit from two different directions. When play moved on, the crowd were left with the sickening sight of him lying face down and motionless on the Arms Park turf.
The extent of the injury couldn’t possibly be apparent at that moment, but immediately it was clear that this had been no ordinary collision. Jones would not be able to gather himself and return to the fray.
“I was about 10ft away from Gwyn when he was injured. He was an expert at getting in over the ball and winning turnovers,” recalled former Cardiff flyhalf Lee Jarvis.
“He was burrowing for the ball when somebody came in to clean him out. At first I thought nothing of it, but the physios and doctors rushed on and I could see from their faces it was something serious.”
Moore said: “I will never forget it. I was in the ruck and I knew from the
shape of his body something was badly wrong.
“The ‘Prof,’ Professor John Williams ran on and it was about 10 minutes before they put him on a stretcher and took him off. We didn’t know what the injury was and tried to focus on the rest of the game. I think we ran around to keep warm because it was a cold December day.”
A hush fell over the Arms Park as Jones was put in a neck brace and taken to Cardiff Royal Infirmary before being transferred to the University of Wales Hospital.
His family later issued a statement saying: “Further investigation has revealed that Gwyn has suffered a significant spinal cord injury, causing a major weakness of his arms and legs. His neck is not broken.”
The most thankless task of all – replacing Jones
IMAGINE, if you can, how a 21-yearold rising star would have felt at the realisation he was about to enter such a big game far earlier than he would ever have expected.
Naturally, Jamie Ringer’s first instinct was excitement. There was concern for his team-mate obviously, but in the moments after the incident it was impossible for someone in his position not to relish the opportunity.
He said: “I do remember that initial excitement.
“You cannot underestimate what a big game Cardiff versus Swansea was back then in the days before regional rugby. I was only 21, but I’d had a decent run in the side not long beforehand because Gwyn had been out with a shoulder injury.”
Ringer recalls, however, that the excitement wore off very quickly. Instead of a white-hot derby clash he had walked into one of the worst playing experiences he and others would ever experience.
“It became apparent very quickly that this was a nasty injury,” Ringer added.
“Professor Williams was on the scene and you can always tell from the medics’ faces how bad something is. The professor’s face said it all.
“I looked at players on both sides and, to a man, their faces had dropped as well.
“When play resumed, I’d never known anything like it. There was just an eerie feeling, not only on the pitch but the whole atmosphere in the ground, and then what happened to Garin’s dad just added to that.
“The game just became secondary before anyone really knew it. What I thought would be a great opportunity for me just became a case of getting through the rest of the 80 minutes. I don’t think anyone cared about the result. All anyone cared about was the safety of Gwyn. I remember going in at half-time and our coach Terry Holmes trying to rally the troops. But minds were elsewhere.”
Gwyn Jones later wrote graphically about the accident
THROUGHOUT the last two decades, Jones has turned down many requests to talk about what happened to him.
WalesOnline asked him for an interview to mark 20 years having elapsed, but he declined.
Jones did pen an article for the Guardian newspaper three years after the incident.
He wrote: “It’s every rugby player’s worst nightmare. Even the thought of a serious injury – let alone possible paralysis – is conveniently suppressed to the depths of the subconscious.
“Fortunately, most rugby players never have to confront such a reality. I was not so lucky. I was crouching over one of my team-mates who had been tackled. I was trying to pick the ball up, when I was hit simultaneously from in front and behind, which caused my head to go down to my chest.
“In medical terms I suffered a flexion-rotation injury to my cervical spine, severe enough to damage the spinal cord and paralyse me. No bones were broken but enough bruising to the nerves resulted in complete paralysis from the neck down.
“After a week or so the swelling surrounding the spinal cord had eased, and a flicker of movement returned to my left leg.
“Over the following three months muscle activity gradually returned to the rest of my body; the last parts to recover were my hands and fingers.”
Jones first walked with the aid of crutches and then a walking stick. He can walk unaided nowadays but still has some issues with his balance and co-ordination.
But he also put his determination to recover into his medical studies and is a doctor at Gowerton, as well as being an astute rugby analyst on television and in a WalesOnline column.
“My worst nightmare had come true. It was a life-changing injury and if it could happen to me it could happen to anyone,” he wrote.
“Thankfully, spinal cord injuries remain extremely rare in rugby union, but it brought home in a devastating fashion an unavoidable truth about the game I love. At the highest level, rugby union has become a dangerous sport.”
The sporting world rallied behind the stricken Wales skipper
OLYMPIC sprint gold medallist Linford Christie, then England rugby captain Lawrence Dallaglio, Wales football stars John Hartson, who had attended the same school as Jones, and Nathan Blake were among the stars who posted messages of support in the South Wales Echo.
He also received hundreds of postcards, presents and paintings from the public, voicing their sympathy and wishing him a speedy recovery.
Gwyn’s younger sister, Eluned, who was a student studying Welsh at Cardiff University, gave up playing rugby.
“It was her decision,” said her father Dr Alun Jones, before adding: “I have played rugby and been involved in it all my life with various Welsh squads for the last 25 years and I have never seen an injury like this.”