Dive-passing Jan was one of rugby’s great innovators
JAN WEBSTER was in the third year at Queen Mary’s Grammar School in Walsall when the headmaster fielded a call from Joe Mercer, then manager of Aston Villa asking for permission to sign his 14-yearold pupil.
“As the son of a West Bromwich Albion season-ticket holder, football was my game,’’ Webster told The Rugby Paper last year. “My pals and I used to slip through a hole in the fence at nearby Walsall Rugby Club and play on the field, but with a round ball not an oval one, until we were chased away.
“Had my headmaster not turned down the approach from Joe Mercer things might have turned out very differently. Once my Aston Villa dreams had been dashed, I decided to give rugby a go after seeing a scrum-half called Peter Stretton play for Walsall’s first team.’’
At 5ft 5in, Webster made up for his lack of physique with a sharp wit and sharper imagination, qualities which made him one of the great innovators of his time. As he said: “At Moseley, I think we were the first side to invent tap-and-go rugby.’’
Having turned the dive-pass into an art form, he played eleven times for England, never to greater acclaim than during and after the 16-10 win over the All Blacks at Eden Park in September 1973, the first by a home country in New Zealand.
England scored three tries, all made by their scrum-half. Dan Stansfield’s book The Who, When and Where of English International Rugby, provides chapter and verse on how Moseley’s No.9 did it:
“Webster, virtually single-handed, created all three tries, the first when he gathered possession from a loose ball and gave the scoring pass to Peter Squires; the second from behind a powerful England forward drive with a pass to ‘Stack’ Stevens and the third from a blindside move finishing with a try for Tony Neary.’’
Around that time he inspired a whole family of admirers at Walsall to become scrum-halves, Richard Moon for Harlequins, England U23 and England B, Estelle Moon for Wasps Ladies and her little brother Rupert Moon, for Abertillery, Neath, Llanelli and Wales.
Webster made such a lasting impression on the youngest Moon that he put the divepass to winning effect for Wales, effectively so during the 1994 Five Nations when they won the title despite losing the last match, England at Twickenham.
“Jan used to run a sports shop and I gave him two of my Welsh jerseys which he had framed,’’ said Rupert. “You’ll never believe this but I was home over Christmas and he called in to return the jerseys.
“I had my 12-year-old son with me and we sat reminiscing about the dive-pass and all the boots I bought from his shop in Sutton Coldfield. Jan Webster was my hero and my inspiration and I can’t believe he’s gone.’’
Webster collapsed and died at a funeral at the age of 72. By cruel coincidence another England scrum-half from the West Midlands passed away on the same day, Coventry’s Bill Gittings who was capped against New Zealand in 1967. He was 79.