Whatever happens, it won’t match the bile of 1980

ONE outcome of EnglandWales can be predicted without fear of contradiction, that it will not be as nasty on or off the field as it was 40 years ago. It will not even come remotely close to the mass lawlessness of February 16, 1980.

It took place when 100,000 steelworkers were into the sixth week of a national strike, two days after Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had cut benefits to the strikers by 50 per cent.

As England’s captain Bill Beaumont wrote in his biography: “We were being blamed for the closure of coal mines in Wales. If we had also been blamed for the weather and the price of bread I wouldn’t have been the least surprised. It was all absolute nonsense…’’

The game today is infinitely more disciplined than it was back then. The referee, New Zealander Paul Williams, will have two assistant referees, Wayne Barnes and Frank Murphy, and the all-seeing TMO, Brian McNeice.

Forty years ago Dave Burnett was on his own as the boots, fists and knees poured in from all angles. In an era when too many clung to the view that sending players off wasn’t really the done thing, the Irish referee waited until the 13th minute before issuing his warning.

By then, from memory, he could have sent off two or three. No sooner had the warning been relayed to the teams than Paul Ringer hit the England flyhalf John Horton late, a mild enough offence compared to the general mayhem. The Welsh openside left Burnett no option.

As for the match, 14-man Wales scored the only tries only to end up being trumped in the end by the last of Dusty Hare’s three penalties.