Clem faced after tragedy
down on me.
“So I just booted and hoped I’d done the right thing.”
Clem had mixed views about New Zealand rugby.
He loved their passion for the game and the rugby culture that permeates parts of New Zealand society.
“But deep down he was always suspicious that there was too much emphasis placed on winning at all costs,” Chris said.
“Whilst he admired their physical intensity and frontier-like hardness to absorb physical pain, such singular attitudes could and did lead the All Blacks down dark corridors to achieve a win.
“Dad had noticed in 1953 that New Zealanders are bad losers, that at the end of the Swansea and Wales matches there had been dirty play and cheap shots thrown.”
At the end of the Swansea v New Zealand game Clem and All Black Bob Scott scuffled.
“They enjoyed a stand-up exchange with a flurry of fists in front of the main stand and VIP box – a brawl that Scott started with a cheap shot thrown at the back of Clem’s head,” Chris said.
“The fight continued as the players left the field at full-time, brawling along the corridor at the narrow entrance to the changing-rooms as you turn sharp left, just outside the All Black changing-room.”
It ended when Clem walked into the Swansea showers.
Clem later wrote in The Observer: “If the total object of a game of rugby is to win then the least that can be said of New Zealand is that they succeeded.
“They will be happy but the manner of victory is also part of the folklore and in this they would be regarded without affection.”
Clem, by Chris Thomas, is priced £19.99 and published by Iponymous.