Barry John, rugby legend and ‘the King’ of Welsh fly-halves, dies aged 79
The word genius is often overused in sport but in the case of Barry John it seems more than fitting. The Wales and Lions fly-half has died at the age of 79, a month after the passing of another Welsh legend, JPR Williams, and there is extra poignancy in that John’s departure came hours after one of the great Welsh comebacks in their 27-26 Six Nations defeat by Scotland in Cardiff on Saturday.
A statement released by John’s family on Sunday read: “Barry John died peacefully today at the University Hospital of Wales surrounded by his loving wife and four children. He was a loving dadcu [grandfather] to his 11 grandchildren and a much loved brother.”
Wales’s fly-half factory has churned out some deluxe products over the years and there will always be bar-room arguments over who was the greatest. Cliff Morgan and David Watkins had their advocates, as did the brilliant Phil Bennett, who succeeded John in the No 10 shirt. More recently, Jonathan Davies and the points machine Stephen Jones joined the stockpile of talent. But they would have all agreed that John was in a league of his own. After all when you have been hailed as “the King” by a bunch of hard-nosed journalists in New Zealand you probably have the claim to be the best of the bunch.
He had been the star turn on the victorious Lions tour of New Zealand in 1971. John had been on a losing Lions tour in 1968 but, despite the wretched weather in New Zealand, he left wouldbe tacklers groping at thin air. This was John at his zenith. He scored 188 points on the tour and it wasn’t just his elusive running that had the locals doffing their caps. His accurate goal-kicking and tactical awareness helped sink the All Blacks in the mud.
But in the blink of an eye John was gone. Wales were denied a grand slam the following year because of the Troubles in Ireland and John called it a day at the age of 27.
He had been compared with George Best and was mobbed and feted in his own country. But rugby union was an amateur game and John was a modest man. He found the attention stifling, the end coming when he visited a bank and a cashier curtseyed. Bennett, a prince of fly-halves in his own right, took over Wales’s No 10 shirt and a golden era of Welsh rugby began.
John learned the art of fly-half play at the feet of another Welsh great, Carwyn James, at Llanelli and he displaced Watkins briefly in the Wales side in 1966. The position became his when Watkins turned professional in the autumn of 1967 and John made such an impression that he was picked for the Lions the following year. But on the heavy ground in South Africa the young man broke his collarbone in a heavy tackle in the first Test in Pretoria and played no further part on the tour.
John’s determination to succeed in 1971 stemmed from that disappointment in South Africa and although the powerful All Blacks pack had the better of the Lions up front the visitors’ backs – in which John formed an unshakeable bond with Gareth Edwards, his half-back partner – were unstoppable.
For although John is best remembered as a classic running fly-half he was, like JPR Williams, no stranger to the physical side of rugby. In the Welsh grand slam win of 1971 he showed his character with a brave tackle on France’s hard-man forward Benoît Dauga in which he broke his nose.
There was no way back for John after he left the game in 1972. By that time he had professionalized himself by writing an autobiography and becoming a newspaper columnist and, like Best, he often felt uncomfortable with fame. And like Best, John did have a wayward side to his character and often enjoyed a drop too much of the hard stuff.
Edwards said that part of himself was lost the day his partner called it a day. “It is fair to say that after years of rooming together for Cardiff, Wales and the Lions that I knew Barry as well as anybody. When he broke his collarbone in South Africa I was the one buttoning his shirts and helping to put his trousers on him,” Edwards said.
“Barry was such a contrast to me as a personality. Before matches I was full of nervous energy. He took everything calmly and in his stride but once he stepped out beyond that white line the man was immense.”
John may have played only 25 times for Wales and in five Tests for the Lions but his legacy was forged more than half a century ago. Jonathan Davies, one of the most renowned Welsh players of the 1980s and 90s, paid tribute to John, writing on X: “RIP Barry – another one of my heroes sadly gone.” The Welsh Rugby Union president, Terry Cobner, who played in the Wales back row and toured with the Lions in 1977 said that John was “probably the greatest fly-half of all time”.
Cobner added: “Coming on top of the recent deaths of Brian Price and JPR, this is another huge blow for Welsh rugby.”