BARNES HAILS TRIO AS GREATS
TWO Scarlets legends and a Gwendraeth Valley great have been saluted as among the top 10 Lions of all time.
Phil Bennett, Carwyn James and Barry John all make the list compiled by former England fly-half Stuart Barnes.
The trio are among a group of five Welshmen in Barnes’s top 10, with the leading pundit also including Gareth Edwards and JPR Williams.
But while he can’t find room for Sam Warburton – skipper for the last two tours – there would be few complaints at having Irish great Willie John McBride as his No. 1 choice.
And Sir Ian McGeechan’s coaching record and playing career sees the Scotsman come in second.
On The Times website, Barnes has Bennett as his greatest ever Welsh Lion, saying about the dazzling feet of the Llanelli No. 10: “He danced his way through the tour of South Africa with barely a hand laid on him.
“This was the tour where – after his role in THAT Gareth Edwards try in 1973 – he side-stepped out of the laconic shadow of Barry John.
“Three years later he led the Lions in New Zealand but 1974 alone ensures his immortality as a Lion.”
Edwards himself is named next in line, with Barnes going on to say: “Barry John was the genius in 1971, Bennett scored 10 as a No. 10 in 1974.
“What links these two greats is the man inside them, firing out the passes, taking the punishment (and making more than his share of their tackles), the greatest scrum-half of them all, Gareth Edwards.
“These were and remain the greatest of the Lions tours and Edwards was at its very epicentre.”
Barnes plumps for Irish wing Tony O’Reilly and England’s 2003 World Cup winning captain Martin Johnson, who led the Lions in 1997 and 2001, as his fifth and sixth picks before heading back to Wales and naming JPR Williams as his seventh choice.
“JPR’s soaring drop-kick is one of the most enduring of all Lions images – the kick that sealed a 14-14 draw and won the Lions their first ever series in New Zealand in 1971,” said Barnes.
“He was a rock on that tour, and three years later he played so hard and fast in South Africa that he was more asteroid. A man of bloody action.”
England’s prince of centres and BBC pundit Jeremy Guscott comes in at No. 8 before Barnes ends with two Welshmen in John and coaching innovator James, who took charge of the Lions’ only series win in New
Zealand back in 1971.
He said of John: “Sacrilege perhaps to have him as low as nine but the memories are so grainy, the footage so often the same stuff.
“The man of myth who glided through New Zealand, untouchable outside Gareth Edwards – 1968 was a less successful tour but he will always be remembered for 1971.”
James, he said, was “the poet coach who plotted the Kiwi demise.
“They expected the usual European set-piece game and got a kaleidoscope coming at them from all angles,” he added.
“A fading footnote for some but to me James represents the very best of the Lions, winning against the odds but never looking as if it was at all costs.
“He made the Lions beautiful.”