‘I’ve always said it... the day of days in my career was that win over the All Blacks’
DELME THOMAS AT 80... THE RUGBY GIANT ON GREAT WINS AND GREAT FRIENDS
“IF it was up to me I wouldn’t be doing anything, but my two daughters are here and I have to obey orders. We have a bit of a do this afternoon and have invited a lot of my friends,” says Delme Thomas on the morning of his 80th birthday last week.
It’s a good job doors were not flung open to all his admirers.
They could fill the Principality Stadium several times over and still there’d be plenty outside waiting to come in.
Certainly, many will be moved to toast Thomas on the occasion of such a grand landmark.
But it isn’t just his deeds in rugby that make the former Llanelli, Wales and Lions lock so well liked.
It is the way he has carried himself over his life.
Humility is in his DNA, along with courtesy, decency and respect for others, values instilled in him as a boy growing up in the Carmarthenshire village of Bancyfelin.
It’s ensured respect flows the other way as well, even from those who were not born when the big man finished playing in 1974.
Indeed, after he’d spoken at the late Phil Bennett’s remembrance service in June, two men in their 30s were talking outside Parc y Scarlets as this writer left the stadium. “What a speech from Delme – no notes, from the heart: spine-tingling,” one summed up. “Legend,” his mate said.
Maybe their fathers had told the pair stories of the great warrior with blacksmith arms, who, as skipper, inspired his club, Llanelli, to score a famous victory over the All Blacks on a dark, overcast day in 1972. The captain’s words to his team pre-match that day have gone down in folklore: “I know it will be tough. Half of you will be carried off, because it will be that bloody hard. But don’t worry about that if you can read in the
Western Mail tomorrow that you’ve beaten the All Blacks.”
He told the likes of Bennett, Roy Bergiers, Gareth Jenkins and Ray Gravell he would trade everything he’d achieved with Wales and the Lions for a win “on our ground in front of our people”.
Bennett was in tears at the words. The genius fly-half then went out and played the game of his life as the Scarlets posted their never-to-be-forgotten 9-3 success.
Thomas has probably recalled the story thousands of times to different reporters, but another trek down memory lane isn’t too much for him. “I’ve always said it: The day of days in my career was that victory over the All Blacks,” he says.
“The words I said to the boys before the game were off the cuff, 100%. I never write anything down. I couldn’t do it if I wrote anything down – I’d work myself up so much.”
There is a great picture of the skipper being ferried shoulder-high off the field that Halloween day almost 50 years ago. Arms aloft. Welsh oak not even the All Blacks could cut down.
He remains the last man to captain a Welsh team to victory over the All Blacks.
Bennett, he says, was a shining light amid the gathering gloom of that autumn day.
“To me, that’s the day he made a name for himself,” says Thomas. “A lot of people outside Wales didn’t know Benny until then, but after we beat the All Blacks people knew him all over the world. That’s the day Benny was born as a rugby player..”
The diminutive No. 10’s passing at the age of just 73 left Thomas acutely saddened. “I think of him every day,” he says.
“I’ve lost members of the family before, but Benny leaving us hit me as much as anything. I thought the world of him. I played with him at Llanelli for 10 to 12 years and he was more than a great rugby player, he was a great friend.
“There’s more to rugby than just playing on the field.
“The friendships you make are important as well. I’ve really felt Phil’s passing.”
Post-playing wasn’t easy even for one so outwardly strong as Thomas.
After being in a team environment for so long, he found it hard to cope when he stepped out of it, as chronicled in Delme, The Autobiography, the book he wrote with Alun Gibbard. Then, he told how he encountered a void in his life after setting aside his playing boots.
Now, he says: “It was a hell of a battle. You read more about it these days – sportsmen and women suffering after finishing their careers. It hit me hard. I’m going back around 40 years. It seemed a new thing then, with not much heard of it.
“Having been so involved with sport and all that it brings you, and mixing with so many friends...all of a sudden I lost them all. Undoubtedly, it affected me.
“Thank God, I got over it.” Thomas has enjoyed his retirement, though, after a working life as a linesman for the electricity board. “I finished 15 years ago, having been on the electricity board for 47 years, doing the same job, building lines and things. I went to the last day and finished at 65.”
He continues: “I have never thought of leaving west Wales.
“I moved to Carmarthen from Bancyfelin in 1967 and I’ve lived there ever since.
“Benny was the same, staying close to home. He and I had a lot in common in that respect. We were ordinary boys brought up in village life. I wouldn’t want to go anywhere else in the world. That’s the way I am.”
He still keeps tabs on the Scarlets but is pleased he played when he did.
“I don’t go up very often but I always look to see the Scarlets results,” he says. “My heart is still there, but rugby has gone professional now. When we played you had to work every day and train every night. It’s entirely different these days, but, yes, I still follow the Scarlets.
“I’ve always said that we were lucky to play when we did. It was sport in our days but now it’s business.” His daughters Helen and Tracey and wife Bethan are there to ensure his redletter day goes with a swing. Helen helpfully fires over some pictures she’s taken. Also reporting for duty early is former team-mate and lifelong pal Roy Bergiers, who scored Llanelli’s try against the All Blacks all those years ago.
“I’ve been very lucky,” says Thomas. “I was thinking of it the other day, how much rugby has given me. “The people I’ve met and the friends I’ve made. It’s been great.
“Willie John McBride still phones me from Belfast twice or three times a year, even though the first time I met him was close on 60 years ago.
“It means so much that we keep in touch and the same goes for my other friends.
“I’ve been very fortunate to have had what I’ve had out of rugby.” How is the former lock today? Is he still nursing many aches and battle scars picked up over an epic career.
“I’m very well,” he says. “My hips and knees are a bit stiffer but, really, I can’t grumble. I’m not too bad at all, thank you.”
With that, our chat is over. The old warrior is battling time admirably. Penblwydd hapus, Delme.