Murrayfield holds special place in heart of Sir Gareth
SIR Gareth Edwards loved watching and playing games against Scotland at Murrayfield. ‘No better place away from home, I adored it,’ said the rugby legend. ‘Some of my happiest memories are from Edinburgh.’
He first travelled on the train from his village in the Welsh valleys to Murrayfield in 1961 and comes alive when he remembers the very special experience.
‘I would have been around 13 or 14 and had permission from my parents to go with my pals up to Scotland for the first time on the special rugby train,’ said Sir Gareth, now 73 years old.
‘I would have run home from school, got changed, packed the sandwiches from my mum and met my mates from my village of Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen to get the train that left for Edinburgh on Friday night at six o’clock. ‘The train would travel through the night from the upper Swansea valley picking up Welsh fans all over the place on the way until we got to Scotland at seven o’clock in the morning.
‘My sandwiches would have been long gone, so it was time for breakfast and the walk along to Murrayfield.’
Edwards is so delighted to be asked about his rugby memories of playing against Scotland in Edinburgh that he goes away for five minutes to get his books to check the score in his first game as a fan and his own record as a player there.
‘My first game as a supporter was not exactly the greatest game ever but one I will still never forget,’ laughed Edwards. ‘Three nil to Scotland it was, in 1961. Out of all my mates I was the only one who saw the Scotland try scored. The Murrayfield terraces used to be packed and we were all small. Somebody threw me up in the air at that precise moment and I saw Arthur Smith score the winning try for Scotland from a pass from Ken Scotland.’
It wasn’t the result he wanted but the experience of simply being there was exhilarating.
‘It had been an early kick-off because there were no floodlights in those days, so we walked back into Princes Street, had a bag of chips and waited for the train that left at nine at night and we got back home early the next morning,’ he said.
‘It was a killer of a train journey there and back but I was young and I loved it. The atmosphere at the match, on the train. Absolutely superb. It started my love of watching and playing at Murrayfield and also my love of coming to Scotland and the Scots.’ Edwards (right), who played scrum-half 53 times for Wales and ten times for the British & Irish Lions, had been a travelling reserve who never got on in the 1967 match at Murrayfield that Scotland won 11-5 but two years later played his first game there. ‘Know part of the reason I loved playing at Murrayfield?’ he asked. ‘The surface. The quality of the pitch was amazing. It was the most impeccable green patch of grass.
‘Cardiff Arms Park was played on by Wales and also played on by Cardiff, Cardiff reserves and for training. So when it came to the internationals in January it wasn’t in pristine condition.
‘At Murrayfield I ran out, looked at the perfect surface and thought someone had gone over the grass to finish it off with nail clippers.
‘That first game we won 17-3 and I got a try, so it was a very good day for me. But it was the one two years later that I remember most of all the games at Murrayfield.’ He wasn’t alone. For a certain generation — regardless of the allegiance you had — the 1971 Six Nations game was one of the most dramatic matches of that era. The lead had changed six times before Scotland went ahead again with only a few minutes left through a Chris Rea try, but the conversion was missed by Peter Brown. With the clock about to go into the 80th minute it was 18-14 to Scotland when Wales won a line-out that was played out to Gerald Davies, who scored in the corner to bring the score to Scotland 18 Wales 17. ‘We were one point behind them and it came down to John Taylor to have a go at the conversion to win the game for us,’ said Sir Gareth. ‘It was a tough kick from out wide on the touchline and there was huge pressure on him. ‘The crowd were really close to the playing surface back then and you could sense the Scotland fans thinking he was going to miss so they could run on the pitch to celebrate. There was no cooler player on the pitch that day than John who stepped up to give us the win.’ His final game against Scotland was the following year in Cardiff when Wales won 22-14. ‘After that game, I got my final sixpence from Bill McLaren,’ said Edwards with a smile on his face. ‘I got to know the great man first as a commentator of our games and we use to have a sixpenny bit in old money bet on who would win between Scotland and Wales. ‘Now Bill used to never hang about after games and was always away to Hawick before I had even showered, so we used to post the sixpenny to each other and kept it going when we went decimal and maybe it was ten pence. ‘Bill was just one of the many magnificent Scots I met through the years I was proud to call friends. Folk like Jock Turner, who I used to fish on the River Tweed with, and Gordon Brown, both of whom were taken from us far too young. Then there was Jim Renwick. I don’t think I have ever laughed so much in anybody’s company and then there was Ian McGeechan and Frank Laidlaw, absolutely tremendous people.’ Edwards will watch today’s Six Nations match at home and can’t wait to see fly-half Finn Russell in action alongside scrum-half Ali Price.
‘He is a lovely player is Finn Russell,’ said the Welsh rugby legend. ‘Like Barry John, and all world-class tens, Finn Russell is a cheeky bugger. They always try and do some something impossible and sometimes they don’t get away with it but by god, when they do it is joyous to watch. That’s why I can’t wait to see him in action today. He makes a good pairing with Ali Price.
‘Of course I want a Wales win but whenever Finn Russell is on the park, you never know what is going to happen.’