The story behind Alfie’s infamous ‘Free Charvis’ protest
IN 1998, the phrase ‘Free the Weatherfield One’ was splashed all over the front pages of the national newspapers.
Even the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, saw fit to get involved.
“It is clear to anyone with eyes in their head she is innocent and she should be freed,” said Blair as he called out injustice as he saw it.
So who was the ‘Weatherfield One’? Whoever it was, it must have been important.
Or not.
The aforementioned was merely Deirdre Rachid – a fictional character from Coronation Street who had been wrongly imprisoned in the soap’s latest storyline.
Yet, such was the frenzy, T-shirts bearing the slogan were printed in their thousands in a bid to get poor Deirdre released from her fictional cell.
It’s unknown whether Gareth Thomas owned a ‘Free the Weatherfield One’ shirt of his own. But he clearly liked the idea.
A year later, he would pull a similar stunt.
Unlike the bid to break Deirde out of prison, Alfie’s attempt didn’t get the backing of Tony Blair.
Nor did it ultimately work.
But it did at least provide Wales with a memorable photo.
Wales’ opening game of the 1999 World Cup was against Argentina and, as hosts of the tournament in the newly-built Millennium Stadium, the pressure was on.
When you consider Wales had beaten defending world champions South Africa for the first time just a few months before, expectations were high.
Before that South Africa victory, Wales had toured Argentina that summer in one of the most brutal and violent tours ever seen. Anger on both sides remained after an infamous mass brawl dubbed one of the most shocking in rugby history.
Safe to say, the World Cup opener had the makings of a rather physical encounter.
While it never threatened to live up the billing of that summer tour’s Second Test – that day Argentina prop Mauricio Reggiardo punched Wales left-wing Dafydd James to set in motion a dust-up that sent advertising hoardings crashing to ground – it did get somewhat spicy.
That summer tour not only left bloodied noses and black eyes, but bruised egos.
Argentina considered themselves to have the best scrum in world rugby at the time, but Wales’ pack had humiliated them in their own backyard in that facet of the game – doing something no British team had ever done before and winning a Test series in the country.
Come the World Cup clash and Argentina knew that the scrum was vital to making a fast start to the tournament.
“They’d done a bit of analysis on us after the summer tour, and in the first scrum, I had my ear bitten,” prop Peter Rogers later revealed in the book Behind the Dragon.
“I got up, and I was fuming. I couldn’t believe it.
“Next thing, Reggiardo bites his own arm, and shows the referee the mark claiming I’d done it.
“So I’m saying I’ve been bitten and he’s claiming he’s been bitten.”
Argentina’s strategy was clear. Try and get either Rogers or Dai Young sent off early so Wales couldn’t get on top in the scrum.
That plan didn’t work, with Kiwi referee Paddy O’Brien opting not to
punish either player.
However, he wouldn’t have that luxury later on.
As the first-half descended into a niggly and fractious contest, Colin Charvis and Roberto Grau found themselves embroiled in a ruckus.
O’Brien sought advice from his assistants and promptly sent Grau to the sin-bin, much to the chagrin of the Pumas.
In the following weeks, months and years, it was a photo of Grau gouging Wales hooker Garin Jenkins that would come to define this match.
But in the immediate aftermath, it was Charvis and Grau’s altercation that garnered most attention.
Both Charvis and Grau were cited afterwards. Grau, deemed the aggressor, was handed a 21-day ban. Charvis got 14 days for his troubles – ruling him out of Wales’ remaining pool matches against Japan and Samoa.
The Welsh Rugby Union were less than impressed at the decision.
Wales team manager David Pickering said at the time: “We are very disappointed at the outcome.
“The video shows clearly that Colin was provoked and it seems a harsh punishment to us. At least he will be available if we reach the knockout stage.”
If the WRU weren’t happy about the ban, then neither were some of the
players.
After 75 minutes of Wales’ next pool match against Japan, the moment arrived for Alfie’s ‘Weatherfield One’ moment.
Crossing for Wales’ final try in the 64-15 thrashing of the Brave Blossoms, Thomas lifted up his Wales jersey to reveal a white T-shirt with a cartoon of Charvis behind bars and the slogan ‘Free Colin Charvis.’
“We felt aggrieved at how he had been treated,” Thomas later said.
“We are great mates and he asked me to do it. I wanted to show support for him.”
The photo was instantly iconic, but the gesture incurred the wrath of rugby officialdom.
World Cup rules prohibit players from displaying shirts bearing any political messages or advertising.
That meant Thomas, in publicly questioning Charvis’ ban in the vein of 17 million soap viewers and the Prime Minister, could have himself faced a ban.
Pickering at first made light of the Thomas incident, saying it showed the extent of the camaraderie in the Welsh squad and their sense of togetherness.
“It was a bit of humour and that is important,” he said.
“It was just the lads having a bit of fun and it should be taken in that spirit.”
However, with the realisation that Thomas had violated RWC regulations, he took a stronger line, saying the player had been warned about his future conduct and made aware of the regulations.
“I thought it was a plain white T-shirt,” he added.
Thankfully, no ‘Free Alfie’ T-shirts were required. That reprimand from the Welsh management was enough, with the Rugby World Cup opting to take no further action.
However, his gesture did come as Wales were preparing to appeal Charvis’ ban.
How much impact Alfie’s rather public gesture had on the appeal process, who knows.
But Charvis wasn’t successful in overturning the ban.
Wales, of course went on to lose to Samoa in that 1999 World Cup Pool after beating the Pumas and Japan, before losing to eventual winners Australia in the quarter-finals.
Much later on, some might have expected an older and wiser Thomas, matured by the burden of international captaincy, to regret his actions.
They would be wrong.
“I still stand by wearing the T-shirt for Charv after he was suspended in the opening game against Argentina,” he said.
In his first autobiography, ‘Alfie,’ he added: “It was a tournament I have few fond memories of.
“To this day, the only thing about the whole sorry episode that I recall with any fondness was when I scored a try against Japan in the pool game after Colin Charvis had been banned for a punch on the Argentine forward Roberto Grau in the opener.
“I had got a T-shirt made saying ‘Free Colin Charvis’ and pulled up my Wales jersey to reveals it as I celebrated my score.
“It says it all that it was a moment like that when I was just larking around that sticks in my mind.”