Two more full internationals emerged
MARK Nelson, once of Sale and now coaching at Rossendale, has been in touch regarding last week’s feature on the 1977-78 Australian schools tour to remind your correspondent that the England squad that played them at Twickenham did in fact spawn two additional senior internationals to those listed, who were Nick Youngs and David Trick.
Talented utility back Mark Schieffer emigrated to Canada and soon forced his way into the Canada team while a non-playing reserve that foggy day at Twickenham was future Wakefield stalwart Brian Barley who went on to win seven senior caps.
Nelson, who played for the North and England against the Aussies in the space of four exhausting days, also recalls with an anguish that 40 years has done nothing to lessen, that he scored a perfectly legitimate try at Twickenham which the French referee, barely 15 yards away, disallowed because he couldn’t see anything through the murk.
He also swapped shirts with Mark Ella – what a collectors item that would now be – only to have it nicked at Uni a few years later. Bitter? Not a bit of it. He considers playing against those Aussies a rare privilege and insists they provided ‘the DNA for the modern game’. He’s not wrong.