WHY EDWARDS CHOSE ROSSLYN PARK SEVENS OVER WALES
SOME Sevens tournaments are more significant than others and there is no doubt that the 1966 Rosslyn Park Schoolboy 7s helped put both Millfield and Gareth Edwards on the rugby map with the national Press, who used to attend in their droves, singing the praises of a fine team and a quite exceptional young talent.
Millfield beat Worthing HS, Bancroft, Rydal and Denstone in their pool, then defeated Berkhamsted in the quarters and Kings Macclesfield in the semis before overpowering Whitgift 21-0 in the final.
It was a fine all-round Millfield team but Edwards was the undoubted star. How could it be otherwise? This is a teenage rugby prodigy that was so quick as an athlete that he still holds the English Schools 220 yard hurdles record with a time of 22.5s when beating future European 400m hurdles champion Alan Pascoe. A genius scrum-half with wheels like that in a schools Sevens tournament? Unplayable.
“I remember it like it was yesterday,” enthuses Edwards. “There is a bit of a myth that Boss Meyer, the sports-mad Millfield headmaster, put huge pressure on me to miss the Wales v England Schools match to play in the Sevens but that’s not true.
“It was my call. I broke a bone in my foot playing soccer soon after Christmas – the coaches allowed me to take a little break from rugby – and Joyce Meyer, the headmaster’s wife, ended up ferrying me from Street to Bristol where I had minor surgery. Driving back after the op I was still apologising and feeling guilty.
“I said to Joyce what could I do to make it up to Boss who had shown such belief in me. ‘Winning the Sevens would make him really happy,’ replied Joyce. ‘Right you are, that’s what we will do, win the Sevens’, said I with the bravado of youth.
“A couple of days later I realised the Sevens clashed with the Schools international at Twickenham but I had given my word to Boss and didn’t intend to break it. I had been lucky enough to win a Wales schools cap the year before so it wasn’t as if I was missing out on that honour. I opted for the Sevens and it was one of the best decisions of my life.”