HAPPY 70TH SIR GARETH!
A BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION OF WELSH RUGBY GREAT’S EXTRAORDINARY CAREER
SEVENTY years ago today a baby was born in Gwaun-cae-Gurwen who would grow up to be arguably the most iconic sportsman Wales has ever produced.
His mother had a name in mind but the doctor persuaded her to switch to something more “Welsh and warrior-like.” Thank goodness. Roger Edwards would surely never have had the same ring as Gareth Edwards.
Or Sir Gareth Edwards as we should now say, of course. The knighthood crowned a remarkable career that has earned him every accolade – from a statue in the Welsh capital to a 50th cap sent into space.
The latter was a particularly appropriate gesture to honour the man who has transcended his sport. When Dr Dafydd Rhys Williams became the first Welsh-born astronaut he could think of no more symbolic piece of Welsh memorabilia to accompany him on the Columbia shuttle.
The WRU obliged and the cap took a 6.3 million mile odyssey around the planet in 263 orbits before being returned to its proud owner - the player who was also out of this world.
But Gareth has always been thoroughly down to earth too. As his friend, mentor and former coach Clive Rowlands says: “Most important of all, he’s a great guy.”
He’s been voted the Greatest Player of All Time; he scored the Greatest Try of All Time and is lauded as the legends’ legend wherever the oval ball is thrown.
For rugby lovers across the world he’s the player who simply is Welsh rugby. Yet when this scrum half scorched his meteoric path through the 1970s, he modestly reckoned: “We didn’t feel we were so special at the time.”
From Dublin to Dunedin, Gareth has graced stadiums across the globe with his power, pace and passion but his first field of dreams was Cae Archie – an overgrown village green where he and his pals enacted their first defeats of England.
At night his bedtime prayers had a sporting theme: “Please God, if I could play just once for Wales, that
would be enough.” But this devotion to sport came at the expense of his schoolwork. This proved a worry for his father. Like many miners of his generation, Mr Edwards didn’t want to see his son follow him down the pit. Education was the escape shaft to a better life so he used some tough love to put young Gareth back on the right track.
After some average school reports Gareth returned home to find a miner’s helmet and some hobnail boots on the table. “I see you’ve got new boots, Dad,” said Gareth.
“Oh no, no,” his father replied. “Try them on. They’re for you.” “Why’s that Dad?” “Well you’re not working in school are you? I just want to fit you up. This will be your job.”
That night Gareth’s prayers took a little longer: “I must work harder. I don’t want to wear those boots!”
In one of the more serendipitous chapters in Welsh sporting history, Gareth was taught by a PE master who recognised his potential from the moment the 12-year-old reported to his gymnasium in Pontardawe Technical College in 1959.
Gareth’s visionary teacher Bill Samuel nurtured his prize pupil all the way to a scholarship place at Britain’s most prestigious sporting school - Millfield. Gareth could have excelled at anything – soccer, gymnastics, athletics – he was Welsh schools champion in long jump and hurdles.
But it was Bill who threw him the rugby ball, as he explains: “I didn’t choose rugby, rugby chose me.” Football also chose him – he was offered a professional contract by Swansea… but his rugby-loving Mam hid the letter behind the mantelpiece clock. Her son was destined for Cardiff RFC, Wales, the Barbarians and the British and Irish Lions.
Gareth played his first game for Wales against France aged 19. “I picked up the jersey, held it lovingly in my hands and kissed the badge. I probably did that before every match I played for Wales.” A mere year later he would be captaining his country. At 20 years and seven months, this made him the world’s youngest test skipper. But it proved a somewhat premature appointment. He was replaced in the role by John Dawes in 1970, allowing the young scrum half to focus fully on his phenomenal game.
In the years that followed, whether paired with Barry John or Phil Bennett, Gareth created the moments that are seared into the collective memory of 70s rugby. There are the two tries that regularly top the greatest ever polls – the Baa Baas score against the All Blacks in 1973 and the dive into the Arms Park mud against Scotland the previous year that Spike Milligan deemed divine. “Edwards was a poet that day, not a rugby player,” wrote the awe-struck comedian. “He was a ballet dancer, a pugilist, a mathematician. He was a miracle.”
Alongside these spectacular scores were the many audacious strikes from scrum fives. There were also the flashes of his formidable strength, including the legendary Bob Burgess hand-off during the third Lions test in 71 - a series-turning moment so powerful, literally and figuratively, it has been immortalised in Grogg clay.
And when not propelling himself to the top of the ’70s try-scoring table, Gareth was sending others on their way to glory with his superb service from the base of the scrum and his clever territorial kicking.
Gareth matched his physical qualities with a fearsome competitive instinct. But there was plenty of mischief and humour too, as his Lions team-mate and England opponent David Duckham recalled: “You get to know the guys so well on tour playing with them as Lions and then you have to play against them. I found it difficult. After we’d come home from the ’71 tour we were playing Wales at Cardiff and both teams were lined up in the tunnel, which was unusual. Both Gareth and I were a bit superstitious and liked to run out last so we were side by side.
“I was trying not to look at him because I knew he would make me laugh – he was always a great comedian. He nudged me hard in the ribs and said ‘Dai have a look at this.’ He was pointing at the spare match ball, which he always had tucked under his arm. I tried to ignore him but I couldn’t. ‘Take a good look at this Dai because you’re not going to see it all bloody afternoon!’”
The great entertainer’s charisma was not confined to the pitch. When asked by the Welsh selectors to prove his fitness after a hamstring injury he promptly performed a back somersault in the foyer of the Angel Hotel.
He donned a boater and blazer to croon alongside Welsh comic duo Ryan & Ronnie in a television special and remains the only Welsh rugby player to top the charts... well the Welsh language charts. In 1972 he teamed up with folk singer Maralene Powell to record a cover version of the ’60s hit Did You Ever? (Wyt Ti Weithiau).
He also captivated television audiences with his appearances on that classic ’70s show Superstars. Representing Great Britain at the European and World finals, it was a chance for Gareth to express his all-round sporting prowess – he was particularly strong in the weightlifting and penalty shoot-outs - and competed against the elite in other fields, from Olympians to American footballers.
“It was a great opportunity to rub shoulders with guys from other sports, that was the beauty of it as far as I was concerned,” Gareth says.
Yet those global sporting legends would have felt a similar buzz from rubbing shoulders with the world’s finest rugby player.
By the time he retired in 1978 – in the match against France that sealed the third Welsh Grand Slam of the decade - he had achieved almost everything possible in the game – an unprecedented 53 consecutive caps, a record tally of 20 tries, two victorious tours with the British and Irish Lions and seven championship wins with Wales.
So with all that glory in mind how hard was it for Gareth to say goodbye to rugby? “As I ran off the field after that Grand Slam-winning game against France, Jean Pierre Rives put his arm around me and said ‘Gareth today was your day, well done. Maybe next year in Paris it will be my day’. I said to Jean Pierre, yes maybe you’re right, but in my mind for the first time I thought, there may not be next year. And I thought ‘why was that?’
“I hadn’t reached the dressing room, the crowd were elated at the Grand Slam and a fan put his arms around me and said ‘Well done Gar, fantastic, you’re playing better than ever! Off to Australia in the summer, beat them. Then the All Blacks are here next year, we’ll beat them. And then South Africa. Got it all!’ And I thought the road’s never ending isn’t it. Maybe it’s the right time to pack it in.”
Of course there was life beyond rugby for Gareth. After he hung up his boots he picked up a microphone and enjoyed a successful media career and thrived in business too. He continues to channel his competitive instinct into golf, fishing and shooting while his connection to Cardiff rugby is as strong as ever. On the home front, his life has been enriched by his lovely wife Maureen, his two sons Owen and Rhys and four grandchildren. And the contribution he has made to sport, charity and Wales itself was rewarded with a knighthood in 2015.
But for we fans, Gareth is perhaps frozen in the collective memory like his statue in Cardiff, poised forever to make a solo dart for glory or spin the ball from the base of the scrum to send Wales on another dazzling move.
As the great man himself reflects on his life at three score and ten he is as grateful as we are for those golden moments.
He is still touched by those who stop him in the street – “be they Welsh, English, Scottish or Irish – and say thank you for the pleasure you gave us.”
And Sir Gareth Edwards cherishes what rugby gave him: “Little did I think when I sat down with Bill Samuel as a 12-year-old in Pontardawe Technical School with a rugby ball that the future would bring so many rewards and so many opportunities. To be fortunate enough to play the game I love, travel the world and meet so many interesting people, play with so many wonderful players and make so many lifelong friends has been a privilege. What I can say more than anything is Willie-John McBride’s favourite statement ‘Lads, it was great to travel with you.’”
Edwards was a poet that day, not a rugby player. He was a ballet dancer, a pugilist, a mathematician. He was a miracle Comedian Spike Milligan
Sir Gareth Edwards at 70 is on BBC1 Wales tonight at 9pm.