‘He’d been taking me out at the line-outs, and I knew that just couldn’t go on’
TONY COPSEY ON THAT PUNCH IN ‘92
EVEN now, you watch footage of Tony Copsey unleashing a haymaker in the direction of Neil Francis and wonder how on earth the then Wales forward stayed on the field.
A comic sound bubble would undoubtedly have seen “SMACK!” inserted at the precise moment a connection was made.
But it wasn’t comical for Francis at all that day.
He received repairs on the pitch before resuming, his effectiveness neutered.
It was 1992 and a completely different rugby world when the episode took place, of course.
Amateurism was still the name of the game and rare was the match that didn’t contain the odd dust-up.
But the first-quarter incident in the Ireland-Wales match Dublin was still an eye-opener – or an eye-closer, if your name was Neil Francis – and 26 years on it remains mystifying how Copsey avoided seeing his Wales debut cut short before it had properly begun, especially as the referee in question was none other than Fearless Fred Howard, whose nickname stemmed from his record of sending off more players in Test rugby than any other official.
Here, MARK ORDERS presents the story of the day sparks flew in the Irish capital and England-born Copsey had one of the luckiest escapes of all... THE GAME Wales had not been in great shape in the previous year or three.
Indeed, between 1989 and 1991 it might be said the national team were about as healthy as an 80-day smoker with lumbago.
They hadn’t won a Five Nations game in close on three years and they had crashed and burned and then a bit more at the second World Cup. But this was a fresh start. Alan Davies had been brought in as coach with Gareth Jenkins assisting him and Bob Norster as team manager.
Led by Ieuan Evans for the first time in the Five Nations, the side had been reshaped and included 11 players from the two top sides at the time, Swansea and Llanelli.
Making his debut was the charismatic Tony Copsey, a Romfordborn lock who had become one of the first players to qualify for Wales on the grounds of residency, having pitched up at Llanelli several seasons earlier.
He was up against Neil Francis, an outstanding line-out jumper who could threaten opposition ball as well as look after his own.
Many felt the duel between the two locks could be key to the whole game. They were not to be proved wrong. EARLY DOORS Francis had been prominent early on, making a nuisance of himself at the line-out.
The set-piece was little more than a jungle in those days with players pushing the laws to the limit.
Wales respected Francis’s excellence as a jumper – “one of the best in the world” was how Evans later described him – but Copsey felt he had been taking liberties as the game was settling. THE COPSEY HAYMAKER The 6ft 6in Copsey decided to do something about it.
“It seems strange now, but players did a lot of the policing themselves on the pitch in those days,” he says.
“If opponents were lying on the wrong side at a ruck or messing you about at line-outs or scrums, you sorted it out and even certain referees seemed to accept that.
“There was nothing pre-meditated about the incident with Neil.
“He was a good player but he’d been taking me out at the early line-outs and I knew that couldn’t go on.
“I thought he was going outside the rules, so I needed to do something about it and I did do something about it.
“In the context of the game now, of course it wasn’t clever. But back then different rules seemed to apply.” A TEAM-MATE’S REACTION Tony Clement was playing at full-back that day and standing a fair distance from where the incident took place. He didn’t need to see it. He heard it. “I’m sure I did,” he said. “Well, as sure as you can be in a packed Lansdowne Road.
“Looking back 26 years is difficult because the sport was hugely different. There was no video ref and fisticuffs were commonplace.
“But the incident happened and we got on with the game.” FRED THE RED AND THE ESCAPE FROM JUSTICE Before the match resumed, however, there was the question of what would happen to Copsey.
Francis had been helped to his feet for treatment, looking as if he’d had the misfortune to pick on Michael Tyson in his pomp.
It seemed there was only outcome for Copsey, and it didn’t involve staying on the pitch.
But Fred Howard, the most feared referee of his generation, paused for thought before delivering his verdict.
It was then that Ieuan Evans came to the fore.
In a chapter in his book ‘Bread of Heaven’, he outlines how he used all his powers of persuasion to persuade the English official to let Wales retain a full complement.
“Fred called him (Copsey) over at once in a very stern manner and I rushed over right away and launched into the defence of my man. I used every excuse I could think of and a few I hadn’t thought of. ‘It’s his first cap, ref. First minute of the match. Very physical.
“Always the same with the Irish. Fred, you can’t send him off, not for that’, wrote Evans.
At one stage Howard covered his microphone so no one could hear the exchange. And the giant Wales lock stayed on. “He had put the fear of God up both of us before letting Copsey off with a severe warning. Really, that episode won the game for us. Without Copsey, we would have lost the match,” said Evans.
The chapter in Evans’s book dealing with Copsey’s great escape is entitled ‘Rumpole to the Rescue’. REFLIEF FOR COPSEY “Fred Howard is still on my Christmascard list,” laughs Copsey.