1973 All Blacks vs Barbarians at Cardiff Arms Park

History

The British Lions returned home with their first ever tour win in New Zealand in the Fall of 1972. This game was supposed to be the re-match of All Blacks vs Lions of 72. For more details of the game see books detailing Lions history. Gareth Edwards talks about this try in detail.

Teams

	    All Blacks	    	    Barbarians	   
    1. Graham Whiting	 	 1. Ray McLoughlin (Ireland)
    2. Ron Urlich		 2. John Pullin (England) 
    3. Ken Lambert		 3. Sandy Carmichael (Scotland)
    4. H. H. Macdonald	 	 4. Willie John McBride (Ireland)
    5. Peter Whiting	 	 5. R. M. Wilkinson (uncapped-England)
    6. Alister Scown	 	 6. Tom David (uncapped-Wales)
    7. Ian Kirkpatrick (Capt.) 	 7. Furgus Slattery (Ireland)
    8. Alex Wyllie		 8. Derrick Quinnell (Wales)
    9. Sid Going		 9. Gareth Edwards (Wales)
   10. Bob Burgess		10. Phil Bennett (Wales)
   11. Grant Batty		11. David Duckham (England)
   12. J. A. Hurst		12. Mike Gibson (Ireland)
   13. Bruce Robertson		13. John Dawes (Wales) (Capt.)
   14. Brian Williams		14. John Bevan (Wales)
   15. Joe Karam		15. J. P. R. Williams (Wales)
		Referee: George Dormett (France)

The Try

In the second minute of the game Brian Williams gets the ball from Ian Kirkpatrick and kicks it deep inside the Barbarian 22. Phil Bennett picks up the ball around his own 10 yard line, makes three successive steps to elude Alister Scown, J. Hurst and Ian Kirkpatrick. Bennett passes it on to JPR Williams. JPR gets tackled high, but still manages to pass to John Pullin. Confused English hooker John Pullin gives the ball to John Dawes who sells a dummy, covers ground and passes inside to the uncapped Welshman Tom David. Tom David is now inside the All Black half and being chased by a bunch of All Blacks. He makes a one handed throw inside to Derrik Quinnell (father of current Welsh international Scott Quinnell). Quinnell throws another one handed pass inside (I am not sure who it's intended for). Gareth Edwards from nowhere runs in the middle to pick the pass. Edwards runs the last 30 or so yards beating a bunch of All Blacks and dives in to the left hand corner of the river Tafft end to score what is now known as the Try.

Edwards commenting on this try said he was scared to death at the beginning of the game. He was worried about not being able to keep up with the ball. He never wanted to be caught for not being around the ball. So he just kept running behind ball. He also said, once he got the ball in his hand from Derrick Quinnell, he felt that nobody would be able to catch him.

Scores

0-4 (2 min) Try by Gareth Edwards.
0-7 (31 min) 25 yards penalty by Phil Bennett.
0-13 (37 min) Try in the mid-left Furgus Slattery, conversion by Phil Bennett.
0-17 (39 min) Try on the left hand corner by John Bevan.
3-17 (46 min) 25 yard penalty from mid-right by Joe Karam.
7-17 (48 min) Solo effort by Grant Batty.
7 -17 (50 min) Injured Sid Going was replaced by Otago's Lin Colling.
11-17 (70 min) Grant Batty beat John Dawes and kicked around JPR Williams to score his 17th try of the tour.
11-23 (75 min) JPR Williams scores on the right hand corner of the town end, after a series of spectacular moves by David Duckham, Mike Gibson and Furgus Slattery. Phil Bennett converts.

Vasanthan.Dasan@Central.Sun.COM