THE news came on Monday (8th January) that two sporting legends had died on the same day.
It was even more remarkable because both men changed the way their game was played.
We are talking about Franz Beckenbauer and, here in Wales, the great JPR Williams.
In football, ‘Kaiser Franz’ invented the attacking sweeper role – also known as ‘Libero’ and JPR, of course, invented the attacking full back.
Prior to JPR’s arrival, full backs were required to tackle attackers, catch tactical kicks and clear to touch. It was rare to see a full back score a try – although before JPR a young Keith Jarrett had lit up the Arms Park with a sensational breakout when he caught the ball travelling at full speed and raced away to score against England.
But that was a very rare thing – until JPR.
A pedant, of course, might say that it was the law change, banning players from kicking the ball out on the full if they were outside the 25 that prompted the invention of the attacking full back.
They may, technically, be right but it was JPR who embodied that role throughout his career.
The buzz in the crowd when the opposition kicked ahead to JPR was tangible. That buzz started when the ball was kicked because JPR never dropped it. The minute it was kicked you knew he would be running it back.
And when he ran it back he had so many skills to bring to the game. He could see space and link with the fast men in the team, side-step or dummy his way through, or charge into the most crowded part of the field crashing into the forwards.
I wonder what he thought about the ‘tennis matches’ we see in the modern game now – with the full backs kicking it back and fore ad infinitum, looking to ‘win the kicking game’.
Actually, I think I can guess what he thought.
On a personal note, he started at the rugby mad Bridgend Boys Grammar and then went on to Millfield – a flagship sporting school in those days.
I was in the same class as his brother Chris and I well remember the first time we all encountered the Fijians. They played the Barbarians and it was the UK’s first taste of just how fast their big forwards could run.
Too fast for the Barbarians’ much-vaunted centres, Duckham and Spencer of England fame. I well remember Chris raging after the game at how often JPR was left as the last line of defence – having to tackle a charging Fijian lock or back row forward.
JPR, it turned out, had injured a shoulder in the game but he stayed on, repeatedly tackling the runaway trains hurtling in his direction. It was basically a charity game, with no prize on offer, but JPR never flinched.
JPR started at Bridgend where the crowd expected running rugby and then he went to London Welsh where John Dawes’ star-studded team refined that concept.
When Dawes took the British Lions to New Zealand JPR was at the heart of everything – as he would remain throughout his playing career.
When he did retire from first class rugby, he was a regular figure at Bridgend games and in Cowbridge. He was often seen in the town, cycling in to meet friends in the Vale of Glamorgan Inn. Happy retirement until his sad death at the age of 74.
That old phrase ‘we will never see his like again’ has never been more true.
By Philip Irwin – senior reporter ✉️
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