A try or a work of art? From Gerald Davies step and hand-off, to Steve Fenwick's flicked pass and finishing with the inimitable Phil Bennett sidestep, this magnificent try is a joy from start to finish!
As an Englishman now but an English boy then I well remember my rugby playing father shouting at the rented bloody reddifusion box and then him calming down and saying "Aaarh, fair do, what a bloody try that was". And me trying to make sense of it all! Thanks for the memories Mr Phil Bennet and all the rest of that era's magnificent Welsh rugby team, you sparked an interest in this Englishman.
Another legend gone. Phil Bennett captained the 1977 Lions on their tour of New Zealand - they were here for three months and played twenty-five games. My father and I decided that we would see as many of the games in the North Island as we could get to and wound up seeing six. Bennett played in most of them and we were amazed at his skills - he was on another level entirely. After he retired from playing, All Black teams touring Great Britain would make a point of visiting him when they were in Wales. Footnote: I miss the game as it was played in those days. With the enormous changes since Rugby went professional, the game has evolved out of all recognition and I cannot bear to watch it now.
I am still in the game, being a referee for nearly thirty years since I stopped playing. It's hard to watch the modern game. I can only say I get to referee, at my age, 69, mostly women's matches, and they make more mistakes than men, and those mistakes lead to scoring opportunities at times, so that in and of itself makes the game easier to watch.
I know exactly what you mean, when a passage of play can have 20, 30 or 40 phases, each phase a repetition of the last, you start losing the will to watch. One of the other delights of rugby was the touring teams playing proper tours, im sad to say the All Blacks are here so often nowadays that they have lost the mystique/ magic they used to have. Best wishes to you in New Zealand from Wales.
I'm not even a RU fan but I remember this, as a kid, being one of the great sporting moments of the 1970s full stop, coupled with memorable commentary from Bill McLaren. RIP, Phil Bennett.
Fenwick came out to the USA when Bridgend played in the Santa Barbara tournament in 1975. I heard him talk to some US players about international rugby and he said: "You sometimes have to do things when you know you know you are going to be hurt. But you have to do them anyway." That pass is a good example!
What a superb try - typical of the quality of Welsh teams of that era... Great to hear the Voice of Rugby commentating again. His love of the game was so profound he could take delight in wonderful rugby even when it was his beloved Scotland that was on the receiving end.
0:05 JPR FLATTENED by Carmichael! 😅😅 Anyway, joking aside, this incredible try was a fantastic TEAM try of welsh spirit and flaur and as Mclaren said "Magic" Bennett a hero to many. LEGENDS NEVER DIE!
The game has evolved so much since back then,but watching old clips like this makes you realise something very special was left behind. And no one will come close to bill mclaren!!!
I was actually there. We’d come by bus from R.A.F. Lossiemouth and I was outnumbered by Scots, but a great weekend and brilliant win! He could sidestep anything!
Of course the TMO would have ruled that out for a forward pass today as they would for the Barbarians try against the All Blacks. Sometimes though you just have to let them go and say fair play.
There were many superstars in the Welsh teams of the 70s but Steve Fenwick does not always get the plaudits he deserves. He started the move from the 22 and had the rugby brain, stamina and pace to give the final pass to Bennett. Brilliant player.
Scotland had a team full of good players, which made the Welsh try even better. But the best Scotsman on the day was definitely Bill McLaren. Genius commentary. He was a passionate Scotsman, at first a passionate rugby man! Of course, I could’ve watched the Welsh team all day, but equally I could listen to Bill, McLaren forever
God rugby used to be worth watching. Now it's played by bodybuilders instead of normal looking men, and constantly interrupted by off field decision making.
Watched it when it happened live on BBC...definitely a work of art. Skill and intelligence throughout, but wouldn't have got all the way there without the brilliance and hand speed of that final pass from Steve Fenwick.
Gerald took 4 men out playing off the back foot. It's a great week to remember Phil's sidestep, but the quickest sidestep in the history of the game is still Gerald's.
Yep - my hero in the late 60s and early 70s when playing for London Welsh. I've tried without success to find on RU-vid his four tries for Cardiff against, I think, Pontypool, when he'd gone back to Wales, and for an invitation 15 in the Sam Doble Memorial match against Moseley. They must be somewhere, please! I remember a press report of one of his games where he'd left the opposing full back for dead, even though. he thought he'd shepherded him to the touchline and had nowhere to go, and was left sprawling in the dirt. The report said that the full back went to shake hands with him at full time and missed him then as well! I've used that line about the time I came up against Alan Wordsworth in the mid to late 1970s (capped for England but a Jehova's Witness and didn't fit it) - easily the most talented fly-half I played against in my careen in "old boys' rugby! Happy days!
Played against Gerald when he taught at my school. I was playing full back and thought I could put a finger on him. He left lying on the grass on my arse from about 20 yards
@@billoakley7993 Hah! Yep - when you come up against somebody of real class, well, they might as well be from a different planet. Old Deer Park was a great place in those days with Gerald, JPR, Mervyn Davies, John Taylor, John Dawes, and several other capped and/or Lions players. There would be an audible gasp at Gerald's acceleration, eg on the old switcheroo with JPR after a missed kick at goal. As I said above, happy days!
The atmosphere in Wales Scotland matches are always great, partly because most of the away fans are staying in the homes of the home supporters going there with the rugby club trips, a truly unique thing you won’t ever see in another sport
@@mizofan the ball leaves the hands a couple meters behind half line and is grabbed over it... Yes the velocity of the players must be taken into consideration although the rules state that a pass is considered forwards in respect to the field and nothing else. There is sometimes some leniency keeping in mind your reasoning but the fact that the Welsh player ran exclusively in front (offside) / besides the ball keeper would definitely seal it as a forward pass, at least by modern standards. Had he run behind and then taken the ball it may have been considered okay
@@welshmemes9679 you reckon? Go to 0:16 on the video, and use the halfway line as a reference. See where the ball leaves the hand? 2 m into the Welsh half. See where it's caught? Just inside the Scottish half. So maybe your eyes are the problem?
@@teddansonLA it's called momentum buddy. Here goes an old video to get you up to scratch. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-box08lq9ylg.html Bit of a shocker that we still have to explain this to newcomers to the sport.
