** When Lions Roared, the BESTSELLING book, now on Amazon ** www.amazon.co.uk/When-Lions-R... A look back at the legendary British & Irish Lions tour to New Zealand in 1971.
David Dai Duckham passed a few days ago.We suspected that if given the ball, which sadly he never got in poor England sides he would shine.AND, alongside the Welsh wizardry of Edwards,JPR,Barry John, the genius of Mike Gibson, who the All Black's revered as the key man,he duly did. Culminating in his dazzling, dashing sidestepping brilliance as Man of the match for the Ba Bas/all blacks classic in 1973. That 1971 back line was majestic.Real genuine pace throughout too.They could, every one of them sidestep, great balance. Barry John left the big all black forwards chasing shadows+ floundering in his wake. Every member of that backline has their own particular brand of magic and gifts. I still love watching old footage of them over and over again.
Wonderful side, and coached by Carwyn James, a coaching genius, unappreciated in his own country. Very few players leave New Zealand with an enhanced reputation, but many of them did. Barry John ( rip) left with the nickname of the King, there can be no greater compliment from a rugby mad nation
How can rugby make a grown man come to tears! Incredible! Met Barry john yesterday in a pub in Cardiff...Sat with him for two pints, had a great chat, a quick photo taken by the barman then I left. What a day....one of the best to ever do it...if not "THE BEST" I hope my son follows in his footsteps!
7:53 JPR (15) makes a beautiful pass, I read his autobiography and he talks about passing in two steps at full pace, nice to see that in action. Beautiful stuff from all involved
Good to see Bert Peel again (when Carwyn James is talking - Bert's the physio you see). He never saw his grandson but would have been thrilled to know he played for Llanelli, Wales and indeed the British Lions.
It wasn't just the scores and tour result. The '71 Lions had a big impact in NZ based on the way they played and the talent of the players. Yes, it was a different time, no internet, b&w tv etc, but as a 7 yr old, rugby-mad kiwi kid those Lions transformed the way me and my mates wanted to play. Every kid i knew practiced kicking 'round the corner' like Barry John. He was such a star. The magical running and passing of the backline - Edwards, Bevan, Gibson, Williams, Duckham - we just hadn't seen that before...and they beat us. My heroes were wearing black, but they were outclassed by the supermen in red. At least that's the way my memory recalls it.
We New Zealanders are quite biassed/arrogant when it comes to the all blacks. But we're not afraid to compliment great teams that beat us. Three teams come to mind martin johnsons 2002 england team who beat the all blacks with 13 men, the 1971 lions and the 1937 springbok. Those who saw the boks called them the best team to ever leave New zealand. Even better than the 1905 all black originals who lost one game on tour and the 1924 invincibles who didn't lose any games.
Hi Tommy. I feel a bit nervous actually! So yeah, i think you do. But overall i'm less worried about the result than i would be for say the RWC. To me, a B&I Lions Tour feels more like a showcase or celebration of rugby - what happens when you put the cream of British & Irish players together in one team - and take on the world's #1 team. However i still want the All Blacks to win! If the Lions can create and sustain pressure up front, AT SPEED, i can see problems for the ABs. But it has to be at a speed faster than the ABs can organise - not so easy. Hansen & co know what to expect and i think will look to create scoreboard pressure early, forcing the Lions to chase the game instead of imposing their own strategy. The ABs have definite weaknesses and a lack of experience in a couple of key positions, but exploiting those wont be straightforward.
I was about 16 years old when the '71 Lions toured. What a great team they were. I remember a short TV clip of Carwyn James at one of their training sessions yelling out, "Think, think, think." At the time, all NZ teams were coached one dimensionally and this approach was a revelation to me. I also remember thinking how physically fast they were and how the ball was flicked all over the place whereupon spaces were opened up for wonderful tries. The 1974 team was at least their equal if not better. The 1977 team only just lost the series but was another fantastic team that has been largely forgotten.
Greatest Lions team - coached by the incomparable Carwyn James. Edwards, Duckham, Gibson, Williams, Davies, Dawes and - they did not call him the King for nothing - the unapproachable Barry John. I have seen just two ball players in my life who are beyond criticism, who have brought their respective games as near to perfection as humans can achieve - Pele and Barry John.
Go easy son, Barry John was a wonderful player (rip) but he was not as good as Dan Carter. He left Our country named the King, and he was, but times move on. Barry was 72 kilos wringing wet, Carter was 95. Barry couldn't tackle, Carter nailed them Wales never beat the Abs in that era, watch NZ v Lions 2nd test, to see the goat at work
When i was a kid watching with my dad 5 Nations games i loved firstly Andy Irvine, Serge Blanco, John Rutherford, Didier Camberabero,Jonathan Davies and Olly Campbell any Fly Half or Full back who was magic in the early 1980s, but he always just said "son youve never seen anything like Barry John. He said it was like the difference between watching Pele and Maradona, one was great when i was young but the other would always be the best.
I think he does the problem with Ireland was they could not decide where to play him. CJ did out side the Prince of Wales ( and it worked to a tee ) Mike Gibson is well regarded with this Welshman. oh yes happy x mas.
@@gareth630 Ireland asked Gibson to play anywhere they were weakest in the back line, which was pretty poor throughout his career, and he said" I will play anywhere my country needs me", although he preferred to play at 10. I can't think of another back who has ever been true world class in any backline position, and he played them all. He got 69 caps, and that would have probably been doubled in today's game.. His versatility was to my mind the thing that makes him the most complete all round player I've ever seen in any era.. Having said that he was probably best at centre, and for me is only behind BOD and S Africa's Dani Gerber (another who many ignore because of Apartheid), as the best in history in that position. He was always involved, and in the right place at the right time.. I also look at the "king" Barry John, and but for his early retirement, Phil Bennett may well have had no lions involvement, and few, if any Welsh caps.. That thought has always amazed me and made me realise the talent Wales produced in that era..
as a 20 year old I came out from England to visit both Australia and NZ , I saw the test match at Lancaster park which was lost by the Lions ,however the NZ girls treated me as if they had won , a fond memory never to be forgotten
JPR Williams. How blessed are we to have witnessed his like grace the field of the greatest game ever. Carwyn James, sheer genius and in my opinion the greatest coach ever. Willie John a captain who you'd lay down your life for. As mentioned before probably the greatest back line up of all time. The forwards, real men of steel in an era when men were really men. As my dear old Dad would say they don't make um like that anymore. We all have our opinions on who is the greatest player ever,,McCaw,Edwards,Barry John,Jonah too many to mention. Just embrace this era, how fortunate are we to have experienced this.
Mrs Mac Sid Dawes was the Captain of the 1971 Lions. God why don’t people know this and recognise the great Welsh Centre and former Grand Slam winning coach. Sid Dawes Captain of Wales, Grand Slam winning Captain of Wales. Grand Slam winning coach of Wales. Winning Captain of the British Lions in NZ and the Captain of the Barbarians that beat NZ in Cardiff in 1973.
Both Barry John & Carwyn James are both from my village! Two legends from where I live in Wales. Not only them but a load of players have come out of the gwendraeth valley to go on to play for club and country! Makes me very proud to be a rugby MAD Welsh man....it's in our blood as they say!
JPR? Not a great choice. Edwards, John, JJ Williams no problem. JPR is famous in Ireland for running half the pitch to try to decapitate Mike Gibson. Just because JPR is gay doesn't excuse this behaviour.
@@vantheman1234 EXACTLY UNFORTUNATELY SOME TIMES LEGENDS COME THROUGH AFTER THE FOGS OF TIME HAVE LIFTED. EXAMPLE, ONLY NOW AM I LOOKING FOR THE BEST WELSH PLAYERS TO TO HAVE EXISTED?? A LONG TIME PAST??: THE TURN OF THE LAST CENTURY??? THE WELSH PLAYERS WERE/STILL ARE PHENOMENAL. 👍👍🥂🍻🍻🥂🏴🏴🏴🤴😁
@@vantheman1234 "Sid Dawes was the Captain of the 1971 Lions. God why don’t people know this" It was John Dawes, not Sid. God why don’t people know this? Just teasing :) Willie John captained the most successful ever Lions side-South Africa in 1974.
“The clue to an understanding of his achieved style lies in what he could make others do to themselves. The kicking wether spinning trajectories that rolled away or precise chips or scudding grubbers, was a long-range control, but his running, deft, poised, a fragile illusion that one wrong instant could crack, yet rarely did, was the art of the fly-half at its most testing. He was the dragonfly on the anvil of destruction. John ran in another dimension of time and space. His opponents ran into the glass walls which covered his escape routes from their bewildered clutches. He left mouths, and back rows agape”
@LD i just worry that Martin couldn't get the accent right, plus Carwyn spoke Welsh as his first language. I think Michael is probably best known in the States for Frost /Nixon and shagging the most beautiful women in Hollywood. He was married to Kate Beckinsale, dated Rachel Macadams and i think he's with Sarah Silverman at the moment
@@fredmode6356 funnily enough I bumped into him earlier this year at a designer outlet and he was with his stunning Swedish model wife and new baby. Looked very happy and I don't bother celebrities as everyone should be entitled to a normal life especially when they have a baby with them.
Apart from this historical series win against the All Blacks they went on done the same against South Africa in 1974. From a very ardent and proud British Lions and Scottish rugby supporter.
Carwyn James was a very smart man and a great coach, coached Llanelli, Barbarians and Lions to victory over New Zealand, but was rejected by the powers that be in the Welsh Rugby Union, and never coached his beloved Wales.
ive got dozens of vhs of my old mans recordings of loins tours and old all black games of 70s etc.. dear passed away old man,need to get a vhs player to play them
Thanks to the Lions, the Wallabies, South Africa, France, Ireland, Scotland.... heck, you name it. Bigger countries with bigger choices. The humble tiny country of NZ and its even smaller Pacific Island nations will still continue to dominate. So well done All Blacks - Kia Toa, Kia Kaha. We are all so very proud. Looking forward to this weekend's epic with 2017 Lions... so will they roar again? Ka Mate Ka Mate, kare e Ka Ora
In 71 the 2 best rugby countries were NZ and Wales, under 8 million population between them- both way ahead of England. Of course it's amazing how brilliant NZ have been for so long, with the small population- well done indeed, from Wales
I love that understatement: "I had the privilege of playing with a backline that consisted of (lists icon after icon) so if this team is better than that they're probably going to be quite good."
The all blacks can trace their modern style of play to the 1971 lions. I remember every kid started to kick around the corner penalties and conversions after seeing Barry John. Before him we were all toe hackers. I went to the bay of plenty game as a 13 yr old.
Oh what a crock. 1905 - All Backs, it's what they called them on their Northern Hemisphere tour of 35 games with one loss, 1924 Invincibles - rang rings around the home nations with a all encompassing running game and the rugby world's first superstar - George Nepia, 1967 ABs, touted as the best fifteen man running team by the British scribes on their unbeaten tour. The All Blacks have always attempted to play running rugby with the mantra " the ball will always beat the man". As great as the Lion's team of this era was, not even Wales could foot it with the All Blacks during this time of inconsistent selection and performance from NZ.
The Lions of 1971/4 were the GOAT Rugby team, even when they came to South Africa and gave the Springboks a lesson with their own medicine...I’ll never forget seeing them playing with awe...!!!
Never forget in 1969 or 1970 as a child in a village called Resolven in the Neath valley the day Gareth Edwards came to play our local football team called Cam Gears whilst he himself I think was playing for a team called The Metal Box based in Neath. I was only about ten or eleven and me and a few friends were sat on the steps of a wooden cricket hut they used to change in, as they ran out on to the pitch. There must have been at the most about 20 or 30 local people there watching, to me and my friends at the time it was like watching a superstar close up playing a sport he was not famous for, dont remember the score or anything just remember us trying to chat to him all through the game on the touchline, it must have drove him mad!
I shared an apartment in Toronto with a New Zealander that summer of '71. He couldn't believe the results. New Zealand was facing the collapse of its economy with Britain joining the EEC, so his attitude to Brits was icy, but even this underwent a change over the course of five months
Can't quite believe what Neil Delahay said about the pro players of today not having knowledge of Barry John - How can that be? The greatest Fly of all time in my opinion and together with Gareth Edwards, a 9 10 combination that could destroy any defence and would surely be the first names on the team sheet for the greatest team of all time!
The early seventies for me is the greatest period of UK rugby. Two winning lions tours to SA and NZ says it all. The Baabaas win in 1972/73 was the crowning moment with the Gareth Edwards try still rated as one of the finest tries ever scored in an international. It was the the rugby of my childhood . NZ its has to be said recovered pretty well and went on to dominate UK teams for many years after that. Although NZ wished to emulate the Lions backplay it would take years before the expensive play NZ is renowned for would develop. NZ back play was pretty static in the seventies but that changed due to the emergence of the Pacific Island players and example of the early eighties Wallabies with backs like the Ella brothers ,Roger Gould and Michael Lynagh were influential
@@JohnSylvanus-zu6jq Somewhat static compared to where they are now in the professional era.They had the best forward pack in the world who were incredibly gifted ball in hand and the backs were very good defensively. The game is completely different now and if you watched the older games the ball could be kicked out on the full and the ball was toed on the ground a lot. Possession was turned over constantly.Also their greatest rival SA was still mired in their Orwellian apartheid nightmare and didnt play much them much.
@@genghisthegreat2034 Yes true there were some awesome Irish players like Gibson, Slattery and McBride but the Welsh players certainly were the heartbeat of this era.
Barry John what a player he and Edwards destroyed NZ and made them look ordinary under the captain of the great John Dawes one of the greatest centres ever .
The Lions should have lost to Otago - the Referee Pring made a disastrous decision near full-time and rather than awarding Otago a winning try, called them back to a 5 yard scrum and gave Otago the ball - no advantage played! Pring later went to the Otago dressing room and apologized - my mate was playing for Otago that day and I was in the crowd. I was there in the crowd, almost on the touch-line for the first test in Dunedin and after a quick look into the eyes of Suthertland [NZ No8] I said to my mate, "we've lost this one - you can see it in their eyes". Sure enough we lost. The rest is history, as they say.
That's when you could weigh 11 and half stone and become the world's best rugby player. Now you need to be 16 stone and up wards to get a chance. Sad, really.
Shane Williams was 12 and a half stone. Beauden Barrett is 14 and a half. Nehe Milner-Skudder is 14 stone. Aaron Smith is just over 13. There are some slight Saffers too. Don't write them all off yet. Btw, who is the lightest current Lion?
I've just had a look and the lightest is Laidlaw at 12st 8lbs. The other outfield players weigh about 14-15 stone on average - George North being the exception at 17st. The pack is about 17st on average. About 2 stone up on the teams of about 20 years ago. Having said that this is going to be a classic Lions tour.........
Willie John McBride I Could Sit All Day Long And Listen To Reminiscing And The Stories From The B&I Loins Camp.He Reminds Me Of My Grannie Telling Tales etc About Her Life and Times Travelling The World, Although She Was A Hard task Master And Strict I loved her Implicitly And Through Her I learned...Manners Maketh The Man and The Woman , Child.Ive Got This loins tour 71 brilliant behind the scenes footage and training regime...very worth the money i paid for the set on DvD.The Rugby Today Is prosaic And referees and protocol has ruined besides corruption and refs unbelievable calls deliberately interfering instead of a smooth transitional playing....These Were the days when it was thoroughly worth watching Rugby.....Now That transgenderisms are creeping into the womans game even though it was not long ago it was instituted and the debacle of Japan 2019 Japan was magnificent hosts but world rugby dekcuF It All Up Knowing full well that that around that time Japan has cyclone season around the time the tournament would commence...postponing games they should have awarded it to another country or amended the date of the RWC maybe later on etc .Here rugby at its zenith...!
They were a great team no arguement,however it was also one of the few times the All Blacks were in disarray,they had just returned from SA where they had been expected to win but were beaten by a 16 man team,on return retirements and aging players left big headaches for selectors,that aside I was at the wellington test to witness them live and we were lucky it was only 13 to 3,I was awestruck with Barry John,the Dan Carter of today
I get your point but you also have to look at the amount of games the Lions played. It was a huge tough tour. After going thought that they still pulled it off.
That was the weakest NZ test team fielded that decade up to the 1979 team that toured the UK. The majority of the champion team from the 1960's retired after the 1970 South Africa tour , so it was a rebuilding year for NZ.
AB supporter here -Have to agree with you there. The 71 Lions were an amazing team with a wonderful Coach. Respect. The loss did NZ Rugby and world rugby a big favour.
what a wonderful moment for British and Irish rugby. Pity about the wierd and distracting music - surely much more fascinating to hear the commentators aof the time and of course the roar of the crowds? I propose youTube ban the addition of "music" to sports' videos....
10:54 was that how a kick off was done originally in rugby place kicked from the ground? Edit: Wtf was that 11:55 some kind of cricket throw in? Anyone help me with this stuff?
Epple Bradley Yes you could placekick for the kick off in those days but if the opposition scored a try and missed the conversion you had to dropkick the restart of play and yes that was the old style overhead throw for the lineouts