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Concordia Winter 2024

9

John and Margaret, June 2024

At High Pavement, he went to the schools’ AAA, winning the intermediate boys’ hammer. From school, John went to study at Loughborough where he played alongside John Taylor and Gerald Davies, two greats of the all-conquering Welsh side of the 1970s. It is hard to believe, but John played at inside centre alongside Gerald Davies. ‘Alongside’ is a little misleading as, according to John, Davies had to stand several yards back from John because of the difference in their running speeds! John was always happier playing at No 8, where he could control a game and be in the action at all times, but that did not stop him taking on kicking duties, in the good old days of the ‘toe punt’. In 1966 John was invited to an England trial and played for the Barbarians on Easter tour in Wales. He was subsequently scouted again in 1967, and as the invitations multiplied it became inevitable that he would wear the red rose of England. He played three times in that year’s Five Nations, with mixed fortunes. He remembers the brutality of the French match at Twickenham where he was short-armed by the French fullback, losing a tooth after five minutes. Minutes later, one of the England’s locks picked up a dead leg, but as there were no substitutions allowed, he had to remain on the pitch. This forced John to move to the front of the lineout where he had a field day! He enjoyed himself more against Scotland, despite being in the second row. Although, in common with many top-flight sportsmen, he struggles to remember the details of the games, as they were played at such pace, he recalls sitting in the changing rooms at the old

Twickenham being overawed by the occasion and even more so when he went on to the pitch by the roar of the crowd. There was no line-up for the national anthem: players stood wherever they happened to be on the field. John was victorious against Ireland (he tried chasing Mike Gibson and got nowhere near him) and Scotland but lost against the streetwise French. He was playing in a different era; there was little preparation, the team gathered on Thursday afternoon and had two practice sessions mostly involving some sprinting, piggy back and wheelbarrow races. No moves were