Barbarians vs New Zealand, 1973

Barbarians v New Zealand

Cardiff Arms Park
Event	1972–73 New Zealand rugby union tour
Barbarians New Zealand 23 11
Date	27 January 1973
Venue	Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff
Referee	G. Domercq (France)

Barbarians v New Zealand was a 1973 rugby union match between the Barbarians and New Zealand. It was played as part of the 1972–73 New Zealand tour of Britain, Ireland, France and North America. The game featured what has been described as "the greatest try ever scored". It was scored by Gareth Edwards. It is widely considered one of the best tries ever scored in high level rugby union. ^[1][2] The Barbarians won the game 23–11. ^[3] It was also the first time New Zealand lost to the Barbarians.

The greatest try ever scored

The try scoring move started with a deep kick from the New Zealand winger Bryan Williams fed by Kirkpatrick (117 seconds into the game). The ball dropped towards Phil Bennett near his goal line. Bennett sidestepped and evaded three tackles, in turn passing the ball to JPR Williams, who managed to offload the ball after Bryan Williams had tackled him around the neck. It next passed through four pairs of hands (Pullin, Dawes, David and Quinnell) before Edwards, slipping between two team-mates and seemingly intercepting the last pass, finished with a diving try in the left-hand corner (29 seconds later).

The Barbarians had tries nearly scored by John Bevan and then John Dawes. David Duckham showed his skills in possibly his best UK performance, before more tries were scored by Fergus Slattery and John Bevan to make the halftime score 17-0. Grant Batty scored two tries in reply before JPR Williams completed the try-scoring.

The commentary itself is sometimes described as the greatest ever, although it very nearly didn't happen because until just 2 hours before the match Bill McLaren was due to commentate; but he was recovering from 'flu so Cliff Morgan was called in at the last minute.^[4] Morgan commentated the try:

Kirkpatrick to Williams. This is great stuff. Phil Bennett covering. Chased by Alistair Scown. Brilliant! Oh, that's brilliant! John Williams, Bryan Williams. Pullin. John Dawes, great dummy. To David, Tom David, the half-way line! Brilliant by Quinnell! This is Gareth Edwards! A dramatic start! What a score! Oh, that fellow Edwards!

A moment later, at the restart, he added,

If the greatest writer of the written word would have written that story, no one would have believed it. That really was something.

In a UK poll conducted by Channel 4 in 2002, British rugby supporters voted Edwards's try number 20 in the list of the 100 Greatest Sporting Moments.^[5] The 40th anniversary of the try sparked renewed interest.^[6]

Teams

27 January 1973

Barbarians	23–11	New Zealand
Edwards (4 – 1t) Slattery (4 – 1t) Bevan (4 – 1t) Williams (4 – 1t) Bennett (7 – 2c, 1pg)	Report	(8 – 2t) Batty (3 – 1pg) Karam

Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff Referee: G. Domercq (FFR)

FB 15 J.P.R. Williams RW 14 David Duckham IC 13 John Dawes (c) OC 12 Mike Gibson LW 11 John Bevan FH 10 Phil Bennett SH 9 Gareth Edwards LP 1 Ray McLoughlin HK 2 John Pullin TP 3 Sandy Carmichael LL 4 Willie John McBride RL 5 Bob Wilkinson BF 6 Tom David OF 7 Fergus Slattery N8 8 Derek Quinnell

FB 15 Joe Karam RW 14 Bryan Williams IC 13 Bruce Robertson OC 12 Ian Hurst LW 11 Grant Batty FH 10 Bob Burgess SH 9 Sid Going LP 1 Graham Whiting HK 2 Ron Urlich TP 3 Kent Lambert LL 4 Peter Whiting RL 5 Hamish Macdonald BF 6 Alistair Scown OF 7 Ian Kirkpatrick (c) N8 8 Alex Wyllie

References

External links

• Video of the try