-Credit:Reach Publishing Services Limited
“They’ll never believe it in Pontypool.”
The famous BBC commentary line by Nigel Starmer-Smith when a young Graham Price scored that stunning debut try against France in the Parc de Princes… exactly half a century ago today.
Where on earth have those 50 years gone, you might well be asking yourself today?
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Scary.
An awful lot has happened in rugby during the intervening decades, but some things have never changed.
Price is still regarded as perhaps the greatest northern hemisphere prop to play the game, no-one has broken his record of 12 consecutive Test starts for the British and Irish Lions – and there has never been a more fearsome or formidable unit than the Pontypool front row.
To this day Pricey’s try also remains one of the most iconic in Welsh rugby history, next to Phil Bennett’s ‘Rhapsody in red’ Murrayfield score versus Scotland in 1977, Scott Gibbs’ 1999 Wembley wonder against England and one or two Shane Williams moments of magic.
You expect the backs to score. A prop forward, having run 70 metres in the cauldron of Paris, towards the end of the game on his debut? That’s stretching credulity somewhat, hence the words of a clearly surprised Starmer-Smith..
Actually, the Beeb man got it wrong. The one place they would have believed it was indeed in Pontypool.
“I scored 50 tries for Pooler in over 600 games. So the fans saw me get a few, albeit not from that kind of distance,” smiles Pricey as he celebrates the anniversary of that famous one for his country.
January 18, 1975, really was a red letter day for Welsh rugby as Charlie Faulkner, Bobby Windsor and Price burst onto the international scene together for the first time.
The Pontypool front row, aka the VietGwent, named after the Vietnamese jungle fighters.
Graham Price scored a famous try in 1975 -Credit:Universal/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images
The glamour backs took most of the plaudits, but these Pontypool hard nuts were the rock behind much of the ‘70s heyday success, helping Wales win four Five Nations titles, four consecutive Triple Crowns and two Grand Slams.
They played together 19 times in the red, winning 79 per cent of those matches, and also became the only club front row selected en bloc for the Lions, appearing in three fixtures on the 1977 tour to New Zealand.
Masters of the dark arts at scrum time, they never once flinched in the heat of battle. And rugby was a very tough game back then, with almost anything going before the era of the TMO.
“We may go up, we may go down, but we never go back. Charlie first coined that phrase,” Price proudly reflects today.
“I also like the one about ‘What has the Pontypool front row got in common with Aristotle?’ The whole was greater than the sum of its parts. The Greek philosopher’s words were certainly true in our case.”
Such was their status in the game that Max Boyce even wrote a song about them.
Part of it goes…
‘We had trouble in Uganda with president Amin;
So we sent an envoy out there with a message from The Queen;
To stay their execution, but Amin answered no;
Til the card was sent from the VietGwent, the Pontypool front row!’
“I guess we were famous – or infamous – depending on which side of the fence you happened to be standing,” says Price. “We could be carried off the pitch shoulder high by jubilant fans after winning a Grand Slam decider at the old Cardiff Arms Park.
“The following week the Pontypool front row would be back to play against Cardiff – and within seconds it’d revert back to ‘You dirty Pontypool so and so’s’, that type of abuse from the same fans.”
National rugby idols to be cherished one day, villains the next.
The famous Pontypool Front Row – Graham Price, Bobby Windsor and Tony ‘Charlie’ Faulkner
So, let’s rewind to Paris 1975, that extraordinary debut and everything it kickstarted for Price who went on to establish true legendary status.
Despite the fame Price, 73 these days, has never moved away from his Gwent roots, so we meet up for coffee near to his bungalow in Croesyceiliog, Cwmbran.
There were actually six Wales debutantes that day at the Parc des Princes, Pricey and Charlie among them, chosen after the Welsh pack had been in trouble in previous matches and the selectors felt they needed to beef things up.
“We were picked for a Probables versus Possibles trial match, the kind of game which normally sees one or two ‘tactically’ pull out of. Not this time. Everyone turned up keen to make a point, the Probables won 44-6 and the 15 of us were thrown into battle against France,” recounts Price.
The Test rookies, who included John Bevan at No.10 and Steve Fenwick at centre, immediately looked at home in international rugby. Next to seasoned campaigners like Gareth Edwards, JPR Williams, Mervyn Davies and Geoff Wheel, they helped Wales rampage into a comfortable lead when Price’s big moment came towards the end.
It started when France, desperately chasing a try of their own, spilled the ball inside the Welsh 22. Wheel booted it up well beyond halfway and Price gave chase, doing his own best version of Lionel Messi by whacking the ball a further 30 metres.
“I gave it a good old kick,” is the way he describes it today.
Price kept running, but was overtaken by wing speedster JJ Williams. As JJ and France full-back Michel Taffaray tangled together, the loose ball popped up into Price’s hands and he ran forward to flop over the line.
“It was only from about five metres in the end. You hear stories at every level of the game in Wales of front row forwards scoring a try, which becomes further and further out the more the years go by and the more the tale is told. But in my case I genuinely had run about 70 metres anyway!” says Price.
“I was quite quick, particularly for a front-rower, but clearly JJ was a lot faster. Him suddenly arriving on the scene, and interfering with Taffaray’s attempt to scoop the ball into touch, played into my favour because it bounced off the French full-back’s boot and straight into my arms. Well I wasn’t going to miss out from there, was I?
“The first I knew of Starmer-Smith’s commentary line was back home the following day when watching highlights on Rugby Special. In my excitement I’d thrown the ball up in the air. They sort of freeze the frame on TV, the ball never seemed to come back down. But I can assure you it did. Guess who caught it? Charlie! He was the first up in support, and Bobby was not too far behind either.
“People were shocked that a prop could run that far, and fast, to score a try. But my old Pontypool coach Ray Prosser always used to say rugby success was based on 80 per cent fitness, 15 percent ability and five percent luck, which you made yourself, he stressed.
“I never shirked on that fitness bit and had already bought into it at a young age as an athletics international. My speciality was the shot and discuss, but we had a big-headed so and so at school who reckoned he was the bees-knees and intended to enter the county sports at 100 metres.
“One day he asked if I’d help him out by taking part in a practice race. I only had daps on, couldn’t even afford trainers, while he was kitted out in running spikes and the full gear. I ended up beating him – much to the delight of others who were watching on.
“Someone said, ‘Hey Pricey, you ought to go in the 100m, not him’. I let myself be entered just to stop him, brought him down a peg or two anyway.
“So I didn’t think anything of running that quickly for my try because that was just me. Mobile props are the vogue these days, but in 2009 the Lions held a number of lunches with the theme of producing the best Lions XV in history. Different positions were debated at each event, the Daily Telegraph contributing words. They wrote I was ‘the model of consistency and a prop decades ahead of his time in terms of fitness’.
“I guess over the years, as the body started to fail with knee replacements, shoulder surgery, neck issues, I started looking at it from a different point of view and actually appreciated more what I had done.
“Every so often the try will crop up on Facebook, with people surprised a prop could score like that. Gethin Jenkins bagged a couple, the charge down in the Grand Slam game against Ireland and a solo effort versus Namibia in the World Cup when he threw dummies and even did a side-step. It was brilliant, but still not from 70 metres.
“Mind, my own feet were kept very much grounded the following week when Pontypool had their first training session after the Wales game. I was there in the dressing room feeling 10 feet tall as club team-mates congratulated me.
“Then the presence of Ray Proser suddenly appeared by the doorway. He walked over to where I was sitting, put an arm around me and said, ‘Pricey, if you still had the energy to run that distance at the end of the game you can’t have been pushing hard enough in the scrum’.
“Luckily for me he walked away laughing, smile on his face. We were in awe of Pross, so let’s just say I was relieved he was joking. I think he was, anyway!
“That was Pross for you, though. He always kept an eye on us when we played for Wales, would often say to me, ‘You went back half a pace in that first scrum. Don’t you go bringing those bad Welsh team habits back to Pontypool!’ He made sure we never got too big for our boots.”
Price’s try, which followed scores by Gareth Edwards, Steve Fenwick, Mervyn Davies and Terry Cobner, put the seal on a thumping 25-10 Paris triumph. Remember, it was four points for a try then.
Graham Price after his stunning try against France -Credit:BBC
It was Wales’ biggest win over France since 1909, remains the record away from home, and although Warren Gatland’s team in 2008 and 2014 exceeded the margin at the Millennium Stadium they didn’t come remotely close to matching the five-try tally from that day.
In 2008 Stephen Jones contributed 19 points from the boot, with Shane Willaims and Martyn Williams bagging tries in Wales’ 29-12 win. Six years on Leigh Halfpenny kicked 17 points, with George North and Sam Warburton getting the only tries, in a 27-6 thumping.
Thus Pricey and Paris 1975 was, and remains, a truly special day for Wales, who went on to lift the Five Nations title that year by also thumping England 20-4 and Ireland 32-4. Indeed, their narrow 12-10 Murrayfield defeat to Scotland was one of only three losses out of 20 games as Wales swept pretty much everything before them over five Championships. The other anomalies were Paris setbacks in 1977 and 1979.
“Gerald Davies and Gareth Edwards said on the BBC documentary ‘Slammed’ that none of it would have been possible without the Pontypool front row,” says Price. “It was a lovely compliment. They said we brought a strength, power and hard edge, weren’t afraid to get in where it hurt.
“Prior to that I think there was a feeling Wales had been a little too nice to play against at times. We made sure no-one could push us about. I suppose Wales started to be feared a little.
“Everyone knew about the dazzling Welsh backs, we helped stiffen up the pack. Prosser always told us, ‘Get scrum right in rugby and everything else naturally falls into place’. I guess that did apply to us, for club and country.
“When Merv was Wales captain, he didn’t say a lot to us pre-match. Just do the jobs we were there for. In any case, as Pross would say ‘What does anyone else know about scrummaging?’
“Our coach John Dawes was more detailed in speaking to players individually, telling them what he expected of them. When he spoke to the Pontypool front row it was as a unit. ‘You know what you’re there for, just don’t get caught.’ I suppose that became part of our success for club and country, not to get caught! There was always plenty going on, let’s put it like that.
“Certainly as our reputation grew other teams feared us. It wasn’t unusual for players to pull out of matches up at Pontypool Park, particularly on a cold, wet Wednesday night. Maybe they didn’t fancy a good shoo’ing? Funnily enough our direct front-row opponents never seemed to withdraw. They were ready to front up, whatever the circumstances. Well they say you have to be a bit crazy to play in the front row!”
Price was 23 when he made his debut, the beginning of a truly great career which saw him win 41 Wales caps and 12 for the Lions on the 1977 and 1983 tours to New Zealand and the 1980 trip to South Africa.
Only Willie John McBride (17) and England scrum-half Dickie Jeeps (13) have played in more Lions Tests, but even those two can’t match Price’s record for consecutive starts.
“Alun Wyn Jones has also got to 12 – but I say his Lions Tests came over four tours, rather than three, and then he only started in 10 of them.” smiles Price.
“Actually it was only after I played for the Lions that I really began to think of myself as an individual international rugby player in my own right, as opposed to part of the Pontypool front row.”
Hooker Windsor won 28 Wales caps and five for the Lions, part of the 1974 Invincibles who went unbeaten in South Africa. He was a steelworker who actually started playing as a full-back, before realising he was more suited to the grind and grunt of front row play.
Loosehead prop Faulkner was older than his two colleagues, making his Wales debut in that 1975 game at the age of 34.
“It could never happen these days, but Charlie proved if you’re good enough you’re young enough,” says Price.
Charlie won 19 Wales caps and although there were no Lions Test appearances he did play next to Windsor and Price in games against NZ Counties, Bay of Plenty and an uncapped clash with Fiji on the 1977 tour.
A unique bond was formed between the three buddies. Let’s just say they watched one another’s backs, on and off the pitch.
“Our Wales jerseys would be hanging up together before Wales games, one, two, three in that order. So we’d sit together to discuss the 80 minutes ahead, and then again afterwards as we nursed our bruises,” says Price.
“We were comrades in arms. I remember walking down Queen Street in Cardiff to the cinema ahead of one game. Suddenly it dawned on me even then we were there in a perfect line, Charlie on the left, Bobby in the middle, me on the right – as if we were lining up for a scrum. It just seemed to come naturally.”
Wales head to Paris again in 13 days to kick off the 2025 Six Nations. We obviously wish them well, but it’s highly unlikely something will happen this time that will be remembered so fondly in the year 2075.
READ GRAHAM PRICE’S REGULAR SIX NATIONS COLUMN IN THE WESTERN MAIL AND WALES ONLINE, IN ASSOCIATION WITH NIGEL JONES DENTAL