Barbarians v New Zealand was a 1973

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

match between the

Barbarians A barbarian (or savage) is someone who is perceived to be either uncivilized or primitive. The designation is usually applied as a generalization based on a popular stereotype; barbarians can be members of any nation judged by some to be les ...

and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. It was played as part of the 1972–73 New Zealand tour of Britain, Ireland, France and North America. The game is considered to be one of the best rugby union matches ever played; it featured what has been described as "the greatest try ever", scored by

Gareth Edwards Sir Gareth Owen Edwards CBE (born 12 July 1947) is a Welsh former rugby union player who played scrum-half and has been described by the BBC as "arguably the greatest player ever to don a Welsh jersey". In 2003, in a poll of international ...

. The Barbarians won the game 23–11. It was also the first time New Zealand lost to the Barbarians.

The greatest try ever scored

In the second minute of the game New Zealand winger Bryan Williams kicked the ball over the head of

Phil Bennett Philip Bennett (24 October 1948 – 12 June 2022) was a Welsh rugby union player who played as a fly-half for Llanelli RFC and the Wales national rugby union team, Wales national team. He began his career in 1966, and a year later he had taken ...

, who ran back to pick it up near his goal line. With nearly the entire length of the field between him and the New Zealand goal line, Bennett started upfield by sidestepping and evading three tackles, in turn passing the ball to J. P. R. Williams, who managed to offload the ball after Bryan Williams had tackled him around the neck. Still deep in the Barbarians' end of the field, the ball then passed through four pairs of Barbarian hands (Pullin, Dawes, David and Quinnell) heading upfield before Edwards, slipping between two team-mates and seemingly intercepting the last pass, finished with a diving try in the left-hand corner, 22 seconds after Bennett picked up the ball. Barbarians coach

Carwyn James Carwyn Rees James (2 November 1929 – 10 January 1983) was a Welsh rugby union player and coach. He won two Welsh international caps but is most famous for his coaching achievements with Llanelli, the 1971 British Lions and the Barbarians, with ...

is credited with man management to stimulate Bennett to make sidestepping runs that day.

Commentary

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 William Pollock McLaren (16 October 1923 – 19 January 2010) was a Scottish rugby union commentator, teacher, journalist and one time rugby player. Known as 'the voice of rugby', he retired from commentating in 2002. Renowned throughout th ...

was due to commentate; but he was recovering from 'flu so

Cliff Morgan Clifford Isaac Morgan, (7 April 1930 – 29 August 2013) was a Welsh rugby union player who played for Cardiff RFC and earned 29 caps for Wales between 1951 and 1958. After his playing career ended, Morgan made a successful career in broadca ...

was called in at the last minute. Morgan commentated the try: A moment later, at the restart, he added,

Poll standings

Often known simply as "that try", the try is frequently mentioned as the greatest ever scored or one of the greatest. In a UK poll conducted by

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

in 2002, Edwards's try was voted number 20 in the list of the

100 Greatest Sporting Moments ''100 Greatest'' is a long-running TV strand on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom that has been broadcasting from 11 September 1999 to 10 October 2015, originating in Tyne Tees Television’s Factual Features department under Executive Producer Ma ...

. The 40th anniversary of the try sparked renewed interest.

Other play

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 J. P. R. Williams completed the try-scoring.

Teams

References

External links

Video of the try
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barbarian History of rugby union

Barbarian 1972–73 in British rugby union 1973 in New Zealand rugby union January 1973 sports events in the United Kingdom