The great JPR Williams would have been celebrating his 76th birthday on 2 March had he not been taken from us too early just over a year ago.
Rugby World featured him on their cover in October 1973, an issue that included a fascinating article entitled “Floodlit Rugby – The Curse Of Wales!” The issue behind it was the fact that the advent of midweek rugby meant that the top players were playing too much rugby – this is in the days before professionalism had arrived.
JPR’s international colleague Phil Bennett noted, “I agree that the average major club player engages in too much rugby and, if you appear in representative matches as well, you can easily pass the half century of games in a season. There are several men who are automatic choices for their country, and some of these will be selected or the Lions next year, after going with Wales to Canada this summer an playing a full season at home. This could mean 70 matches in little over 12 months. The top players do not enjoy a long enough break at any time.”
And they weren’t getting paid for it…
More from Bennett, Gareth Edwards, John Dawes and Mervyn Davies can be found here.
