NECTAR & TWIGGY
2. LLANELLI AMBUSH
Match 04: Stradey Park, Llanelli, Wales. October 31st, 1972
Llanelli 9, New Zealand All Blacks 3 (Half-time: 6-3)
​
For NZL: Karam P
For Llanelli: Bergiers T, Bennett C, Hill P
​
Llanelli: Roger Davies, John 'JJ' Williams, Roy Bergiers, Ray Gravelle, Andy Hill, Phil Bennett, Ray 'Chico' Hopkins, Hefin Jenkins, Gareth Jenkins, Derek Quinnell, Delme Thomas (c), Tom David, Tony Croker, Roy 'Shunto' Thomas, Barry Llewelyn.
​
New Zealand: Joe Karam, Duncan Hales, Bruce Robertson, Mark Sayers, Bryan Williams, Bob Burgess, Lin Colling, Alan Sutherland, Ian Kirkpatrick (c), Peter Whiting, Andy Haden, Alistair Scown, Keith Murdoch, Ron Ulrich, Graham Whiting.
​
Weather: Overcast, calm, dark. Ground: Firm. Crowd: 22,000 (capacity). Referee: Mike Titcombe (England)
Penalties: Ll 23, NZL 17. Line-outs: NZL 13, Ll 9 Rucks: NZL 4, Ll 2. Tight-heads: None.
“The hors d’oeuvres were over and enjoyed and now eyes were turned to the main course; Llanelli, being prepared with celtic relish by chef internationale, Carwyn James, in his traditional sospan…with plenty of scarlet sauce!”
J B G Thomas, The Avenging All Blacks, (1973)
While most of the crowd and associated press were waxing lyrical over the All Black's performance, a group of Welshmen in the stand made mental and written notes and claimed that they were not all that impressed. The 15 players from Llanelli who were to tackle the All Blacks in three days time basked in the autumn sunshine and - according to Carwyn James, unable to attend owing to a wedding commitment - were confident that they could and would beat the men in black.
“They believed that if they could pressurise the All Blacks and stop the driving of Kirkpatrick and company at source,” James said, “the All Blacks would react badly under pressure.”
Also in the stand had been Ted Griffin, the recently retired North Auckland coach, who perceived weakness in the All Blacks defence and commented that they'd have to tighten up this area of their game before they crossed the border into Wales.
As if some omen, no sooner had the coach from Cheltenham crossed into Cymru the following day, darkness gathered and a storm lashed in from the west. Rain from the stygian clouds was blown horizontal. And that was the weather, not the media!
Before the bus had reached it’s destination, the Dragon Hotel in Swansea, it was evident that Welsh rugby fans, especially those from the South-West, were tingling with excitement and licking their lips at the prospect of the big game ahead, which if you believed the hype of all mediums, the All Blacks were sure to be beaten.
For like New Zealander’s and South African’s…the Welsh are near psychotically rugby mad! Cardiff and the Arms Park, Newport and Rodney Parade, Swansea and St. Helens and Llanelli at Stradey - cathedrals of worship, generation after generation, much as Eden, Athletic or Lancaster Parks or Newland’s, Loftus Versfeld or Ellis Park are or were.
And Llanelli was the biggest Welsh speaking town in Wales, with a culture all of it’s own. A town built on ‘hard work and the sweat of a man’s brow’. There was tin plate, iron and steel in their veins. The villager’s were tough, enduring and resilient. Hard men working white hot metal.
“Industry played a huge part in the history of Llanelli football club. A lot of the players worked in the industries. People worked in the steel and tin plate industry, there were miners coming from the valley’s and other parts of West Wales who played for the club. The docks were strong, so it was very much a working class town and a working class club.”
Phil Bennett, We Beat the All Blacks, (2013 documentary)
“It was a frontier town, it was full-on. Full employment, dispensable income and a lot of beer drunk. It had a different feel. It was a very emotional, very in your face, hard working town. And rugby was the heartbeat of it.”
Gareth Jenkins, We Beat the All Blacks, (2013 documentary)
“Rugby was a religion. There was nothing else. Yes, we had religion on a Sunday, but on a Saturday there was only one religion and that was rugby.”
Barry Llewellyn, We Beat the All Blacks, (2013 documentary)
​
Sadly, in the 2020’s, Llanelli’s foundry’s, smelters and steel works have almost gone. With equal sorrow, Stradey Park itself no longer exists, but it was a true cathedralis of rugby, where 20,000 plus fanatical believers could keep their rugby faith.
Inspired by one of their very own, the legendary British Lions coach of 1971, Carwyn James, the Llanelli rugby side of 1972 believed even before the match, that they were on the verge of something very special.
And on October 31st, 1972, for the packed Stradey congregation, a day of invincible memory was bestowed, where it was said; ‘a man could stand just as tall as he liked’.
The rugby genius, Carwyn James. Plotted the downfall of the 1971 All Blacks, but was also mysterious alumni with many and varied life interests.
Bryn Thomas believed that in the eyes of most New Zealanders, Carwyn Rees James - the master of rugby tactics’ - was ‘Rugby Enemy No. 1’ and in his long association with the game, he’d never known the All Blacks to be so fearful of one man (although he must not have been aware that Dr. Danie Craven still held that particular mantle with the kiwi rugby fraternity at that time).
That is not to concur wholeheartedly with Welsh philosophy though, that the enigmatic Carwyn James was indeed a brilliant rugby brain in every capacity. As a writer, speaker, philosopher or rugby union coach, he was never short of inspirational and - as the chief architect of the All Blacks downfall in 1971 - they were right to be a little scared of him and what he would bring to the Llanelli game in two days time.
Terry McLean was fortunate enough to have spent the Sunday evening with James at his home in Cefneithin, a small village of 800 residents, in the heart of the Carmarthenshire coalfield area, around 20 kilometres from Llanelli.
The following day he was to hear first hand the tale of a heroes return and just what the little village’s favourite son meant to the local celtic brethren. How proud of him they were for not only his rugby achievements, but equally that he had returned to his kin following the Lions tour.
By early afternoon, the street outside the James residence, was filling with people gathered to see their returning conquering hero. His sister, Gwen, was unable to even reach her own front gate, upon hearing the tell-tale roar from the village below. Carwyn was coming - and in style…in a trap drawn by a Welsh pony!
“Even the bravest hearts must swell in such moments. Carwyn had the pride and affection of all his people. All those who had seen him grow up. The poor boy from the poor village, brilliantly academic, brilliantly gifted, the finest scholar of Welsh, in all of Wales, so it was said. It was the emotional climax of a lifetime.”
T P McLean, They Missed the Bus, (1973)
Right from the very first training run in August, James had instilled in his players that they were going to beat the All Blacks, but it would require training on a different level and eight weeks of intense focus. Owing to his impeccable analysis, he knew where the AB’s were shaky and perceived that victory would come through the exploitation of those weaknesses.
He knew Kirky’s men would need some containing in the back three with - if selected, as he expected they’d be - Kirky himself, Sutherland and Wyllie. He also expected that Sid Going - ‘the ninth forward’ - would also be picked and had plans to try to negate his running game and his ability to keep the colossus forwards moving forward.
Believing that there was little point in taking on the All Blacks at there own game meant playing a more expansive game themselves. He loved the ball in open space and was confident that Llanelli had the quality players to play in that vein.
He was also confident that the local boys up front would hold their own, fuelled by emotion and pride in front of the Stradey faithful. This would accord his backs the time and space they needed and quite simply - when they didn’t have the ball - to defend like lions, or Romans under siege.
He held a philosophy that ‘one pass beats fifteen players’ and had moves at training such as, when the ball came out of the scrum he’d count “1…2…3…4…5” and it had to be in the hands of the wingers.
TP also took ‘tea and a drink’ with the parents of another legendary rugby player and brain from Cefneithin, Barry John. The couple managed the clubhouse of the Cefneithin RFC, a feeder club for the Llanelli Scarlets, founded in 1929. The walls were adorned by international jerseys loaned or donated by other famous players, including 1971 Lion, Derek Quinnell, sure to line-up against the Blacks on Tuesday.
Wales's oldest daily newspaper, The Western Mail, published an eight page supplement launching the tour, with TP and NZBC’s Bob Irvine (amongst other kiwi journalists) taking exception to some of the content. An article contributed by Carwyn James himself, detailing the All Black’s strengths and weaknesses seemed to irritate the most. A ‘war of words’ had begun.
A few hours after arriving at the Dragon Hotel, it was the All Black team which was announced to play their next tour match. There would be five changes from the team which defeated Western Counties, with Trevor Morris, Sid Going and George Skudder still unable to be considered through injury. Tane Norton was selected as hooker, but was also forced to withdraw before kick off with an injury concern.
No Sid Going. The Llanelli side had been training for eight weeks, in part to be prepared to counter Super Sid and the little rascal wasn’t going to be playing. There was no Wyllie either. Sid’s was an injury, but it was near inexcusable that Grizz wasn’t selected.
Keefy was though. So the media frenzy began in earnest on Monday morning, following the team’s announcement. With the Welsh newspaper’s fuelling the partisan, Murdoch was already the hard drinking, hard hitting enforcer, who didn’t follow the rugby rules. Any opportunity the public, press, administrators or other players had to have a dig at big Keefy was gleefully taken.
There is absolutely no doubt at all that this crop of All Blacks would have been made fully aware of the fervour with which the Welsh approach their rugby, but such an inexperienced touring party, only a handful of them having experienced British rugby in the UK before, there was going to be, as they say; ‘trouble at mill’.
As had been pointed out numerous times in the British press; the first four tour matches were likely to be amongst the hardest ordeals the visitors would face outside of the internationals. The question does beg asking…why did the NZRFU accept such an itinerary in the first instance?
The answer to that is unfortunately the good old kiwi perception (in rugby terms) that the All Blacks always find a way to win, it’s just what happens. That and to usually grossly and naively underestimate any opposition.
Well, the UK journo’s were not wrong. The mill did indeed grind to a halt at Stradey that famous Tuesday afternoon, when a combination of these factors and errors and the unbelievably lionhearted spirit and unrelenting determination of the home side overcame the black machine.
There were traffic jams on the main roads leading to Llanelli for hours before kick off. The All Blacks entourage were accompanied by a police escort from Swansea, complete with outriders with klaxon horns sounding. It appeared that everyone wanted to catch a glimpse of the All Blacks travelling show.
In every town and village, Fforestfach, Llougher, Penllager and Ponterdllais, they spilled out of terraced houses and pubs to wave at the All Blacks. There were old ladies, gnarled little men in cloth caps, cheeky kids and tough looking youths with pints of beer in hand, all out on the pavement to watch the AB’s pass by.
The entourage passed an office block and all the girls in the typing pool got up and waved through the windows. They passed a hospital where patients in wheelchairs lined the street to catch a glimpse.
The ground was full. 22,000 shoehorned into the tiny ground. All match programmes had been sold. The band of the First Battalion of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers had marched from the Town Hall to the ground early in the afternoon and for an hour, had paraded up and down the field.
​ And then the ‘canwan gan’ started, the community singing. For 15 minutes it continued under cathedral-grey skies, the vociferous singing of the home faithful, which rung around the bricks and mortar of the famous rugby ground.
By contrast, the Llanelli team had gathered at Stradey at 10:30am and then headed off to have lunch together. Noticing the boys pent up emotions, Carwyn James was concerned that they were peaking too early and sent them all outside to have a walk in the fresh air.
​
1971 British Lion, Ray 'Chico' Hopkins sends the ball to Phil Bennett (out of shot), with Lin Colling and Ian Kirkpatrick organising their defence lines.
​
The team boarded the bus back to Stradey amid a fair amount of tension. There was no laughing and joking as was the norm with this bunch of men. Even Chico Hopkins was silent. As the coach neared the ground and they could see the crowds and the traffic chaos, that tension exacerbated.
“On the day, I’ve never felt so nervous in all my life. I’ve never felt emotions like it and as much as it was a big occasion and we were all focused on it and we were prepared for it, the whole thing was completely different. There was a feeling that something different was happening here. There were thousands of people everywhere.”
Gareth Jenkins, We Beat the All Blacks, (2013 documentary)
While the hustle bustle in and around the ground continued right up until the last minute, with lingering spectators still hurrying into position, Carwyn James was in the dressing room, delivering his final coup de grace in naming the starting XV for the big occasion.
He implored the side to remain focused on the job ahead and to be clinical and decisive in their actions. “When you go out there you must be fully emotional inside you, but at the same time your brain must be ice cool”. He told his players that they’d need to be brave above all else and to be prepared for and match the intimidation the All Blacks would surely bring to the game.
But the emotional scarlet blood was stirred by the customarily quiet and mild-mannered captain, amongst the nicest and sincerest of rugby men one would ever wish to encounter.
“I have been round the world and gained all the honours possible. Three times a touring Lion and often a Welsh cap, but I would willingly give them all away if only you will win this match for me. This is my last season for the club. Stradey is my home. This is where my heart belongs. Our mothers, wives and girl friends are sitting in the stand watching us today and if you want to do something for me, as well as them, it is to beat these All Blacks. The whole town has closed down for this game. Everybody is here to see us. Don’t let me down.”
Delme Thomas, pre-match captain’s speech to his Llanelli side.
William Delme Thomas. 25 Welsh caps between 1966-1974. 7 caps for the British Lions (1966, 68 & 71). Told his team he would give away all he had achieved in the sport, for his home side, Llanelli, to beat the seventh All Blacks. “Don’t let me down,” he told them.
“He (Delme Thomas) was Llanelli through and through. Only knew one club, only knew one badge. A working class man, yet a great, modest man. But he’s coming out with words I’ve never heard that day, going round pointing to every player. I mean, Gareth Jenkins was pumped up. Ray Gravelle was crying like a baby.”
Phil Bennett, We Beat the All Blacks, (2013 documentary)
Indeed, some of the Llanelli team did cry, Bennett included, such was the emotion of Thomas’s speech, delivered with honest simplicity, but it was the ignition of the slow burning candle. Now the other fourteen were prepared to die for Delme and their club.
The AB’s had to sit in their dressing room and listen to the singing of twenty-thousand plus brethren, all with scarlet fever. It continued for a full five minutes after they’d taken the field. Then, with a deafening roar, the home side came out of the tunnel.
The New Zealanders no doubt became more apprehensive at this, realising that they were now fully inside one of rugby’s true cauldron’s and totally overawed by the occasion. The home side were naturally buoyed by the atmosphere and sense of urgency.
“When they run out of there (the tunnel) they must have thought ‘where the hell were this’. Stradey was small, compact, full of emotion and Christ…there was only one team that the whole crowd was supporting…and that was us! We were so revved up for that game, simply because of the atmosphere and how important it was. We were all ten foot tall going on that field.”
Gareth Jenkins, We Beat the All Blacks, (2013 documentary)
SCORING IN THE MATCH
3” - Alistair Scown was penalised for a line-out infringement and Delme Thomas motioned to Phil Bennet to have a shot at goal, 40 metres out. The fly-half’s attempt was on target, but struck the crossbar and was taken in the field of play by Lin Colling, who shaped to clear for the right hand touch line.
Inside centre, Roy Bergiers, was up to charge down Colling’s clearing kick, with the ball rebounding and ending up in the in-goal area. Bergiers reacted the quickest of all and pounced on the loose ball for a dramatic early score. Phil Bennett converted. Llanelli 6-0.
“It was one of the greatest moments of my life and I have wonderful memories of it. In fact, I’ve still got visions of it in my mind, in slow motion. The ball went forward and it was just there in front of me saying; “Come and get me!” Running back, disbelief in a way that we’d been given that opportunity and we were in the lead and I thought then; “Right. Now the battle starts!”
Roy Bergiers We Beat the All Blacks, (2013 documentary)
“Following the try, the men of Llanelli turned immortal. Thereafter they controlled play for at least two-thirds of the game. It was seldom that the All Blacks looked to be in command, the late dashing runs aside, and that really was the very simple story of the match. Llanelli were much too good!”
Terry McLean (They Missed the Bus), 1973
25” - Derek Quinnell was penalised for jumping across the line-out before the ball had even been thrown in. Clock Karam kicked a fine goal from 40 metres. Llanelli 6-3.
Joe Clock Karam missed with two further penalty attempts during the first half, either of which would have tied the scores at the break. The second of these, in the 38th minute, was from a little over 25 metres out.
Half-time: Llanelli 6, New Zealand 3
70” - Following a ruck infringement, a penalty was awarded to the home side. Outside the normal range of Phil Bennett, Thomas called up left winger, Andy Hill, who duly put over a magnificent penalty kick from 50 yards out.
Final score: Llanelli 9, New Zealand 3
Words cannot fully express the joy and satisfaction of the hour for the 40,000 strong town of Llanelli. Since 1888, the club was desirous of joining the elite; Cardiff, Newport and Swansea - Welsh sides which had beaten the mighty All Blacks.
Many of the great ‘scarlet-jerseyed’ Knights of the Stradey Round Table had fallen short in past quests, in search of their Holy Grail. But King Delme and ‘Merlin’ James had succeeded through diligent preparation and planning and eagerness to bring honour to the club in their centenary year.
Much as when Wellington defeated the Lions in 1966 and Waikato the ‘Bok’s in 1956, the coaching, lecturing and unbridled encouragement had eventually produced the desired result.
Carwyn James himself had stated that ‘all fifteen Llanelli players were heroes, since no player played less than above himself from first whistle to last’. But the game was surely won by the forward pack, led by Delme Thomas and Derek Quinnell, whom most considered the best player on the park that afternoon. It was hard at times to differentiate between his role as a tight or loose forward, as he was doing both with equal aplomb.
The All Blacks lost the match because they could not get enough good ball, were put under continual pressure and were found wanting. They were inflexible, with no alternative plan or tactic other than to battle it out in the forwards, hoping the home-side would crack. But the Scarlets refused to yield and as the match progressed, urged on by a frenetic crowd, tightened their grip.
TP agreed. While he concurred that Llanelli were the better team by a long margin, he was disappointed that New Zealand’s tactical play was so regrettably limited and that they lacked the vitality required to match Llanelli, who had that as their principal quality.
“It took Kirkpatrick seventy minutes to demand the running of the ball at every possible opportunity. And amid the disappointments of defeat, it ought not too soon be forgotten that two or three cracking runs were made by the backs out to Hales and down the left touchline - plenty of genuine promise here.”
T P McLean, (They Missed the Bus), 1973
A great deal of the game was confined to contests in the tight-loose, supplemented by magnificent punts into the lower stratosphere by the brilliantly capable fly-half, Phil Bennett.
“‘Benny’ was the general behind the scrum. They hadn’t seen anything like Phil Bennett and they didn’t expect anything like him to be honest with you. Barry John had retired, but Phil Bennett stood up to them and controlled the game exceptionally well."
Delme Thomas, We Beat the All Blacks, (2013 documentary)
But in the raging forward battle, Llanelli were simply too good. They won the line-outs in the first half by 13-5 and overall by 18-14. After decoding the AB’s early line out signals, Quinnell moved from seven to three, according to the tactical situation and where he could cause the most damage.
Delme Thomas was magnificent at three or five and Barry Llewellyn was sharp, having much the better of Keefy at two. Pole and Alan Sutherland combined to win the second half by 9-5, but Andy Haden, in a cauldron of fire and brimstone, was far too inexperienced for the company of the day.
The home side’s rucking was fierce, their tackling ruthlessly efficient. They struck at the heart of the AB’s forward play, exposed deficiencies in line out and ruck and cancelled out the marauders; Kirkpatrick, Scown and Sutherland, successfully negating the open attacking display as exhibited in match one.
At the break, acutely aware of the situation, Kirky told his forward troops particularly, that they had to find a way to put some pressure back on Llanelli. But they could not do it. The home side scrapped well for possession and won quite a bit of All Black ball.
Chico Hopkins and Phil Bennett didn’t waste a scrap. Carwyn James had been under considerable pressure to drop Chico, owing to his indifferent form following the recent death of his father. But James felt that this was just the match for him to make a valid contribution, using all the knowledge and experience he gained with the Welsh and the British Lions in New Zealand in 1969 and ’71 respectively.
New Zealand’s trouble in the back-line began at scrum half, where Lin Colling was harassed with murderous efficiency by Gareth Jenkins and Tom David and outplayed on the day by Chico. The Otago man was unable to get his fine passing game going with the scratchy possession he was getting, but with Burgess, Twig, Robertson and BeeGee outside of him, this was criminal.
Once Kirky had given the word to run the ball, Twig came into his own and twice set Duncan Hales away down the left wing, being checked in one run by a glorious cover tackle from fullback, Roger Davies. But back play was all too little. This was a torrid and often brutal encounter between two packs going ‘hammer & tongs’ at each other.
Referee, Mike Titcombe, never stopped blowing his whistle. He dished out 40 penalties in the match (23 to Llanelli, 17 to New Zealand), at a rate of one every two minutes. Line-out illegalities, as practiced by the 1971 Lions, were often repeated by Llanelli. But New Zealand, as TP put it, ‘did not want for its share of nefarious characters’.
Pole versus Derek Quinnell in the fifth minute. Moments later it was Keefy and Gareth Jenkins involved in a scrap, the ball nowhere to be seen. Haden attempted to get a couple of licks in of his own.
Keefy was forever in trouble and/or embroiled in fisticuffs, stomping, kicking and all manner of rugged adventure. Of course, already having the ‘wild man’ tag saw him vilified at every ground he turned up at in the UK, but at Stradey that afternoon he was at his demonic worst.
His indiscriminate use of the boot was constantly monitored and booed as if he was the only offender. Even the match commentator referred to him as ‘a despicable fellow’.
Most of the Llanelli forwards that day have complained about Murdoch and the subsequent lashings they received from him. Gareth Jenkins said in an interview in 2013 that he was ‘a seriously tough man’, Jenkins having been laid out by a Keefy haymaker early in the second half.
“You had to be able to deal with kicking, after kicking, after kicking from most of their forwards,” he said. “And not necessarily on your back, but on your elbows, your knees, your ankles.”
Jenkins says that it was non-stop, but the Llanelli players quickly learned to live and grow with it and he thought the All Blacks couldn't deal with the fact that they were unable to dominate the home side. Llanelli weren’t taking a backward step regarding the physical encounter.
“Unless you’ve played against a New Zealand side, you’ve never played rugby. It’s a great rugby nation. They are mad about rugby same as we are in Wales. They worked on farms and in freezing works and things in New Zealand. They were hard physically and naturally hard men.”
Delme Thomas, We Beat the All Blacks, (2013 documentary)
_edited.jpg)
As the match drew to a conclusion, it became obvious that time was against the AB’s, who trailed by six points. Parity was only a converted try away and Kirky (far too late by that stage), abandoned the forward assault and order the ball to be spun.
The Twig made a couple of good late runs, the second of which sent Duncan Hales away down the left wing, where he was poleaxed in a splendid tackle by Llanelli full back, Roger Davies. One wonders whether a faster three-quarter, Batty for example, may have got away and made the score.
Batts did have an opportunity down the right wing (he’d come on to replace Bryan Williams) very late in the piece, one of his trademark chip over the top, chase and gather numbers.
He may well have scored then too, but for a magnificent piece of cover defending from Benny Bennett.
But the hypothetical is no match for the fact that the rugby gods were smiling on the west Welsh valley that grey and sultry Tuesday afternoon and the home team in turn, perfectly executed a meticulous game plan with ruthless and winning efficiency.
A couple of moments later, with time up on the now famous scoreboard, Phil Bennett slammed the ball into touch following a scrum on the Llanelli 22m line. Mr. Titcombe blew no time, there was a deafening roar and the euphoric crowd spilled onto Stradey to mob their heroes.
“I couldn’t move. I was engulfed…the whole team was engulfed by the rest of our unofficial team of supporters, the crowd just rushing on the field.”
Roy Bergiers, We Beat the All Blacks, (2013 documentary)
​
“Barry Llewellyn had this great idea, he said; “c’mon, let’s carry Delme off.” I thought it was a great idea, but we’d just played 80 minutes against the All Blacks…I was cream crackered! I thought God, I don’t want Delme on my shoulder. So up you go, we put Delme up on our shoulders and it took about half an hour to get to the dressing room. I couldn’t drop him down because there were so many people around us.”
Derek Quinnell, We Beat the All Blacks, (2013 documentary)
“Everybody was part of the game, not just the players, the spectators and all, it was a great joy for them as well. And you felt for them, they’d followed Llanelli year after year after year and it was something for them as well that we had beaten the All Blacks. It was a great honour for the town.”
Delme Thomas, We Beat the All Blacks, (2013 documentary)
“There were fans in the dressing room. Grown men, young children and we were trying to pull our jerseys off and someone was giving us a drink and it was bedlam. Someone else was pouring champagne and there were people taking mud off my boots and saying “can I have this mud?”
Phil Bennett, We Beat the All Blacks, (2013 documentary)
In their celebrations, the townsfolk drunk each and every pub dry by 8pm; the Thomas Arms, the Mason’s, the Black Lion…not a drop left! And this in a town which had not one, but two breweries.
Local newspaper, the Llanelli Star, provided some reports which were like something out of a novel. The 4th November issue stated; 'the All Blacks’ hopes, desires and reputations crumbled into disjointed pieces like the escaping threads of a dream during the first waking moments.’
The rest of the report is equally as emotive and it is evident that the writer was a Llanelli fan himself and had no intentions of writing his report objectively. He had, perhaps, waited a long time to see Llanelli defeat the All Blacks and was going to make the most of his chance to rub salt into the wounds.
​
"They lost their invincible status to the 1971 Lions and on Tuesday, Llanelli tore into them and stripped the world beating All Blacks of their legendary aura. The black cloak of the conquering heroes, the feeling of fear and dread that surrounds their very name, fell from their broad shoulders as the Scarlets hit them hard!"
Extract from the Llanelli Star, 4 November 1972 (unnamed)
The Western Mail carried the joyous headline; ‘Good Old Sospan Fach’ and the Wednesday, edition (November 1st) was up by nearly 20% in sales.
Press from the other home unions was equally as favourable, all seemingly overwhelmed by emotion and occasion; Daily Express - ‘Shattering’. Daily Telegraph - ‘Llanelli master All Blacks at their own game’. The Times - ‘The match of the Llanelli century’. Daily Mirror - All Blacks humbled’. Daily Mail - ‘Llanelli among the immortals’. The Guardian - ‘All Blacks founder on Llanelli’.
Even TP could only marvel at the home teams victory; ‘All Blacks out thought, out fought - magnificent play by Llanelli’, he wrote for the NZ Herald.
Meanwhile, the Birmingham Daily Post was keen to highlight that 'the All Blacks were not as well prepared as they could have been and that they were a little less than ready.’ This is, perhaps, an attempt to take the gloss off the Llanelli victory because the All Blacks had beaten an English club so comprehensively four days earlier.
To the considerable majority of Welsh rugby fans, who could not understand why Carwyn James had been rejected (more than once) by other Welsh clubs and the Welsh RU for the position of national coach, this was vindication.
He had done it abroad with the best players in the British Isles and now at home with his club side. What more could the man do? Clearly, there was some sort of ulterior motive.
Delme Thomas was full of praise for his centres, Roy Bergiers and Ray Gravelle.
“By getting up so quickly in defence and tackling so hard," Delme said, "they stopped the All Blacks winning the rucked ball. We felt that if we could pressurise them and stop them winning second phase ball, we’d be able to hold them.”
“Mind you, I think we would have had a much harder time of it if Sid Going had been fit to play. He would have introduced a whole range of problems for us to solve. Still, I must admit that I am not altogether displeased.”
Carwyn James, Daily Telegraph (1972)
With a twist of irony, there was another Mark Sayers at Stradey that afternoon; a 16 year old, studying for his O Levels, who virtue of being good at Mathematics, was chosen to help with the manual operating of the now infamous scoreboard.
“We were just about ready to put the three points into the scoreboard, when low-and-behold, the ball hit the crossbar, from which the try was scored.”
Mark Sayers, We Beat the All Blacks, (2013 documentary)
Amid the hysterical aftermath of the win, there was a suggestion that the scoreboard be preserved and a new one built for future matches. The club committee ordered another 2000 copies of the match programme to be printed.
It was a remarkable accomplishment in its own right. It was only the eighth time in 160 matches, over six tours of the United Kingdom, that the All Blacks had been beaten. Seven of those loses had been on Welsh soil.