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Barbarians rugby 1973 v NZ

Barbarians rugby 1973 and Phil Bennett brilliant sidesteps counter-attack from near his own line - great rugby play, fantastic try.

What`s going on...

Barbarians are in the black and white hoops playing right to left.

The New Zealand winger kicks ahead and Phil Bennett covering back and running hard, finally gathers a bobbling ball about 10 metres out from his own line.

Bennett, hounded by the New Zealand #6 is running at an angle towards his on goal-line.

He swerves left,
now parallel with the goal-line he slows and
throws a fantastic sidestep left...

In doing so he throws off the # 6(Scown) and
evades #12(Hurst) who was trying to cut off
what he must have thought to be a cross-field run.

Bennett is now facing straight up-field and
throws a second sidestep going left,
evading New Zealand #5(Wilkinson).

He is immediately threatened
by the next defender (# 7, Kirkpatrick) and evades him
with yet another great sidestep to the left!

At this point he draws the next defender (#2, Urlich)
and passes to his support
out wide to his left.

Great sidesteps!

He went through a third of the opposition in about 15 - 20 paces!

In subsequent play the ball is cleverly handled by a number of players and Gareth Edwards streaks for the New Zealand line to score one of the best team tries ever recorded.

Some doubters say the pass to Edwards was forward - see a host of comments for the clip on the internet. But....

the referee was on the spot and is reported as saying ithe pass was not forward (read more about it here)
I used to think it was forward. Then I used my video editing software to look closely at clues. This type of software is pretty cheap these days and fun to have. I examined the angle of the dots of the 10 metre line and the angle of the half-way line as it comes into view and I am convinced it was a perfect, legitimate pass to Edwards who was behind the passer and moving through at tremendous speed. I would put my efforts on YouTube but that would be against copyright of the original material.

Barbarians rugby 1973
some of the most enjoyable rugby and
one of the greatest tries you'll ever see!

Where can I see Barbarians rugby 1973!

It's on the rugby video tape "101 Best Tries - with Cliff Morgan" - my VCR says it`s around the 12:31 mark (it seems to vary a little!).

It has the heading Gareth Edwards - 1973 Barbarians v All Blacks

Use slow motion. Study it - it`ll come in useful.

See the YouTube clip on the page classic sidestep

You'll also find it with other rugby clips on the internet. Look for "Gareth Edwards", "Greatest try ever" and similar.

But you just can't beat having your own copy and being able to watch it in slow motion and see what really happened! There are tapes and DVDs containing the whole game. Well worth having!

Barbarians rugby 1973 v NZ -players

	Barbarians	New Zealand
15 Full back	J. P. R. Williams London Welsh	J. F. Karam Wellington
14 Right wing	T. G. R. Davies London Welsh	B. G. Williams Auckland
13 Centre	S. J. Dawes London Welsh	B. J. Robertson Counties
12 Centre	C. M. H. Gibson NIFC	I. A. Hurst Canterbury
11 Left wing	D. J. Duckham Coventry	G. B. Batty Wellington
10 Stand off	P. Bennett Llanelli	R. E. Burgess Manawatu
9 Scrum-half	G. O. Edwards Cardiff	S. M. Going North Auckland
1 Prop	R. J. McLoughlin Blackrock College	G. J. Whiting King Country
2 Hooker	J. V. Pullin Bristol	R. A. Urlich Auckland
3 Prop	A. B. Carmichael West of Scotland	K. K. Lambert Manawatu
4 Lock	W. J. McBride Ballymena	H. H. MacDonald Canterbury
5 Lock	R. M. Wilkinson Cambridge University	P. J. Whiting Auckland
6 Flanker	D. L. Quinnell Llanelli	A. I. Scown Taranaki
8 No 8	T. M. Davies Swansea	A. J. Wyllie Canterbury
7 Flanker	J. F. Slattery Blackrock College	I. A. Kirkpatrick (Capt) Poverty Bay

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