Barbarians rugby 1973 v NZ

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

Barbarians in black and white from the right

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

Phil Bennett covering back, after NZ winger Bryan Williams kicks ahead, is running hard and finally gathers a bobbling ball about 10 metres out from his own line.

Bennett, hounded by Scown(6), is running at an angle towards his own goal-line.

(This Barbarians rugby 1973 clip is one of several on YouTube)

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

He throws off Scown and evades Hurst(12) who was trying to cut off what he must have thought to be a cross-field run.

Facing straight upfield and certain to be caught by Wilkinson(5), Bennett throws a second SIDESTEP!!, evading him by going left.

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

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

Great sidesteps!

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

"BRILLIANT, Oh that`s BRILLIANT"

In subsequent play the ball is cleverly handled by a number of players. Commentator Cliff Morgan calls

"John Williams, Bryan Williams" (Bryan was the tackler)
"Pullin"

"John Dawes...great dummy!" (it`s a rugby term!)
"David, Tom David"

"The halfway line"
"Brilliant by Quinnell"
"This is GARETH EDWARDS!"

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 Guardian, in "Why this game was the finest ever played" reports that referee Georges Domercq was within yards of the final pass (Quinnell to Edwards) and says it was not forward.

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 well behind passer Quinnell 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!

On the video "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

Really study this one!

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!

You can see another exciting piece of rugby play from the same game on the page Barbarian rugby 1973.

Barbarians rugby 1973 v NZ - teams

Position	Barbarians	New Zealand
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
7 Flanker	J. F. Slattery Blackrock College	I. A. Kirkpatrick(C) Poverty Bay
8 No 8	T. M. Davies Swansea	A. J. Wyllie Canterbury
9 Scrum-half	G. O. Edwards Cardiff	S. M. Going North Auckland
10 Stand off	P. Bennett Llanelli	R. E. Burgess Manawatu
11 Left wing	D. J. Duckham Coventry	G. B. Batty Wellington
12 Centre	C. M. H. Gibson NIFC	I. A. Hurst Canterbury
13 Centre	S. J. Dawes London Welsh	B. J. Robertson Counties
14 Right wing	T. G. R. Davies London Welsh	B. G. Williams Auckland
15 Full back	J. P. R. Williams London Welsh	J. F. Karam Wellington