Brian Price, who has died aged 86, came to prominence as a rugby union second-row forward in 1963 when he captained his club side, Newport, to a memorable victory over the mighty All Blacks. Afterwards he went on to play for the British and Irish Lions on their 1966 tour to Australia and New Zealand before skippering Wales to victory in the Five Nations Championship of 1969.
That year marked the beginning of a golden age for Welsh rugby that ran into the late 1970s, with emerging players such as JPR Williams, Mervyn Davies and Gareth Edwards benefitting from Price’s senior influence. Their captain, however, was unable to accompany them any further on the journey, mainly due to a troublesome knee, which ended his career in his early thirties.
A 6ft 4in lock with a characterful, knocked-about face, Price found it difficult to decide whether the 1969 title or Newport’s defeat of New Zealand represented his best moment in rugby, although he generally erred on the side of the latter, as it was achieved “while playing with your mates, the people you played with week in, week out”.
The All Blacks went unbeaten on their 36-game tour of the northern hemisphere in 1963 – except for that match against Newport. It was the most famous victory in the club’s history and one that came out of the blue, as New Zealand, with greats such as Colin Meads and Don Clarke in the side, were all but invincible and Newport had experienced an unpromising start to the season.
On a wet and windy Wednesday at Rodney Parade – Price’s birthday – he had an outstanding match, dominating the line-out and winning ball all over the field as Newport won 3-0 thanks to a drop goal from his cousin, Dick Uzzell. It was a performance that not only rubber-stamped Price’s emerging status as an outstanding player but marked him out as a future leader of his country.
When he eventually succeeded to the Wales captaincy in 1969 he grabbed the opportunity with both hands, delivering not only the title but the Triple Crown, too – and only narrowly missing out on the Grand Slam due to a draw with France in Paris.
Brian Price was born on October 30 1937 in the village of Deri in Monmouthshire. After two years of National Service in the mid-1950s he played rugby for St Luke’s College in Exeter, where he did teacher training before becoming a PE and technical drawing teacher at Thomas Richard Mining and Technical Institute in Tredegar. In 1960 he joined Newport, remaining there for the rest of his career.
Price was a superb line-out jumper, and his early performances for his club led to a call-up for the Barbarians in early 1961 to play against a devastatingly effective South Africa side at Cardiff, a day that turned out to be one of the most celebrated in Baa-Baas history as they ran out 6-0 winners. A month later he was handed the first of his 32 caps for Wales in a 9-0 victory over Ireland, becoming a virtual ever-present thereafter.
In May 1964, as a sign of things to come, Price captained a Wales XV to victory against the visiting Fijians. After winning the Five Nations with Wales in 1965 and 1966, on the 1966 Lions trip he played in their two victorious Tests against Australia in Sydney and Brisbane and in two of the four Tests (all lost) against New Zealand, appearing in a total of 19 tour matches.
The following year Wales appointed Price as vice-captain to his Newport team-mate David Watkins, against England and France. Although a cartilage operation disrupted his season in 1968, he came into full possession of the captaincy in 1969, winning the Five Nations with an exciting roster of young players who were coached for the first time by Clive Rowlands.
Injury prevented Price from playing in the final game of that campaign – a 30-9 victory against England – but he might have missed out on the Five Nations triumph altogether when, against Ireland in the second match of the Championship, he decked Ireland’s Noel Murphy with a spectacular punch, denounced by The Times as “a deplorable act of ruffianism”.
Price justified his behaviour on the grounds that “Murphy’s fingers were in my eyes… and in that situation you don’t muck about.” Fortunately the referee decided to administer a stiff reprimand rather than a sending-off – an act of leniency that allowed the skipper to avoid a ban and to take his men on to the title.
After captaining Wales on a valedictory tour to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji in the summer of 1969, he retired over concerns about his knee, only to discover the following season that it was in better shape than he had imagined.
He accepted an offer to play with the French side Vichy in 1970, but subsequently found out that because he had been paid by the Sunday Express for an article on rugby during the off-season he was deemed by the authorities to have ended his amateur status and was banned from the game.
Reluctantly swallowing that bitter pill, he continued as a teacher, latterly as head of PE at Caldicot Comprehensive School near Newport, and in 1972 he also began a 30-year stint as a co-commentator on rugby matches for BBC Radio Wales. Hanging up his microphone in 2003, in 2006 he became president of the Welsh former players’ association.
He is survived by his wife, Dorothy, a former primary school teacher.
Brian Price, born October 30 1937, died 18 December 2023
Article courtesy of
Source link
