Another Legend Taken Too Soon

I MIGHT BE in a minority here, but, I never got all the hype about JPR Williams, whose death, aged 74, was announced this week. Yes, he was a very-good player, 55 Welsh caps, plus 8 Lions Test caps, over the two wonderful 1971 and 1974 Tours are proof of that. However, to me, he never quite matched the attacking flair or generated the excitement, when he got the ball, which occurred when Ken Scotland or Andy Irvine took possession and started running.

John Peter Rhys Williams, without question, was a sporting great. Even before his rugby heroics, he had played tennis to a high level, being British Junior Champion in 1966, beating future Davis Cup player and Health Club millionaire David Lloyd, to win that title.

But, being a Bridgend boy, rugby was his first love. He started playing for the local club, then, when his medical studies took him to St Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, he joined London Welsh, where he was one of seven members of that club to be selected for the 1971 Lions.

His promise was evident and he won the first of his Welsh caps, against Scotland, at Murrayfield, on 1 February, 1969, Wales winning 17-3. This was the start of a Golden Era for Wales, and Williams won three Grand Slams and six Triple Crowns with them, captaining his country on five occasions. He was an ever-present in the 1971 Lions test XV, the only squad ever to win a series in New Zealand, with Williams kicking a rare dropped goal ine the fourth test and ensure the series victory.

He was again an ever-present with the 1974 Lions Invincibles, to win a series in South Africa. Williams was always a combative player. He often trained with the forwards, and even won one Welsh cap as a flanker – his favoured position.

After the 1974 Tour, when Mickey Steele-Bodger selected an all-Lions squad for the annual game between Mr Steele-Bodger's XV and Cambridge University, the forwards decided, at the final training session, that one of the flankers would get injured, so that Williams had to play in that position. Unfortunately, a genuine injury meant he had, in the end, to play in his normal role of full back.

In South Africa, during that '74 tour, when the Lions used their notorious “99” call, to spark-off a general punch-up, it was not an uncommon sight to see Williams sprinting forward from full back to join-in. His liking for the physical stuff backfired on him somewhat, when, during Bridgend's game with the 1972-73 All Blacks, he was left with a serious facial scar after being viciously stamped on by one of the tourist's forwards. The perpetrator was not sent-off, however.

That things were different back then can also be recognised from the fact, throughout his career, Williams was juggling rugby with his medical studies, then his practice work as an orthopaedic surgeon, where he rose to Consultant rank at his local hospital in Bridgend. He was still playing, at flanker for Tondu 3rds when in his fifties.

He also found time for cricket, where he was a more than useful player and a regular with the Lords Taverners in charity games. His charity work also saw him climb Mount Kilimanjaro in his late fifties.

He was made MBE in 1977, but had to turn down a third Lions tour that year, because of the demands of his medical career. Williams will undoubtedly be remembered as Wales' greatest full-back and, with the likes of Barry John – the player he considered the greatest of all time – Gareth Edwards, JJ Wiliams, Phil Bennett, Mercyn Davies and captain John Dawes, as one of the pillars of that glorious Welsh Golden Era of the 1970s.

Williams died following a short illness, he had contracted viral meningitis, He is survived by his wife and four children.

While JPR Williams' passing has dominated the rugby headlines, let us spare a thought for all those connected with Scottish club Ross High. Currently struggling at the foot of National League 4, the last thing Ross required was to lose captain Aiden Hoenigmann, who also died this week. The 27-year-old flanker had gone into a coma after an irregular heart beat starved his brain of oxygen and forced him into the coma, from which he never emerged.