CHRIS HEWETT

THINKING ALLOWED

STRANGE as it may sound to generations of rugby lovers raised on a fizzy-drink, dopamine-heavy diet of high-scoring matches, there was a time when tries were rare enough to be memorable. The most revered team of them all, the 1971 Lions, were blessed with a stellar back-line bookended by JPR Williams and Gareth Edwards, yet they managed only six touchdowns in four meetings with New Zealand. One of which was a chargedown. By a loose-head prop.
If we spool back to the pre-war years, when the England’s hyphenated elite slept easy in their four-posters in the kno...