Jeff Probyn: The day I put my stamp on Anglo-Argentine relations
Especially the game in 1990 when Federico Mendez knocked-out Paul Ackford with a single, well-aimed punch.
In describing the punch, Gallagher said there were no cameras in those days but in fact he is wrong because, whether officially or not, the whole episode was subject to a video analysis before the whole country.
As he pointed out, Federico Mendez landed a very good punch on an unsuspecting Paul Ackford who was facing the other way.
Ackford was a totally innocent party as he wasn’t even on the same side of the scrum as Mendez, who was playing loosehead, because Paul always played behind our loosehead, in this match it was Jason Leonard.
What he didn’t say was that Federico was only banned for two weeks for that punch because he pleaded mitigating circumstances and those circumstances were that someone stamped on his head – and that someone was me.
Given the media interest surrounding the incident, the RFU immediately instigated an investigation that was to culminate in a hearing the following Wednesday.
However, the day following the match (on BBC TV’s Rugby Special) Eddie Butler reviewed the entire incident with forensic detail and as a result, whether officially or unofficially, I became the first player ever to be tried by video evidence.
Firstly, Eddie showed the punch that was to change Paul Ackford’s nickname within the squad to Bambi as he looked like Bambi walking on ice when the England team doctor and physio helped him from the field.
Being a sympathetic squad, as Paul walked in to the post-match dinner after returning from a hospital check, we all threw our towels (napkins) at him and shouted: “Take him out, my boy’s had enough.”
Mendez also joined us at the dinner having attended a post-match disciplinary hearing, and was quite emotional because he was being sent home.
Butler told viewers: “Ladies and gentlemen, Mendez has punched Ackford,” and showed the punch from a couple of angles in slow motion. He then said: “There is no place in the game for this sort of act and Mendez was rightly sent from the field.
“However, he has received only a two-week ban because he pleaded mitigating circumstances, which were that Jeff Probyn stamped on his head.”
He then began a video showing that I did, in fact, stamp on Mendez. “Probyn has stamped on Mendez,” he said. “There were mitigating circumstances and what Probyn did should not happen in our game but….”
And then he wound the video back to the start of the scrum.
I had toured Argentina a few months before with England and played against Mendez in a game in Mendoza. He was a powerful but not very technically skilful young man who was still very much at the early stages of what was going to be a long and distinguished career at club and international levels.
At the time the Argentinians used a scrum technique that entailed an eight man hit and drive with no hooking but rather the front row stepping over the ball as they moved forward.
We worked out that if we wheeled quickly on the tighthead side, they often missed the ball, which allowed our hooker or loosehead to take the ball, or they collapsed all together.
This would make them less inclined to charge in at full pace at the reset making it easier for us to contain their drive and gave us the chance of taking the ball against the head.
We used the same tactics in the Twickenham game and had some success which increased the frustration in the young Mendez.
The particular scrum in the video collapsed as we drove forward and I stepped over a prostrate Mendez but as I straddled him, he immediately reached up and grabbed me between the legs.
Eddie said: “There you have it ladies and gentlemen, Mendez has grabbed Probyn.”
Moreover, on live BBC TV he carried on: “And I can tell you, if someone had hold of my b***s, I’d stamp on his head as well.” Three days later the disciplinary was convened and after reviewing all the evidence, including Eddie Butler’s unofficial contribution, I was let off with a caution.
It was a number of years before I met Federico again, in fact it was when I was invited to play in the Dean Richards and John Wells testimonial match at Leicester.
As this was the first time Mendez and I had crossed paths since that fateful day in November 1990, I must admit to some trepidation as to what his reaction would be as we were to be ‘team mates’ sharing the same changing room.
I need not have worried, as I walked into the changing room Federico came rushing up threw his arms around me and said: “Jeff, Jeff, you made me famous!”
