Peter Jackson’s column: TV drops Gareth Edwards… unlike Lions and Wales
When his country ultimately had to pick someone else at scrum-half, they did so only because Edwards’ voluntary retirement at the age of 30 left them no alternative. Even the cricketing colossus Don Bradman, an earlier sporting knight of the realm, knew how it felt to be left out of a Test match.
‘The Don’ left the Test arena with a duck against England at The Oval in 1948. Edwards left it 30 years with a Grand Slam and the roar of the crowd ringing in his ears.
During the decades since, Wales still needed him, albeit in a different capacity as a television pundit but not anymore, at least not for the World Cup starting next month.
S4C, the Welsh language television broadcaster whose live coverage of nine matches includes the final itself, the third-place decider, one semi, one quarter and Wales’ Pool matches, have picked their team.
It contains ten retired internationals and while much has been made about the addition of Shane Williams, not a word has been said about the fact that Edwards, for so long a mainstay of S4C’s coverage in his native tongue, has been deselected.
The undroppable has been dropped, unable, it would appear, to keep up with the Joneses. They are there in force, headed by Gwyn Jones, the former Wales captain who has established himself as a perceptive commentator with an incisive ability to read the game.
Four more Joneses are behind him – Stephen Jones, Deiniol Jones, Dafydd Jones and Derwyn Jones as well as the Robinson brothers, Nicky and Jamie, and Arthur Emyr. Bristol scrum-half Dwayne Peel has also made the team, presumably when Championship commitments allow which begs the question over his distinguished predecessor’s absence.
“Gareth has been a fantastic ambassador on the pitch and in his quality as a broadcaster,” a S4C spokesperson said. “We certainly aren’t casting aspersions on him by not having him on our panel for the World Cup.
“We have a tranche of experts now who have experienced the World Cup. We aren’t looking to cast aside a generation of rugby fans who have grown up with Gareth Edwards as a player and broadcaster but we feel we have a line-up of players who are able to talk about the modern game having played it much more recently.”
David Lloyd never played ‘the modern game’ in a cricketing sense but that hasn’t prevented him becoming a pundit par excellence and he was born in 1947, the same year as Edwards. Peter Alliss is still going at 84, forty years after his last round of tournament golf, John Motson is 70 and never played professional football, ancient or modern.
Now Edwards would never dream of putting himself in that kind of Premier Commentary League and yet his qualities are unique. They will remain so and not simply because he happened to be the Rugby Player of the Twentieth Century which means there can never be another.
He has infinitely more to offer than the enduring status of a wonderful playing career. He commands universal respect and, while never as outspoken as Geoffrey Boycott is on cricket, Edwards has a wealth of knowledge and the wisdom of vast experience. Above all, he has gravitas.
A pity, therefore, that in making their choice, S4C, overlooked all that, preferring to pick younger players on the basis of their ability to talk about ‘the modern game’, with the implication that those who haven’t played it are somehow out of touch.
If Sir Gareth Edwards, 68 last month, can be considered surplus to S4C’s World Cup requirements, what hope is there for the rest of us who date back to the Forties?
