Monday marks the 60th anniversary of surely the greatest single act of giant-killing by a club team against the All Blacks: Newport 3 New Zealand 0 at Rodney Parade, October 30, 1963.
Llanelli‘s famous 9-3 win over the Kiwis at Stradey Park nine years later almost to the very day may have been more widely celebrated but there can be no denying the special status of the opposition Newport confronted on that drizzly autumn afternoon.
In the course of a four-month tour, the All Blacks of 1963-64 played 36 matches in Britain, Ireland and France. They won 34 and drew one (0-0 against Scotland at Murrayfield). Newport were the only team to beat them.
They were so revered that three of the side in action at Rodney Parade were knighted for their services to the game: Sir Wilson Whineray, Sir Colin Meads and Sir Brian Lochore. The victors had to make to do with being made Freemen of the City of Newport.
When it comes to the test of time, the Blackand-Ambers are even further ahead on the scoreboard than they were barely three weeks before President Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas.
Newport’s nine survivors include John ‘Dick’ Uzzell whose drop goal has long since passed into folklore. Centre Brian Jones is still going strong at 88, the captain, Brian Price, will be 86 tomorrow. Stuart Watkins, Dennis Perrot, Bob Prosser, Nev Johnson, David Jones and Keith Poole are all in their 80s.
The tourists have lost two-thirds of their team, among them the trio of knights in shining All Black armour. Their five Newport survivors include John Major, a dairy farmer from Taranaki not to be confused with his Prime Ministerial namesake.
