70 years on and two remain

PETER JACKSON

This weekend marks the 70th anniversary of the rarest result in Test rugby. On Saturday, December 19, 1953, Wales beat New Zealand and they still haven’t beaten them since.

Despite those three score years and ten having taken their toll on the cast at Cardiff Arms Park way back then, two, one from each side, continue to defy the test of time as only nonagenarians can.

Courtney Meredith, the Neath tighthead prop with a lifelong aversion to giving interviews, is still going on this side of the world at 97. The same goes for Bill McCaw on the other side at the age of 96.

A back row forward like his unrelated namesake, McCaw, a retired schoolteacher, became the oldest living All Black three months ago with the death of former Taranaki centre Roy Roper at the age of 100.

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