Lions Greatest XV: scrum-halves

The best scrum-half I have seen, or am ever likely to see – that was the verdict on Gareth Edwards from Willie John McBride, the captain of the 1974 Lions. It was a conclusion reached not just by the Welshman’s immaculate form in the humbling of the Springboks, but the cumulative effect of his influence on The British & Irish Lions dominating the sport in the early to mid-1970s, playing a leading role in a run of seven unbeaten Tests and only one defeat against South Africa and New Zealand, the world’s hitherto dominant rugby nations
Nick Cain, The Rugby Paper’s chief correspondent, writes: “Edwards was at the heart of the 1971 series victory over the All Blacks, and at the peak of his powers, he was a scrum-half with a peerless array of skills and athleticism. He was not only gifted with extraordinary strength and dynamism in a compact 5ft 8ins frame, he also had a superb tactical compass and had an uncanny ability to select the right skill at the right time.
“Edwards had a needle-sharp eye for the break, rapid acceleration and the sprinting speed of a wing. His kicking game was murderously effective, and he had an arsenal of weaponry from raking diagonals to towering box kicks and crucial drop-goals. By the time he was in his pomp the speed and length of his pass was also exceptional, and the rifling reverse pass that allowed Phil Bennett to drop the goal at leisure to put the seal on the record win over South Africa in the Third Test at Port Elizabeth in 1974 showed his mastery of the scrum-half arts.
“Brynmor Williams (1977), Colin Patterson (1980), and Roy Laidlaw (1983) struggled valiantly on losing Tours, and when The Lions got back to winning ways over Australia in 1989, the combative Robert Jones was in the thick of it. The niggle in the Second Test between the Welsh No.9 and the Wallaby captain, Nick Farr-Jones, saw the Australian scrum-half disrupted – and The Lions, with Jones’ pinpoint box-kicking piling on the pressure, never looked back.
“Dewi Morris gave the 1993 Lions enough drive around the fringes to unsettle New Zealand in the first two Tests, but by the time they toured South Africa four years later he had retired and Rob Howley, another great Welsh all-rounder, was the Test scrum-half elect. However, when an early to injury ruled out Howley, The Lions appeared to have suffered a body blow – only for his replacement, Matt Dawson, to rise to the challenge in spectacular fashion.
“Dawson’s trickery from the base of the scrum, turning the Springbok defenders into statues with an outrageous dummy, got The Lions off to the best of starts in the First Test, and the English No.9’s coolness under fire helped them to stay ahead in the second test to clinch the 1997 series.
“Howley finally made his Test debut for The Lions in the momentous win over Australia at the Gabba in 2001, but, after the reversal in the Second Test, broken ribs saw the Welsh linchpin added to the long list of casualties. Dawson – despite having broken ranks by criticising The Lions coach, Graham Henry, in a newspaper column – took over in the narrow Third Test loss that saw the series slip away.
“Mike Phillips is comfortably the biggest scrum-half to have played for The Lions in the modern era, and the Wales No.9 wrote his name large for the 2009 tourists in South Africa. At 6ft 3ins, and 16 stone Phillips is built more like a back row forward than a traditional scrum-half, but his power around the corner gave the Springboks endless headaches in a knife-edge series.”
Have your say: Tweet us @therugbypaper