Baa-baas’ all-stars go to town in Hong Kong

Brendan Gallagher delves into some of rugby’s most enduring images, their story and why they are still so impactful

What’s happening here?

Smile please chaps, it’s March 29, 1981 and the Barbarians have just won the Hong Kong Sevens. Back row from left: Peter Wheeler, Brynmor Williams, Nick Preston, Gareth Williams, Andy Ripley. Front row: Gary Pearce, Les Cusworth, Clive Woodward, Nigel Pomphrey.

What’s the story behind the picture?

The Hong Kong Sevens started up in 1976 and very quickly became a cult event, a world-wide gathering of the rugby clans and particular point of focus for the southern hemisphere giants, the Pacific Islands and indeed emerging nations everywhere.

Nobody was excluded.

The old Five Nations were a bit sniffy about it. The tournament rather smacked of professionalism and was considered a bit brazen and tacky with the big tour companies piling in and making a killing as the rugby tourists voted with their wallets.

The Barbarians, though, sniffed the wind and instantly recognised that this was a party they needed to attend, and in 1981 they put together an Anglo-Welsh squad, skippered by Ripley, capable of making a splash.

Uniquely for a Sevens team it had no real gas merchant but it was full of clever, sometimes inspired all-court players and a couple of Sevens specialists.

Despite Pomphrey tearing a hamstring in the final training session and the squad being reduced to eight fit members, the Barbarians blazed a trail beating USA, Western Samoa, South Korea and Sri Lanka on day one before dealing with a Hugo Porta inspired Argentina in the quarterfinals and Fiji in the semi-final.

In the final, favourites Australia awaited with Mark and Gary Ella, speed machines Brendan Moon and Michael O’Connor, Roger Gould and Test flankers in Gary Pearce and Chris Roache. It was tight – 12-10 – but the Barbarians forwards denied the Aussies of possession and Woodward and Cusworth stole in for tries. Cue a very big night on the town.

What happened next?

Not a lot! It was another 21 years before a northern hemisphere side won the Hong Kong Sevens as the tournament became dominated by the southern hemisphere tyros – New Zealand, Australia, Fiji and Samoa.

Indeed only one side, a strong Public School Wanderers squad in 1985, even reached a final during that period. We didn’t quite know what to make of the Hong Kong Sevens ‘up north’.

The national Unions either ignored the tournament altogether or saw it primarily as an end-of-season jolly.

Which was a mistake. Anybody regularly attending the Hong Kong Sevens would not have been surprised by the ‘sudden’ emergence of Western Samoa and would have clocked Jonah Lomu long before RWC1995. Many of Argentina’s stars of the future also cut their teeth at Hong Kong.

Then, when they did take the plunge, they were a long way off the pace and met with little success. Not until Woodward demanded England take Sevens seriously did the tide turn with three titles on the bounce between 2002-4.

“Anybody attending the Sevens would have clocked Jonah Lomu long before RWC1995”

Why is the picture iconic?

Apart from capturing a moment in time there is a lovely old school feel about this image –a group of talented amateurs being thrown together and in a week or less claiming a winning Hong Kong Sevens campaign. In best Barbarians style they played hard off the pitch but never forgot there was a prestigious trophy to win.

And as with any older team picture there is also the aching poignancy of what happened to those involved. What did life have in store for them.

It’s a mixed bag, life’s rich tapestry and all that. We have Woodward –a devastating runner and jinker circa 1981 – who obviously went on to become a World Cup-winning coach with England while his Leicester colleagues Peter Wheeler and Les Cusworth also made an impact.

Wheeler became coach, then CEO and DoR at Tigers and was a huge mover and shaker at the dawn of professionalism while Cusworth became an important figure in Argentina bringing on their young guns through the national academy.

Preston and Pomphrey rather became the forgotten men of English rugby. Despite playing in two of the 1980 Grand Slam games the willowy, deceptively quick Preston, faded from the scene while Pomphrey’s powerful hard running and off-loading skills were not what England were looking for in the back row. He played in three non-capped ‘internationals’ but was denied a full cap.

Two of the side’s best athletes – Gareth Williams and Andy Ripley – suffered horrendously with illness in latter years. Williams died of multiple system atrophy in 2017 while Ripley passed away from prostate cancer in 2010.

Meanwhile the Welsh duo of Brynmor Williams and Pearce enjoyed very solid careers in the maelstrom that was Welsh club rugby at the time but could never quite nail down a place in the national team although both earned the occasional start. Both also represented Wales at Rugby League.

Footnote: This was the last tournament to be held at the old Hong Kong Football Club. As it grew in popularity it switched to the Hong Kong Stadium which itself then underwent a massive redevelopment before the 1994 tournament … just in time to pack the fans in to watch Jonah announce his arrival on the world scene.