Top 20 tries of all time countdown: No.1-5
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The final part of The Rugby Paper’s Top 20 best tries of all time sees Brendan Gallagher crown Wales, Barbarians and Lions great Gareth Edwards in the No.1 spot.
1 Gareth Edwards – Barbarians v New Zealand 1973
OVER the decades I’ve occasionally relegated this remarkable try to second or third on the podium but somehow it keeps climbing back to the top of the pile. Its perfection is enduring.
My acid test is that I still instinctively, subconsciously, judge every great try by comparing it with this Gareth Edwards score and that must mean something. It remains the benchmark. Every time a side, deep on their own line and under the cosh look to counter-attack, your heart jumps just a little and you wonder. No, surely not again.
It starts with lightning flashes of genius from Phil Bennett and ends with a crescendo of athletic brilliance from Edwards with his thrilling superman dive. And throughout, setting the tone and then celebrating, like we all did watching at home, with his peerless commentary was Cliff Morgan.
That alone would command a place in the pantheon but there is much more besides. The brutal high tackle on JPR by Bryan Williams which he swatted away with contempt; the most subtle non-dummy in history by John Dawes; the pleasure of yeoman Englishman John Pullin getting in on the Welsh party; the fall away one handed pass by the uncapped Tommy David and the unseen forward pass – marginal but very pingable – by Derek Quinnell.
They say French referee Georges Domercq received a standing ovation at Biarritz airport when he arrived back home on the Sunday night. A witness and participant in history.
But on top of that there was the context which gave added pleasure to everything. For my generation the 1971 Lions was the great rugby story, they were the reason we took up the game…but there was no such thing as live TV coverage from Down Under just crackly radio under the duvet and occasional week-old five minute black and white news clips on BBC Grandstand the following Saturday. We didn’t get to live and experience the greatest moment in British and Irish rugby history.
But then from a long way out the Barbarians indicated they would be picking, in essence, the Lions 71 team to play New Zealand in the final match of their cantankerous 1972-73 tour. So much so that even John Dawes, pottering away playing for London Welsh having retired from Test rugby straight after that Lions tour, was recalled to captain the side.
Remember also that both Gerald Davies and Mervyn Davies had been picked in the original team only to drop out the day before with flu. Commentator Bill McLaren was another flu victim, that’s the reason Morgan was behind the microphone.
Carwyn James, still being ignored by Wales, but beloved by the Lions was drafted in to take the Barbarians session on the Friday and give the team talk on Saturday. Only that very morning he had chatted to his Llanelli protégé at breakfast. “Phil, you have a great sidestep but I don’t suppose you will use it. Yet these All Blacks are made to be sidestepped. You could sidestep them off the park.”
This was in effect the fifth Test and don’t be fooled by the ease with which the Barbarians appeared to play. Next time you watch the game focus on a determined and hardnosed All Blacks team trying desperately to stem the flow, some of their tackling is pretty brutal. They were ‘on business’ and had no intention of being made to look fools. It was that steely-eyed approach that drew a once in a lifetime performance from the Barbarians.
2 Jean-Luc Sadourny – France v New Zealand 1994
A beautiful, mesmeric try from the elegant Sadourny highlighting French flare and vision but also a cold-blooded closing out of a game and a successful series against the All Blacks which is why I always rank it just above the equally beguiling try from Philippe Saint Andre (below).
PSA was involved in this one as well, launching the initial counter-attack from deep with Jean Michel Gonzalez, Christophe Deylaud, Abdelatif Benazzi, Emile N’tamack all handling at pace before Laurent Cabannes made the key switch pass which sent Deylaud off again and then Guy Accoceberry sprinting for the line. The scrum-half could have scored himself and ensured his name lived on for ever, but selflessly handed onto the France full-back. This remains, 26 years on, the last time New Zealand were beaten at Eden Park.
3 Phillipe Saint-Andre – France v England 1991
Twickenham was tense and expectant with both sides going for the Grand Slam when Pierre Berbizier fielded a missed goal-kick from Simon Hodgkinson and handed on to Serge Blanco who started sauntering around his in-goal area before the inevitable touchdown 22. Or so we thought. Suddenly the great man started sprinting hard to this right before linking with Philippe Sella who swapped passes with Didier Camberabero down the touchline under the East Stand. Just when it looked like the attack would be snuffed out, Camberabero manufactured a clever cross-field kick for Saint-Andre to gather and score under the posts. So French you can almost sniff the Gauloise.
4 Gareth Edwards – Wales v Scotland 1972
That ‘fella Edwards’ again, this time with a jaw-dropping break from deep in his own 22 on the muddy morass that was the old Arms Park. A pile driving hand-off on Roger Arneil, followed by 30 yards of Olympian sprinting before, with the Scottish cover defence closing, he chipped ahead deep into the Scottish in-goal area. Three on one, impossible odds, the crowd roaring, Edwards seemingly being overhauled but then a full-length dive to touchdown. Such was his momentum that he flipped over in a somersault, his face plastered in mud and grime, like a coalminer coming off shift. “They should build a chapel on the spot to commemorate such a miracle,” commented Spike Milligan watching in the stands.
5 Phil Bennett – Wales v Scotland 1977
Pinned deep in their own 22 at Murrayfield, Wales counter-attacked through JPR, Steve Fenwick and Gerald Davies, who side-stepped and jinked upfield before Bennett handled for the first time. David Burcher, the Newport centre was next, then back to Fenwick, who released Bennett with one of the all-time great passes. Bennett then dismissed the final brace of Scotland defenders with a peach of a side-step. “The try of the championship,” declared Bill McLaren. He meant of the 1977 Championship, but it ranks much higher than that.
