INTERVIEW
only two shillings and four pence each
way, so we owe you four shillings and
eight pence – not five shillings’.
“The letter telling me I was to
play for Wales for the first time had
the word ‘reserve’ crossed out, and
‘selected’ in its place. It also reminded
me to take my own socks from the
previous game – but I hadn’t played
for my country before. It went on to
tell me to take my own shorts – or did
I wish to borrow a pair.”
Cliff played in the days when rugby
was truly an amateur sport. The only
payments were expenses, and public
transport was the only way to travel.
Despite being just 5ft 7in tall, he was a
giant on the field of play in his fly-half
position. He came from a mining
family and joined Cardiff Rugby Club
straight from school in 1949.
In his school days he learned the
‘rights and wrongs’ of rugby, recalling:
“I thought I did well when I won a
game with a last-minute drop kick,
only for the teacher to shout at me
‘ rugby is about passing the ball not
kicking it’. He dropped me from
the school team for two weeks as
punishment.”
Cliff won that first cap for Wales
against Ireland in 1951, playing
opposite his own hero Jack Kyle,
and he was part of the Grand Slam
winning Wales side of 1952. He was
made captain of Wales in 1956, but
two years later, having made just 29
appearances for his country, he retired
from the game.
I asked him why, and his answer
underlined just how sport has change.
He said: “I had a family to look after
so I had to go back out to work.”
That was how it was on those days.
Cliff modestly claims he would never
have been able to play rugby in the
modern era because of his size and
weight. “Everybody is so much bigger,
stronger and fitter now,” he pointed
out. “We trained twice a week in the
evening, then went off for a pint of
beer and a kipper, warmed up over an
electric fire.”
But he has no regrets at missing out
on the financial rewards that are on
‘We trained twice a week in the evening,
then went off for a pint of beer and a
kipper, warmed up over an electric fire.’
offer to players these days, saying: “I
made so many good friends from all
around the world, and we have had
some wonderful reunions.”
He joined BBC Wales as Sports
Organiser in Cardiff in 1958. After a
brief spell with ITV he returned to the
BBC as broadcaster and commentator.
In one interview with Richard Burton
he got the Welsh screen star to admit:
“I would have forfeited playing
Hamlet just to have won one rugby
cap for Wales.”
As a TV commentator he watched
the next generat