A bona fide Southern Softy who loved football and went to a rugby union-playing school, I remember sitting down with keen anticipation to watch BBC1’s live coverage of the First Ashes Test at Hull between Great Britain and the 1982 Kangaroos.
Rugby league was a game I had never played but was growing to love.
I loved the fearlessness of the players, the relentless intensity of the contest, the skill and grace and daring of performers under extreme physical and mental pressure.
The game at its best had a special kind of music – elemental, highly coloured, febrile and yet with sweet harmony and melody amid the dissonance.
“The Velvet Underground & Nico” of sports, if you like. (The greatest avant-garde rock album of all-time.)
I even liked the sportsmanship – how endlessly forgiving these players were of those who had tried for 80 minutes to bury them in the English dirt!
And the nicknames:
Steve Ella: “Good morning, Mr Perpetual Motion, did you sleep well?”
Ray Price: “No, Mr Zip Zip Man, I didn’t sleep a wink.”
Steve Ella: “Why?”
Ray Price: “Les Boyd grinds his teeth when he’s dreaming.”
Five players stood out above the rest: Peter Sterling and Brett Kenny’s inventiveness and incessant levels of energy keeping out of the starting line-up the feted Wally Lewis and Steve Mortimer; Eric “Guru” Grothe’s claps of thunder up and down the flanks; Mal Meninga’s impossible combination of dextrous handling and monstrous physical attributes; Wayne “Junior” Pearce’s back-row impersonation of the Bionic Man.
Great Britain fielded some marvelous players of their own throughout the series: explosive wing Des Drummond, whose unorthodox tackling technique of using his head as an Exocet missile was something to behold; Andy “Popeye” Gregory marshaling his forces from half-back; Steve “Knocker” Norton as the classic ball-playing loose-forward…
All in vain.
The first Test saw the Kangaroos score eight tries without reply. They went on to win every game on tour through Britain and France for the first – but not last – time. They changed my sporting life.
They remain my favourite “rugby” team of all.
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