54 2GM Monday June 13 2022 | the times
SportPhil Bennett 1948-2022
5
tactician he was a master. He was also a
brilliant kicker. He had the confidence
to screw the ball off the outside of his
right foot, sending it spiralling along its
way, often appearing to change direc-
tion so it went into touch, where he had
ordained.
Bennett was and remained a totally
decent, unaffected and lovable man. He
was never involved with anything that
was at odds with the game’s ethos and
overcame a shyness to become an
excellent spokesman and broadcaster.
In 1980, when the All Blacks came
again to Stradey, he was there at fly half
when Alan Hosie, the Scottish referee,
sent off Graeme Higginson, the New
Zealand lock — or tried to. Hosie
clearly pointed to the touchline after an
offence by Higginson. But Bennett,
joined by Ray Gravell, his centre,
rushed up to Hosie to plead with him
not to send Higginson off. It would have
in a sense spoiled the occasion, spoiled
Llanelli’s hosting of the visitors.
Higginson stayed on. These days such
behaviour may be sniffed upon, but not
then, and rightly so.
His heart always remained on his
sleeve. In 1977, he was made captain of
the Lions tour to New Zealand after an
illness to Mervyn Davies had spoilt the
Lions’ plans. On that trip it rained every
day, the Lions forwards crushed the All
Blacks and so it was Bennett and the
back division who were blamed for the
Lions not taking the series — that is
way too facile an explanation. But
Bennett wished he had never taken the
reins of captaincy. He became home-We have a renaissance final. Two
seasons ago Leicester Tigers and
Saracens were the bottom two sides in
the Gallagher Premiership. The only
reason that years of decline at Leicester
did not ultimately end in relegation was
because Saracens were forcibly
demoted ahead of them, after the
London club’s dynasty had come crash-
ing down in ignominy and acrimony.
There were those at Saracens who
feared the salary cap scandal could have
been the end of the club. But nobody
jumped ship and here they are, cussed,
driven and back in the Premiership final
having produced a demonstration of
that willingness to fight in a ferocious
34-17 victory over Harlequins.
Waiting for them at Twickenham will
be Leicester, who have been trans-
formed under Steve Borthwick. The
Driven Saracens take physicality to limit
It is instructive that the match that Phil
Bennett, who has died at the age of 73
after a long illness, chooses himself as
the greatest of his life was played not in
the red jersey of Wales, where he per-
formed almost mystical deeds, or in the
red jersey of the 1974 British & Irish
Lions. Those were the powerhouse
Lions of all history, when he and Gareth
Edwards supervised the dominant play
of the forwards, to crush the Springboks
— even though among those monsters,
he stood 5ft 7in and weighed only 11st
4lb. These days, even the ball boys are
bigger than that.
His greatest day came as a 24-year-
old in the scarlet of Llanelli and on a day
of legends. He was at fly half as Llanelli
beat the All Blacks at Stradey Park.
“That day we beat the All Blacks was
the best day of my rugby life,” he
reflected later.
The key moment? Bennett took a
long shot at a penalty goal but the ball
bounced back into play off the post and
Roy Bergiers, the centre, seized it and
scored. Legend has it that Bennett was
aiming for the post and therefore for
the try. Of course he was
not, but such was his tal-
ent that had he declared
it was all deliberate, then
you would have believed
him. Pubs within miles
and miles ran dry
that evening. Max
Boyce wrote a song
called 9-3 — the
final score.
This identifica-
tion of rugby
players with their
own locality was then
part of life, so different
from the modern-day
players who are effec-
tively travelling paid
troubadours. Bennett
Tigers reached the European Chal-
lenge Cup final last season and were
never off the top of the Premiership
table this campaign. The victors on
Saturday will be the comeback kings.
Brendan Venter, the former director
of rugby, and Ed Griffiths, the former
CEO — two key architects of a
Saracens dynasty that delivered five
Premiership titles and three European
crowns between 2010 and 2019 — were
at the StoneX Stadium on Saturday.
Whatever has happened in recent
times, the spirit Venter instilled when
he relaunched the club in 2009 lives on.
For that he credited the environment
managed, through good times and bad,
by his successor, Mark McCall.
“It’s been a tough 2½ years and it was
a problem of our own making,” McCall
said. “Mistakes were made. But 99 per
cent of the people in the organisation
weren’t responsible for what happenedand that’s never talked about. Every
one of them, staff and players, had a
reason to leave and an excuse to go, but
none of them did. That level of loyalty
probably saved the club.”
Those who went off on loan
— Ben Earl, Max Malins,
Nick Tompkins, Alex
Lozowski and Alex
Goode — all returned
better for the experi-
ence. At the end of a
week in which he was
named Premiership
player of the season,
Earl scored a hat-trick.
Owen Farrell’s head-to-
head with Marcus Smith was
symbolic of the game. Behind a
dominant scrum and effective maul,
Harlequins made the early running and
opened up a 12-3 lead with tries from
Alex Dombrandt and Danny Care.The breakdown was an unforgiving
place. But when Jack Walker was sent to
the sin-bin for a head clash in a tackle
on Farrell, Saracens began to generate
quicker ruck speed and they were
ruthless, scoring 14 points
either side of half-time while
the Harlequins hooker
was off the field. It was
Farrell’s type of game —
abrasive, combative —
and he was to the fore
as Saracens ran up 24
straight points, with
Nick Tompkins and
Aled Davies also scoring,
to lead 27-12.
Saracens were short-
handed for all but two of the final
25 minutes, with Elliot Daly, Billy Vuni-
pola and Lozowski sent to the sin-bin
for dangerous tackles. Farrell had no
complaints over any of the decisions —indeed the miscreants were fortunate
not to see red — but was unapologetic
for the way Saracens defended.
“A few of those tackles are them just
trying to be dominant, there is no mal-
ice in it and the referee has seen it as a
yellow card and that’s it, we get on with
it,” Farrell said. “We know what we can
and can’t do, but you still have to have
enough intent to go forward in your
defence. If you are constantly being
passive you probably won’t get picked
next week. It’s a fine line and I don’t
think people quite understand when it
gets slowed down on TV how quick
those decisions are [on the field].”
Agree with them or not, Saracens are
driven to win the title on their return to
the Premiership as some sort of valida-
tion for what went before, as a demon-
stration that their past success was not
bought but earned through hard work
and spirit.Saracens v
Leicester
Gallagher
Premiership final
Saturday, kick-off 3pm
TV: BT Sport, ITVAlex Lowe Rugby Correspondent
Master of the sidestep
was a true Wales legend
was born in the small village of Felin-
foel, near Llanelli. He served the Scar-
lets wonderfully well, playing his last
game for the club in 1981.
“When the final whistle went I sat in
my spot in the dressing room, pulled the
scarlet jersey off for the last time. I felt
ever so bad. It was a terrible feeling. Then
I looked around the room and I thought
of all the great players and all the great
traditions that had gone before me and I
thought, ‘Hell. You have been part of the
greatest club in the world.’ ”
What Welsh rugby would give now
for that identification with home-town
clubs. Recently, Bennett — already
visibly struggling with throat cancer —
went to a ceremony in Felinfoel where
a statue was unveiled in his honour.
This man who had played all over the
world, in both hemispheres and all the
great rugby countries, had come home.
Except that in his heart, he had never
been away.
Bennett won 29 caps, extending a
line of brilliance at fly half from Cliff
Morgan, to David Watkins, to the
almost mystically great Barry John and,
after John’s retirement, Bennett. He is
famous for those jagged, breathtaking
sidesteps, which started the sensational
move through which the Barbarians
scored a try by Edwards, at Cardiff
against the All Blacks.
He had won his first cap for Wales in
1969 as the first man to take the field as
a replacement. When he was called on,
he struggled to take his tracksuit off.
Norman Gale, on the bench alongside
him, eventually grabbed both parts of
the tracksuit and tore them off, tore
them into pieces.
Bennett was an excellent
captain of Wales, leading
the team to three triple
crowns and to an outstand-
ing grand slam
in 1978, when
his own play
was brilliant.
On that 1974
Lions tour, he was masterly. As
a runner he was almost
uncatchable on his day,
jack-knifing off both feet; as asick, and had he had his time over he
might not even have gone. “Those
months on tour were too much for me,
the matches were very, very difficult.”
And yet the Lions only lost the series
with a freakish try in the last seconds.
In 1974, he and Pat, his wife, had suf-
fered the loss of their newly born son. “I
saw this little boy in an incubator and it
will live with me for ever,” Bennett said.
“Two days later he died. I was overcome
with grief.” Who knows if Bennett ever
really got over the shock. He was then a
steelworker, and the steelworks and the
rugby club sent him away with Pat to
begin some form of recovery.
As with so many players emerging in-
to the employment market after a
decade of play, he found retirement dif-
ficult, and at one stage even contem-
plated emigration as he sought employ-
ment requisite with his talents. He
opened a sports shop in Llanelli, which
closed relatively soon afterwards. It
seemed to be a sign of economic decay
and the unforgiving nature of post-ca-
reer life in the amateur era, that for
some time the “Phil Bennett Sports”
sign hung over the deserted shop.
Eventually, he found employment as
a representative for a brewery: “If
Wales won, the sales would rocket.”
And he was employed on television as
an authoritative summariser.
Those were the days when you could
revere a Welsh player out on Cardiff
Arms Park on Saturday and then be
working beside him on a production
line on Monday. It was a heroic time but
a very difficult time and professionalism
in that sense was too long in coming.
You certainly hope Phil and his family
found peace of mind in the decades after
he retired, and grasped the affection in
which he was held. He did his utmost for
club and country to the ultimate of his
ability. You’d give so much for someone
of his entertainment value and individ-
ualism in modern rugby.
It is also true that his family — Pat
and sons Steven and James — provided
the most loving family support. But Phil
Bennett was the type of rugby charac-
ter, as lacking in hubris as he was full of
sumptuous talent, that he had a wider
family numbering in the millions.
All of them now will be in sorrow, and
yet will be looking back with joy.Phil Bennett, who has
died aged 73, had a rare
talent and a special
connection to Llanelli,
writes Stephen Jones
Bennett won the triple crown and
was made Lions captain in 1977he was
is tal-
lared
then
lieved
miles
y
x
g
een
erent
-day
ffec-
paid
nnettNorman Gale, on the b
him, eventually grabbe
the tracksuit and tore
them into pieces.
Bennett wa
captain of
the team
crowns andO
Lions tour, he w
a runner h
uncatchable
jack-knifing oBennett won the trip
was made Lions capOne of the greats
Born October 24, 1948 in Felinfoel,
Carmarthenshire
Teams Felinfoel, Llanelli, Wales,
Barbarians, British & Irish Lions
29 Wales caps
2 Five Nations grand slams (1976
and 1978)
8 Lions caps across two tours
6 Appointed OBE for services to
sport in 1979
6 Inducted into International Rugby
Hall of Fame in 2005