The England Wales rugby fixture is currently enjoying a golden age. The fixture is one of sport’s most historic and competitive and in recent years has decided Grand Slams, 6-Nations Championships, Triple Crowns and World Cup campaigns.
In 1989 England Colts took on Wales Youth in a fiercely contested match in front of a lively crowd in Torquay. Several stars of the future took part and the game was recorded and preserved by Mr Barrie Gledhill who oversaw proceedings that day as a touch judge.
Many years later Barrie submitted the film to the World Rugby Museum. Here is a clip showing the two sides singing their respective anthems. The Colts and Youth teams were the proving grounds for the rugby stars of the future and consequently there are quite a few famous young faces in the line-ups. See if you can identify them!
If you have any home-recorded historic rugby footage, that you would be willing to share us, let us know!
Click here to watch some highlights from the match.
Phil Maynard played for Wakefield RFC and a couple of weeks ago played for Morley Vets versus a joint Wakefield and Sandal Vets XV.
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Jon Wray tuned pro with Castleford, later moving to Wakefield Trinity and Hull KR. I have a vague memory that he was one of the first players to be subject to a transfer fee when he returned to Union (Gloucester ring a bell?).
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Only four of the England players went onto won full caps, Hopley, Mallett, Johnson and Ojomoh. How does that fair against earlier and later years?
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It seems to vary. In the equivalent match in 1979, only 1 player, Peter Winterbottom, went on to win a full cap. Whereas in the 1995 England Colts v Wales Youth game, 6 of the team were later selected to play for England: Fraser Waters, Trevor Woodman, Philip Greening, Phil Vickery, Roy Winters and George Chuter.
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…And at first glance (and that’s all it is), there could be three future Wales Caps here, amongst others who got close. The three I note are Scott Gibbs (who?), Andrew Lamerton and (if it’s him) Ricky Evans the sub. Did Matthew Silva get a full cap? Far too late for the wing to be earlier cap Alun Donovan. Any other thoughts/contradictions/people keen enough to get the books out?
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It was Scot Gibbs and Andrew lamerton, none of the others had full caps.matt silver had b cap before going north. And it was Anthony Donavon on the wing and Richard evens scrum half on the bench.
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I played in that very game. Cant beleive i found this. Chuffed to bits. Cant wait to show this to my boy.
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Not Ricky Evans, it is Andrew Lamberton. Matt Siva did not get a full cap, but should have and the A Donovan was Anthony.
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Thanks for all the comments so far. Keep following the blog and we will put some match highlights for this fixture up soon.
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Would love to see some clips from the game.
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Yes I would love to see some footage as well.it was a very hard match and I honestly felt Wales should have won the fixture. some great players on the field that day and many still involved with the game today.
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