Roger Uttley played a crucial role as The British & Irish Lions went unbeaten on their iconic tour of South Africa in 1974.
He was part of a cohort that would become immortalised as ‘The Invincibles’ in the years to come and the Tour was as memorable for the friendships formed off the pitch as it was for the results on it.
The former England forward reflects on his experiences in South Africa 50 years on.
As a young teenager, my first two sporting loves were cycling and basketball.
The first helped to develop a big engine and a strong pair of legs, the second gave me excellent hand-eye coordination which became invaluable as my rugby career developed in my later ‘teens.
Growing up in Blackpool, I was lucky to have a couple of influential teachers who helped shape my path.
At Montgomery School, I had my PE teacher Bryn Jones to thank for instilling in me a desire to better myself, and when I moved on to the sixth form at Blackpool Grammar School, I came under the influence of Jack Quarmby.
Jack gave me a copy of the original RFU coaching manual which had just come out and told me to take a look because I was going to be captain the following year and I might find it interesting!
I had a good couple of years there and during that time, I played for Lancashire Schools and in my final year was selected to play for England Schools on an Easter tour.
We played Wales down in Bridgewater, Scotland under lights at Kingsholm and then flew to Paris to play France.
That experience just made me think “Wow” if this is what rugby is all about, I really want to be part of it.
In 1971, I played in all six games on an England tour of the Far East but frustratingly had to wait until two years later for a full cap.
I watched all of the 1971 British & Irish Lions Tour to New Zealand. It was just fantastic watching and listening to Cliff Morgan’s commentary.
I was playing county rugby with Northumberland back then. John Elders was a teacher at Newcastle Royal Grammar School and Northumberland County coach, and then in the early 1970s, he became England coach.
I was just in the right place at the right time.
The Lions had previously toured South Africa in 1968 and I had seen pictures of Frik du Preez, the great Springbok second row forward, in action.
The pictures were just in black and white on the television but it was amazing seeing this, seemingly giant figure, catching the ball from the kick-off before going the length of the field to score at the other end.
Clips like that just made you think ‘Wow’, what are we going to be facing?’
I knew it was going to be a big challenge but I was confident I could hold my own and when we got out there, it became clear almost immediately that South Africa is a great rugby environment.
Touring was a welcome change from the dark, dismal winters over here back in the 1970s when there were power cuts.
I finished my college dissertation by candlelight because the power went off during the evenings.
It was just a different world. To go from muddy pitches training in poor light conditions to hard tracks, and everything being made available for you, was fantastic, it was the closest I was to get to being a professional sportsman.
South Africa had some excellent players but I didn’t feel intimidated, partly because I was on tour with some of the greats of the British game.
Gareth Edwards and all the Welsh boys were fantastic, Willie John McBride was the captain, and Syd Millar was the coach.
They were legendary figures even then, this was to be Willie’s fifth tour and for me, it was a bit like going on tour with your dad!
I can still remember the final team meeting before the first Test, sitting in a small office in the Arthur’s Seat Hotel in Cape Town.
Willie John was there at the head of a circle of chairs, quietly smoking his pipe and tapping his foot as everyone came in.
He waited until the last man was in there, quietly sat there and didn’t say anything, his eyes just kept moving around the room from player to player, acknowledging each individuals presence with a nod of the head for what seemed like ages, then just tapped his pipe out and said: “Right, I think we are ready. Let’s go.”
The weather had changed just before the first Test and we went from playing on burnt-hard tracks to a quagmire.
We took them on, we out-scrummaged them and put them in all sorts of disarray.
It wasn’t a fantastic scoreline [12-3] but we bested them in every area and badly dented their confidence for the rest of the series.
What people probably don’t realise nowadays is that back then, there were no neutral referees, no TMO referrals or tactical substitutions.
Syd, Willie John and the senior pros knew that to be successful we would have to respond immediately to any physical intimidation that traditionally happened to Lions sides in the southern hemisphere, what came our way had to go back!
We couldn’t tolerate it, we operated on the premise that if it was one against one, you might get sent off. But if it was 15 against 15, what were they going to do then?
That was basically what the ‘99 call’ was all about – and there were a few incidents along the way.
There was a big dust-up in the third Test at Port Elizabeth when the Lions were two up in the series and looking to make it three and a series win. Things got heated for a while but the Lions won well. There were a couple of provincial matches where they tried to soften us up but we had senior pros and some good, hard lads – it was just a real ‘band of brothers’ scenario, on and off the pitch.
If you were at a lunch table with Mike Burton, for example, you would laugh your socks off. He, Bobby Windsor and Andy Ripley were just fun people to be with.
After the second Test, we had a few days off, so we went into the bush. We stayed in lodges at Kruger National Park and that was really something.
One white knuckle trip in the back of open-top pick-up trucks springs to mind chasing rhinos through the bush remains indelibly printed in my mind.
Those are the off-field experiences you remember from the Tours, as well as things like the Sunday morning gin and tonics with JPR Williams and Mervyn Davies. There were some good parties while we were in Cape Town, as well.
We went on a trip to the far side of the Cape with Morné du Plessis and one or two of the other Western Province boys to a beach BBQ, which was just really nice to be able to do.
It was all good fun, Syd just insisted we were in good shape for training on Monday morning, which we were – as was displayed in the results.
Communication with home was a lot more taxing then.
No mobile phones or internet.
You had to book telephone calls home, but you had to be organised to do that. The alternative was to write home via airmail letter and I have got a box of correspondence that Kristine and I had over the course of those three months.
Once we had won the third Test and won the series, the big challenge was whether we could go unbeaten.
We had won the series anyway and we came away with our honour intact, while South Africa were able to regain a little bit of their dignity with that draw in the last Test.
Looking back on it now, it is a pleasure to reflect on it all. There were just great men in that squad, every one of whom I have been proud to be able to call a friend.
Despite coming from a wide range of different backgrounds we came together to make it a truly special British & Irish Lions tour.
I consider myself to have been very fortunate to be part of that winning team.
But you learn nothing if you win all the time, particularly in rugby so the big lesson I have learnt in life is that in order to give yourself the best opportunity to win you need to concentrate on the quality of the individual and team performance rather than focussing on the imperative to win!
Roger Uttley played 23 times for England between 1973 and 1980 and later coached his country at the 1991 World Cup. He was also an assistant coach on the victorious 1989 British & Irish Lions Tour of Australia. Uttley combined his playing career with a role as a PE teacher and was director of physical education at Harrow School for two decades.
