KeithQuinnRugby
Thinking and talking about rugby every day for 50+ years
You are here: Home » News Comment » This just in! There's always a question for a rugby stats man - but does anyone know the answer to this one?
10 January 2016
Here is the latest question to test the real rugby experts among us (self-styled or not) You might even call yourself a nerd! But the question has been raised to me in recent days - what is the widest age gap between two players playing in the same team of a full and official rugby test match.
As a Kiwi I recall when Bryan (B.G) Williams played his first test rugby for the All Blacks in South Africa in 1970 there was some talk that the 14 year and four months age difference between he and Colin Meads, (as the oldest and youngest All Black captain when they played together) must have been the 'record' for New Zealand rugby. A glimpse later showed that there was a 13 years and three months gaps when Frank Bunce played with Jonah Lomu. That was impressive too.
But at the international level, the modern world record might still be held by Argentina’s Hugo Porta and Federico Mendez. When those two appeared in the same test v England in 1990, Mendez was 18 years and 3 months old, while Porta was 39 years and 3 months. Their age gap was therefore nearly 21 years.
As Porta made his test debut for Argentina in October 1971 that means as a 21-year-old he was playing test rugby before Mendez was born!
Fact is; this website does not know the answer to this poser; Diego Ormaechea of Uruguary played World Cup rugby until he was 40 years old and three months in 1999 - and in 2015 South Africa's Victor Matfield played until he was 38 years and five months old. There are others who played into their 'senior' years.
But who were their youngest teammates? That is the issue!
Note to StatsNerd; Hugo Porta did not formally leave the Argentine Pumas from then until almost the onset of his own middle years. Even though most record books list his last test match as a 39 year old in 1990, he was invited back in 1999, as a 47 year old, to play in the Argentine Rugby Union’s centenary celebration match against a World XV. Porta played for a quarter of the game – a remarkable testimony to his fitness. At the time some stats men called that game an 'official' test recall. A new question therefore might be; who were the record-breaking youngsters playing alongside him in THAT game!
There is no prize only satisfaction for all this; Please let me know at quinnk1946@hotmail.com and I will publish on this site your findings.
by Keith Quinn
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Comments 0
In Amsterdam the Farah Palmer-led Black Ferns blitzed USA 44-12 in the final. Out of 5 games played in 14 days the 44 score was NZ's lowest in any game!
DAVIES, GERALD
Cardiff, London Welsh and Wales
46 internationals for Wales 1966–78
5 internationals for British Isles 1968–71
One of the most brilliant wings the game has known, Gerald Davies was the prince of sidesteppers, a master of speed and a crowd-pleaser in the extreme. Had he not missed several tours for personal reasons, his talent would have been more widely acclaimed.
Davies finished his schooling and education at Loughborough College and Cambridge University. Imbued with their spirit of playing enjoyable rugby, he soon made his way into the Welsh team. His first international was against Australia in 1966, as a centre.
He played 12 full internationals in that position before making the change to the wing. If he was a success as a centre (good enough to be chosen as a British Lion to South Africa in 1968) he became a wing of exceptional class. His size (only 73kg – 111/2 stone) meant that he was rapidly becoming outmoded as a centre at a time when crash-ball specialists were being used more and more. It was as a wing that he could display more expressively his talents for speed and balance.
Davies was considered one of the best sidesteppers the game has seen, especially off his right foot. Many of his markers and opponents could attest to this, none more so than the Hawke’s Bay team in New Zealand in 1971, which played the British Isles at Napier. Davies sidestepped repeatedly at high speed and ran in four brilliant tries.
Davies played all four test matches for the Lions on that tour, having earlier played in the third test at Cape Town in South Africa in 1968. He declined to tour twice with the Lions, to South Africa in 1974 (uncomfortable with what he had seen of the apartheid policies in 1968) and to New Zealand in 1977, but continued as an international until June 1978, when he quit at the age of 33. His last test match was Wales v Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
At the time his 46 appearances on the wing and at centre made him Wales’s most-capped three-quarter. He and Gareth Edwards then shared the record (20) as the highest try-scorers in Welsh internationals.
Gerald Davies later joined the list of former players who wrote and broadcast about the game. He had a number of books published and was also been an expert television presenter and commentator.
His standing in Wales was such that he was chosen to be the Opening Ceremony ‘voice’ of the Rugby World Cup in Cardiff in 1999.
In 2009 the respect in which Gerald Davies was held was confirmed when he was invited to be the Manager of the British and Irish touring team to South Africa. He also played significant roles as a member of the Board of Directors for the Welsh Rugby Union and a sitting member of the International Rugby Board.
How many Wanganui club players were in the combined King Country-Wanganui team which beat the 1966 British Lions team in Wanganui?
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