The ‘Big’ Game that you never Forget

David Matthews recalls an eventful afternoon when

appointed to the big West Wales derby

‘Big’ matches (not necessarily good ones) stay in the memory for ever, particularly if you have been involved in one, and If I cast my mind back thirty-two years I can immediately find an encounter which fits the bill perfectly. To say that pre-match it had occupied my thoughts for a while would be a major understatement and it is one of the very few occasions when I had difficulty in sleeping the night before. Swansea v Llanelli  was a major game and although it does not carry the same special aura these days (it would be Ospreys v Scarlets in 2017), there is no doubt that it was the focus of West Wales rugby attention back on that sunny October afternoon.

I innocently inquired in the buildup whether there was anything on this meeting, league points, cup, whatever, to which the salutary reply was “ It's Swansea v Llanelli, you don't need anything else.” My ‘minder’ for most of the weekend was the great Clive Norling who, in his thoughtful briefing, reminded me that Richard and Paul Moriarty were both in the Swansea pack, “You could do with Sherlock Holmes taking care of them.” Nor did a mid-morning amble round the famous St.Helen’s ground ease the tension, the sight of the cameras and cables being installed for Welsh television transmission only reinforcing the belief that it did matter.

Let me tell you at the outset that the much-anticipated confrontation between these two rivals was an anti-climax. Among the headlines and quotes to round it all up were: “Swansea storm right back, but it’s no derby classic,” “The scoreline 17 – 15 (just two Swansea tries) summarises a game which was a total waste of an afternoon’s autumn sunshine,” and from the same writer “The first half, accurately controlled by a guest English referee, who fortunately disregarded a host of retired referees in the Swansea members’ stand …” The cast list, for both teams, may well have been littered with international players but the eighty minutes plus were “strewn with penalties.”

A sub plot to the fixture came in the form of a difference in law interpretation at the Maul between the WRU and the RFU. Even on the day before the game I received a call to remind me that the English interpretation was to be applied, namely that if a Maul went to ground the game stopped, whereas the Welsh application allowed the ball to be rucked. In the Monday edition of the South Wales Evening Post, Clive Norling sprang to my defence against criticism of a stop, start contest with “All he did was interpret the law as he had been told to do so by the Rugby Union. I think it's high time the whole business was sorted out by the International Board.”

On the Wednesday following my Welsh adventure I travelled to Blackheath to referee Kent v Middlesex in the County Championship. Talk about ‘calm after storm,’ to continue the use of newspaper quotes, The Guardian brought me into its conclusion with “It was probably because the players knew where they were with him that Kent had only one penalty kick at goal all afternoon and Middlesex had only two.” A case of lessons learned? Maybe, but that afternoon in Swansea would forever have an influence.

DWM 24/10/17 (5)