Barbarians v New Zealand was a 1973 rugby union match between the Barbarians and New Zealand. It was played as part of the 1972–73 New Zealand tour of Britain, Ireland, France and North America. The game featured what has been described as "the greatest try ever scored". It was scored by Gareth Edwards. It is widely considered one of the best tries ever scored in high level rugby union. [1][2] The Barbarians won the game 23–11. [3] It was also the first time New Zealand lost to the Barbarians.

The greatest try ever scored [ edit ]

In the second minute of the game New Zealand winger Bryan Williams kicked the ball towards Phil Bennett, near his goal line. Bennett sidestepped and evaded three tackles, in turn passing the ball to JPR Williams, who managed to offload the ball after Bryan Williams had tackled him around the neck. The ball then passed through four pairs of hands (Pullin, Dawes, David and Quinnell) before Edwards, slipping between two team-mates and seemingly intercepting the last pass, finished with a diving try in the left-hand corner (29 seconds later).

Barbarians coach Carwyn James is credited with man management to stimulate Phil Bennett to make sidestepping runs that day.[4]

The game is one I will never forget and those of us who played in it will never be allowed to forget. It is a match that will live with me forever. People tend only to remember the first four minutes of the game because of the try, but what they forgot is the great deal of good rugby played afterwards, much of which came from the All Blacks. After the success of the 1971 Lions tour, which captured the imagination of the whole country, it was an opportunity to bring a lot of that side together again. Gareth Edwards

The commentary itself is sometimes described as the greatest ever, although it very nearly didn't happen because until just 2 hours before the match Bill McLaren was due to commentate; but he was recovering from 'flu so Cliff Morgan was called in at the last minute.[5] Morgan commentated the try:

A moment later, at the restart, he added,

If the greatest writer of the written word would have written that story, no one would have believed it. That really was something.

Poll standings [ edit ]

The try is often mentioned as the greatest ever scored[6] or one of the greatest.[7] In a UK poll conducted by Channel 4 in 2002, Edwards's try was voted number 20 in the list of the 100 Greatest Sporting Moments.[8] The 40th anniversary of the try sparked renewed interest.[9]

Other play [ edit ]

The Barbarians had tries nearly scored by John Bevan and then John Dawes. David Duckham showed his skills in possibly his best UK performance, before more tries were scored by Fergus Slattery and John Bevan to make the halftime score 17-0. Grant Batty scored two tries in reply before JPR Williams completed the try-scoring.

Teams [ edit ]

The Barbarians coach was Carwyn James, who was always noted as seeking to encourage his teams to play attacking rugby.