In a purely rugby context, his firsts are suitably Old Testament: the first Welsh son of West Indian immigrants from the Windrush Generation to play for his country, the first black British player to score a hat-trick in the World Cup, showing Chris Oti, Jason Robinson, and Martin Offiah the way to go.
Neither distinction can ever be taken from him. Nor can others, be they an endearing ability to use humor as a means of defusing racism or a personal history of conflicting decisions prompted by invitations to tour apartheid South Africa at the start and finish of the Eighties.
The first was to join the Wales Youth team on a trip which coincided with the 1980 Lions series. The second, nine years later, was to join other Welsh players on a rebel tour in defiance of their own union’s antiapartheid policy.
Webbe accepted the first and declined the second. Either way, there was invariably a price to be paid. The first caused his family some grief, the second repaired that damage even if it meant turning down a fee of £32,000 in flagrant contravention of his amateur status.
This story is from the July 26, 2020 edition of The Rugby Paper.
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This story is from the July 26, 2020 edition of The Rugby Paper.
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