Price glad he played under old regime

AT Pontypool Park on September 24, 1986, with the sweet chestnut trees in full autumnal regalia, the faithful rolled up without the foggiest clue that they were about to see something they had never seen before. And would never see again.

- PETER JACKSON

Against Munster at that place on that day, Graham Price made his first appearance as a substitute. That it would also be his last during a career spanning some 700 first-class matches over 22 years beggars belief, all the more so in an age when Test props are conditioned to last for 60 minutes, if that long.

Price’s endurance has long been the stuff of legend:

Twelve consecutive Tests for the Lions. Played in every minute of every one: eight against the All Blacks, four against the Springboks.

Forty one consecutive internationals for Wales over eight years. Played every minute of everyone bar two and then only because he had fallen victim to dastardly deeds.

Against France at the Arms Park in the 1976 Grand Slam decider, Price had been gouged so badly that he couldn’t see where he was going because of what was diagnosed as a scratched eyeball. Against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground two years later he had his jaw broken by Steve Finnane, a barrister doubling up as the Wallabies’ loosehead straight out of Dodge City.

That Price amassed 1,000 scrums and more without the luxury of starting a match on the bench save for the one against Munster is as great a tribute to his endurance as anything he achieved for the Lions and Wales. The one-sub match in a long lifetime is something that has somehow remained unknown, until now.

Even then, it took a deep trawl through all those seasons for the man himself to come up with the most startling fact of all, a revelation which shows how much the game has changed since Price bowed out three years before professionalism.