Fifty years ago today, Wales recorded a memorable 12-7 win over England at Lang Park in Brisbane, now known at the Suncorp Stadium, as part of the 1975 World Championship.
That win eventually cost England the trophy. The matches between the five sides were played on a home and away basis with the team who topped the table winning the title.
Australia were eventually crowned champions, topping the table by just one competition point, so it’s this match, on Tuesday 10th June 1975 that is seen to have cost England the World Cup (known as Championship for this tournament only) in this the first time where England and Wales played as separate nations, something that wouldn’t happen again in the World Cup for another 20 years.
So the World Cup remains a competition that England or Wales have still never won as a single nation. Great Britain have won World Cups, but those winning sides always contained Welsh or Scottish players as well as those from England.
Wales sacrificed home advantage to play this match in Australia and the build-up to the match was heated, with the players from England and Wales, many of whom were club team-mates, being refused permission to interact in the days before the encounter. It was only at the official photocall did they actually meet in Brisbane prior to the match.
Five years before State of Origin started, this “Battle of Brisbane” was a British precursor to the type of matches that Lang Park would see over the years and in his biography, “Big Jim”, Jim Mills remembers the game well.
Mills said: “It was one of those games, playing against team-mates and friends for your country. Alex Murphy had been on television the night before and when asked about the Welsh team, he said that none of them are good enough to get into the England team. That set the match up when he said that, everyone was a bit bitter.
“It was a violent game and Mick Morgan, the England hooker, was knocked unconscious and was carried off on three occasions. There were a lot of bust ups, it was a hard fought game and the Aussies enjoyed it. They were playing us the following weekend but we didn’t get a chance to recover and were still tired. If we hadn’t beaten England, they would have won the World Championship.
“They were red hot favourites in Brisbane and it was one of the toughest games I played purely from the fact I was playing against some Widnes team-mates in the England side. There were friends of mine who didn’t speak to me for a long time after that match.”
The Wales side that evening was: Bill Francis, Clive Sullivan (1 try), David Willicombe, David Watkins (captain, 3 goals), Roy Mathias, David Treasure (1 try), Peter Banner, Jim Mills, Tony Fisher, Bobby Wanbon, Eddie Cunningham, Colin Dixon, Kel Coslett. Subs (both used): John Mantle, Frank Wilson.
