1974 Five Nations Championship

1974 Five Nations Championship
Date	19 January 1974 - 16 March 1974
Countries	England  Ireland  France  Scotland  Wales
Tournament statistics
Champions	Ireland (8th title)
Calcutta Cup	Scotland
Matches played	10
Tries scored	22 (2.2 per match)
Top point scorer(s)	Alan Old (33)
Top try scorer(s)	Mike Gibson (2) J.J. Williams (2)
← 1973 (Previous) (Next) 1975 →

The 1974 Five Nations Championship was the forty-fifth series of the rugby union Five Nations Championship. Including the previous incarnations as the Home Nations and Five Nations, this was the eightieth series of the northern hemisphere rugby union championship. Ten matches were played between 19 January and 16 March. It was contested by England, France, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The championship was won by Ireland, the team's eighth outright title (seven other titles had been shared with other teams).

This was the first time ever that two games were played on the same weekend. This was brought in after the request from some teams, who complained that they had to always play early on in the year when bad weather prevailed, but others played in March, when the weather was better.

To get round this problem, the new format saw each team play each other's fixtures in a rotational period of scheduling. As an example, Scotland played England last in 1975, 1980, 1985. In 1976, 1981, 1986, 1991, the Scotland v England fixture was on the second weekend.

Participants

The teams involved were:

Nation	Venue	City	Head coach
England	Twickenham	London	John Elders
France	Parc des Princes	Paris	Jean Desclaux
Ireland	Lansdowne Road	Dublin	Syd Millar
Scotland	Murrayfield	Edinburgh	Bill Dickinson
Wales	National Stadium	Cardiff	Clive Rowlands

Table

Position	Nation	Games				Points			Table points
		Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against	Difference
1	Ireland	4	2	1	1	50	45	+5	5
2	Scotland	4	2	0	2	41	35	+6	4
2	Wales	4	1	2	1	43	41	+2	4
2	France	4	1	2	1	43	53	−10	4
5	England	4	1	1	2	63	66	−3	3

Squads

Results

19 January 1974

France	9–6	Ireland
Tries: Boffelli Con.: Aguirre Pen.: Berot		Pen.: Ensor

Parc des Princes, Paris Attendance: 43,694 Referee: A. M. Hosie (Scotland)

19 January 1974

Wales	6–0	Scotland
Tries: Cobner Con.: Bennett

National Stadium, Cardiff Referee: R. F. Johnson (England)

2 February 1974

Ireland	9–9	Wales
Pen.: Ensor (3)		Tries: J.J. Williams Con.: Bennett Pen.: Bennett

Lansdowne Road, Dublin Referee: K. A. Pattinson (England)

2 February 1974

Scotland	16–14	England
Tries: Irvine Lauder Con.: Irvine Pen.: Irvine		Tries: Cotton Neary Pen.: Old Drops: Rossborough

Murrayfield, Edinburgh Referee: J. Saint-Guillem (France)

16 February 1974

Wales	16–16	France
Tries: J.J. Williams Pen.: Bennett (3) Drops: Edwards		Tries: Lux Pen.: Romeu (3) Drops: Romeu

National Stadium, Cardiff Attendance: 60,000 Referee: N. Sanson (Scotland)

16 February 1974

England	21–26	Ireland
Tries: Squires Con.: Old Pen.: Old (5)		Tries: Gibson (2) Moloney Moore Con.: Gibson (2) Pen.: Ensor Drops: Quinn

Twickenham, London Referee: M. Joseph (Wales)

2 March 1974

Ireland	9–6	Scotland
Tries: Milliken Con.: Gibson Pen.: McKinney		Pen.: Irvine (2)

Lansdowne Road, Dublin Referee: F. Palmade (France)

2 March 1974

France	12–12	England
Tries: Romeu Con.: Romeu Pen.: Romeu Drops: Romeu		Tries: Duckham Con.: Old Pen.: Old Drops: Evans

Parc des Princes, Paris Attendance: 43,964 Referee: J. C. Kelleher (Wales)

16 March 1974

Scotland	19–6	France
Tries: Dick McHarg Con.: Irvine Pen.: Irvine (2) Morgan		Pen.: Romeu Drops: Romeu

Murrayfield, Edinburgh Attendance: 60,000 Referee: K. H. Clark (Ireland)

16 March 1974

England	16–12	Wales
Tries: Duckham Ripley Con.: Old Pen.: Old (2)		Tries: Davies Con.: Bennett Pen.: Bennett (2)

Twickenham, London Referee: J. R. West (Ireland)

Legacy

The 1974 Championship is known for a refereeing decision that eventually lead to a new phrase "Blind Irish Referee" entering the English language lexicon, in Wales and amongst followers of Rugby.

Rugby Background, Welsh emergence stalled by indecisive tournaments

The late 1960s and the 1970s were a period of considerable success for the Welsh National Rugby team, (the Second Golden Era), where Wales won a number of Championships, Triple Crowns and Grandslams.

Going into the championship Wales were the most recent team to have won the Five Nations Championship outright, having won a Grandslam in 1971. Both the 1972 and 1973 tournaments were indecisive for different reasons.

1972 was a high point of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, indeed, Bloody Sunday took place the day after Ireland's first match of the tournament, away to France. Due to Wales and Scotland's refusal to play away in Dublin in this context, the competition was not completed. Whilst Wales were top of the table, with three wins out of three, Ireland were the only other undefeated team having won both their matches.

The 1973 Championship was a five way tie, with all Five Nations having won two and lost two games. (Using modern Competition Rules, Wales would have won with Ireland having a claim to second place).

Cultural Background, the emergence of Max Boyce

This period also saw the emergence of Max Boyce into the public eye. He appeared on a TV talent show in 1973, and his breakthrough record, "Live at Treorchy" was recorded in the autumn of 1973. The 1974 tournament would therefore have been the first when he, and his signature song, "Hymns and Arias" were more widely known.

The immediate build up

The 1974 tournament was closely contested with three of the matches ending in draws. Ireland started their tournament with a loss away to France, but improved results meant that after the penultimate round of matches Ireland sat at the top of the table with five points but would sit out the final round of matches. At this stage both France and Wales had a game in hand, France against Scotland in Murrayfield, and Wales against England in Twickenham. If either of them won their matches they would overtake Ireland. Wales had not lost to England at Twickenham for over a decade.

Twickenham, Welsh hopes go West

In the final round of matches France were defeated by Scotland. However the defining match of the competition took place at Twickenham. The match was refereed by John West, an Irishman who had never refereed an international match previously. England lead, but late in the game JJ Williams scored a try, but it was disallowed by the referee. England held on to win their first match, and Ireland won the Championship.^[1]

The Aftermath, the Sunshine Home in Dublin and Beyond

Shortly after Max Boyce composed a homage to Tammy Wynette's "D-I-V-O-R-C-E", "The R-E-F-E-R-E-E." in reference to the events. He also wrote and performed a poem which ended with the phrase "Blind Irish Referees".^[2]

Wales went on to win honours in the next five seasons. Despite the dominance of Wales in the later 1970s, and the lean years of the 1980s and '90s, the climax of 1974 tournament at Twickenham remains engrained in the Welsh rugby psyche, and the term "Blind Irish Referee" established itself in the lexicon.

Despite being the original "Blind Irish Referee", John West went on to have a long career as an international referee, and later became a citing commissioner.^[3][4] A white stick sent to him shortly after the events of 1974 was to become one of his most prized possessions.^[5]

As recently as the 2011 World Cup, the events of 1974 remained the frame of reference in Wales during discourse of another "Irish" referee, Alain Rolland's decision to send off Sam Warburton in the Semi Final.^[6]

The term is now in use beyond Wales.^[7]

External links

• 1974 Five Nations Results

• The official RBS Six Nations Site

References