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Gareth Jenkins featured in East Wales' dramatic 3-3 draw with New Zealand in 1967. Photograph: Stu Forster/Getty Images
Gareth Jenkins featured in East Wales' dramatic 3-3 draw with New Zealand in 1967. Photograph: Stu Forster/Getty Images

13 December 1967: Mighty All Blacks rocked by East Wales

This article is more than 14 years old
East Wales were denied a famous win in the dying stages of their clash with New Zealand

I remember the match vividly for a number of reasons. For a start I was made captain, which was a feeling of pride and apprehension. I was barely 20, though it was only a few months later that I captained Wales for the first time. Dai Hayward, the former Cardiff and Wales wing, was asked to coach the East Wales side, though coaching was very much in its infancy then. He said we'd better meet up and have a chat about the game, so we met in what was then the Cockney Pride, a pub in Cardiff, where over a lunch of curry and chips and a bit of half and half, we discussed our tactical approach to this enormous event. I can still remember Dai's opening line: "Well boy, there's no point complicating anything." If we get hold of the ball, he said, let's move it.

We were supposed to be playing them on the Saturday. I was in college at the time and my room-mate Nick Williams, who's still my friend and business colleague today, went to the window in the morning and said: "I tell you, you won't be playing the All Blacks today." The whole town was covered in snow. I went down to the Angel Hotel, where we were due to have lunch, to find out what was going on. It turned out the All Blacks were staying there as well, so we had a few beers together. We played on the Wednesday instead but we still got about 40,000 there.

It might be a case of the old memory playing tricks, but I think we completely outplayed them and should have won it. For a long time we led 3-0 and it didn't look for a moment like they were going to score. At one stage the All Blacks were trying to summon a bit of energy, and one of them shouted out loud: "Come on boys, we've got them on the run here." And John Hickey, in no uncertain terms, said: "You have got to be joking!" He used a few expletives as well. The look on his face was an absolute picture.

Afterwards the All Blacks manager, Charlie Saxton, spoke to us, and said they were very, very fortunate not to have lost. It was a harsh lesson for a young player like me to learn, but the All Blacks absolutely never gave up until the game was over. Tony Steel went on a great run down the wing, and that was 3-3. It was just about the only chance they had. Even then, Barry John had a drop-goal chance at the death that just took the paint off the upright. Had we won it, against one of the greatest teams I ever played against, people would still be talking about it with great reverence. It was a wonderful performance by a side that had been put together literally in a week.

The two teams definitely had a dinner and a few beers afterwards, but it was a Wednesday night, I had to get back to college and anyway I was playing them again at the weekend for the Barbarians. So in the end I said, "OK lads, we'll see you on Saturday."

Then what happened

The All Blacks won 14 of their 15 matches on the 1967 tour, beating England 23-11, Scotland 14-3 and Wales 13-6. Jenkins retired in 1977, and went on to coach Wales between 2006 and 2007.

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