As well as that he played for Wales Schools U15 and Wales Youth, toured Argentina with Wales on the uncapped tour of 1968, led Wales U25 XV to victory over Fiji in 1970, scored 26 points for a Wales XV in a big win against Japan in 1973, scored 52 points in four games on the 1973 tour to Canada and then 60 points in three games in Japan in 1975, including a 34 point haul in the second Test.
His death once again raised the age old debate of who is the Greatest Off All Time to fill the outside half jersey for Wales. Having won two Grand Slams, won a series with the Lions and captained them on a second tour, beating the All Blacks with his club side and hoisting the Wales points record to 166 in 29 appearances – the stats say it’s ‘Benny’.
Those numbers would have increased to 265 from 36 games had caps been awarded for a further seven appearances he made for Wales XVs (Argentina and Japan twice, Fiji, Canada and New Zealand once each).
Add in 236 points in 27 games for the Lions (including the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Match in 1977), 189 points in 20 games for the Barbarians and then a massive 2,532 points in 413 outings for his beloved
Llanelli and you start to see the scale of his achievements – 3,042 points in 496 games.
Anyone not convinced by the stats, need only listen to what his peers and superstar supporters say about him:
Willie John McBride (1974 British & Irish Lions captain)
“He was to rugby what Botham was to cricket, Cruyff to football and Nastase to tennis. He had a certain magic, an indefinable quality. He had the audacity to attempt the unusual and to lift spectators out of their seats.”
Delme Thomas (Llanelli & Wales captain)
“When I think of great outside halves who have played the game I think of Phil Bennett. I played with some great players in my time, but he was the best of them all.”
Gerald Davies (WRU President and Wales Grand Slam teammate)
“He brought to the game extra dimensions that we all loved to look at – his attacking style, his speed, his agility, and particularly his magical sidestep.”
Sir Ian McGeechan (British & Irish Lions teammate)
“As we all know from his unforgettable jinking runs for Wales, the Barbarians and the Lions, Benny was above all a superbly instinctive player, but he also had a great rugby brain on him.”
Shane Williams (Wales leading try scorer)
“He hugely inspired me and was an absolute genius on the field. I thought that ‘if he can do it, then so can I’. I just watched him in awe and I wanted to be him.”
John Spencer (Barbarians President)
“He was a true icon of our sport and a loyal club man, for Llanelli, for his country, the Lions and of course the Barbarians.”
Wherever you place him in the pantheon of great Wales No 10s, he earned the right to be remembered as a true superstar of the global game. From Percy Bush through to Cliff Jones, Cliff Morgan, David Watkins, Barry John, Jonathan Davies, Neil Jenkins, Stephen Jones and now Dan Biggar, Welsh rugby has been blessed with dancing, prancing – and sometimes faultlessly metronomic – outside halves who struck fear into the hearts and minds of opposition defences.
‘Benny’ stands shoulder to shoulder with them all and will be remembered as an all-time great of British sport.
