One of Wales’ greatest second rows, he won 32 caps for his country and played in four Tests for the British & Irish Lions in 1966. When he retired in 1969 he was Wales fifth most-capped player:
As well as playing for Wales and the Lions, he made 10 appearances for the Barbarians, eight for Monmouthshire and 262 for his beloved Newport. He learned his rugby at Bargoed Grammar School and St Luke’s College, Exeter, played a few games at Cross Keys and with the RAF during his National Service and made his debut for the Black & Ambers in a defeat to Leicester in April 1960.
His final outing for Newport came in a win over London Welsh two days short of the ninth anniversary of his debut. That win was one of 38 enjoyed by the team in 45 games that season as Price led his club to the Western Mail Unofficial Championship.
MOST CAPPED WELSH PLAYERS 1969Ken Jones 44, Dicky Owen 35, Dewi Bebb 34, Billy Bancroft 33,
Brian Price 32, Rees Stephens 32
He had earlier helped them secure the title in 1964-65 having captained the club the season before when they famously beat Wilson Whinneray’s touring All Blacks. That 3-0 triumph, thanks to a drop goal from Price’s cousin, Dick Uzzell, wrote that Newport team into rugby folklore and eventually led to all the players being made Freemen of Newport.
“It’s difficult to say if it was the pinnacle of my career – getting picked as an uncapped player for the Barbarians side which beat the Springboks in 1961 and taking away their unbeaten record on the last match of their tour was special, as was winning a first cap for Wales and then going on to captain my country,” Price told the South Wales Argus in 2013.
“We got the three points early in the game but I never thought that was going to be the end of the scoring. We were doing very well in the forwards although we were never in control, just holding our own.
“Some said our tactics were negative but we were out to stop them from gaining any momentum and from preventing Clarke from getting any penalty kicks at goal.
“The atmosphere was terrific with almost 25,000 people at Rodney Parade and it was chaotic at the final whistle in the pouring rain. The supporters were chanting and shouting and we came out on to the balcony to applaud them.
“Wilson Whinneray came into our dressing room afterwards and said to us: ‘Congratulations boys. There’s no doubt about it, you were the better side on the day – I just hope you all get selected for Wales so we can have another crack at you’.”
It wasn’t the first time Price had played against a touring team. He featured in Newport’s 3-0 defeat against Avril Malan’s Springboks in 1961 and played in the 3-3 draw with the Australians in 1966.
He earned a call-up to the Barbarians side to face the hitherto unbeaten South Africans in their final fixture at the Arms Park in 1961. He cut such an impressive figure in the second row against the much-vaunted Springbok pack that the Welsh selectors fast-tracked him into the Welsh side a month later for their match against Ireland.
He faced the All Blacks eight times in his illustrious career. As well as beating them with Newport on 30 October 1963, he also featured in the Wales and Baa-Baas side against them on that tour, without success.
He then met them twice for the Lions in 1966, featured for Monmouthshire against them in 1967, and captained Wales in the two Tests in New Zealand in 1969. He first met the Wallabies in Australia in two Test wins by the 1966 Lions and then met them three more times on their tour to the UK later that year – that draw with Newport and in the Wallaby wins over Wales and the Baa-Baas.
He faced the Springboks again in 1964, when he was a member of the first Wales team to go on an overseas tour. He nearly didn’t make that trip because Monmouthshire County Council’s education board refused to pay the three Gwent school teachers in the part – Price, Clive Rowlands and Alun Pask.
Having completed his teaching qualifications at Cardiff Training College, Price first taught at the Thomas Richard Mining & Tech Institute in Tredegar before going on to become a long-serving PE teacher at Caldicot Comprehensive.
The local authority eventually backed down, although they stood firm in 1969 when Price needed further time off to lead his Triple Crown and Five Nations championship winning side to Australia and New Zealand.
It was in South Africa in 1964 that Price got his first taste of international captaincy when he led Wales in the tour fixture against Northern Transvaal in 1964. That ended in a 22-9 defeat, but later that year he was in charge when a Wales XV beat Fiji 28-22 in Cardiff.
He ended up with a 50% success rate over the course of his international career with both Wales and the Lions. He helped Wales share the Five Nations title with the Scots in 1964, win the title outright in 1965 and 1966, and then led them to the title in 1969.
He enjoyed Triple Crown triumphs in 1965 and 1969, just missing out on a first Grand Slam in 17 years in the latter season when France held Wales to a 8-8 draw at Stade Colombes.
The 1969 Five Nations was the building block for the super Seventies, and was certainly eventful for the Welsh skipper. In the game against Ireland at the building site that was Cardiff Arms Park at the time with a new North Stand being erected, he became very close to being the first Welsh player to be sent off.
In front of the new Prince of Wales, Price flattened Irish flanker Noel Murphy with a haymaker that became known as ‘The Royal Punch’. Most people expected Scottish referee Doug McMahon to instantly dismiss Price.
As the crowd held its breath, and Murphy received attention, McMahon merely issued a warning to the Welsh captain and a penalty to the Irish. David Coleman, the stalwart BBC presenter, asked his guest, former Wales and Lions outside half Cliff Morgan, during the coverage – “What do you have to do to get sent off in rugby?”
Ireland came into the game hoping to clinch the Grand Slam. Wales head coach Clive Rowlands formulated what became known as ‘The Murphy Plan’ ahead of the game, designed to stop the Munster flanker from killing the ball and denying the Welsh backs quick possession.
“There was a Murphy Plan. It was simple enough – Gareth Edwards would pick up the ball from the scrum, go round the side where Noel would tackle him. Then we’d all do a little bit of trampling on Noel,” admitted Price in later years.
“I got the ball back from a lineout and then found some fingers around my eyes. In a situation like that you don’t muck about.
“I turned round and lashed out. The referee looked at me and I was thinking, ‘I’m going, in front of the Prince, I’m going.’ Thankfully, the ref realised it was done in retaliation, warned me and gave Ireland a penalty.”
Price led Wales ‘Down Under’ as northern hemisphere champions after clinching the Triple Crown with a 30-9 victory in Cardiff over England. There were five games in New Zealand, a Test in Australia and an uncapped game in Fiji on the way home.
Price scored his only try in a Welsh jersey in a 9-9 draw with Taranaki, but there was no joy in the two Tests in against the All Blacks, the home side winning 19-0 and 33-12. Wins over Otago and Wellington eased some of the pain, as did the victories over Australia (19-16) and Fiji (31-11).
He brought his playing career to a temporary end after returning from that tour, a knee injury being the main cause. However, he came out of retirement in 1971 to play for Vichy, in the south of France.
It was a short-lived resurgence that came to an abrupt end when the Welsh Rugby union noted that Price had been paid for writing a newspaper article and for broadcasting work. He was deemed to have contravened the laws on amateurism and was stopped from playing by the French Federation.
“I feel bitter. If I could have seen into the future I would not have accepted the newspaper offer,” admitted Price at the time. Two years later he was also stopped from coaching Newport on similar grounds.
A superb sevens player, Price helped Newport win the Snelling Sevens title five times – 1961, 62, 63, 65, 67 – and was an inspirational PE teacher at Caldicot Comprehensive. He also turned into an expert broadcaster at BBC Wales, and a columnist at Wales on Sunday
In later life he succeeded Ken Jones as president of the Newport Former Players Association in 2006, was inducted into the Newport RFC Hall of Fame in 2013 and appointed Honorary Patron of the Friends of Newport Rugby Trust 2014.
The Welsh Rugby Union sends sincere and heartfelt condolences to all family and friends of Brian Price.
Brian Price – Cap No: 662 (32 caps); Lions No: 441 (19 games / 4 Tests). B: 30.10.1937 in Deri, near Bargoed; D: 18.12.2023 in Caldicot. Schoolteacher and Broadcaster.
