‘Famous Sports People coming to Pembrokeshire’ Feature – No 21:

 
Phil Bennett – a wizard on a rugby field but so modest off it!

 
I had first met Phil Bennett when he came to Tenby RFC’s clubhouse in Frog Street as part of an amazing duo with another rugby ‘great’ in Willie-John McBride, and I spoke to both then and had my photo snapped by a friend – as I described in a recent article.
 
Then I met him again when he was guest of honour at the first Annual Fete (which I was proud to organise) after Milford Haven Comprehensive School was formed, from the town’s old Grammar and Secondary Schools in 1989.
 
He had been invited by local businessman George Edwards (who was a great friend to Phil and the School) and although he was unavoidably late, he was as cool as a breeze and so relaxed as he happily mingled amongst the kids and their parents, some of whom couldn’t wait to meet him.
 
But the best of all came when I met Phil a third time when he was another top star to visit the Victoria Book Shop in Bridge Street, Haverfordwest and my good friend Marley Davies arranged an interview for me, alongside a signed copy of his autobiography as a prize for our Christmas Quiz on PembrokeshireSport.co.uk.



 

A remarkable playing record with The Scarlets . . .

 
Phil Bennett’s playing record is a remarkable one that makes interesting reading because it is a story of loyalty, huge matches and points galore after his parents  had been told that he was too small to play rugby - but then started out with Felinfoel and finally made his name after another Welsh Legend in Barry John had moved to Cardiff.
 
Before he retired, after 15 years at the club, his stats are amazing. He played a massive 414 games for Llanelli and scored 2,535 points, comprising 131 tries, 523 conversions, 293 penalties and 43 drop goals, all of which helped The Scarlets win silverware aplenty, which included four Welsh Challenge Cup Finals on the trot.
 

. . . And with Wales, The Lions and Barbarians too

 
He played 29 matches for Wales, including three ‘Triple Crowns’ and two ‘Grand Slams’, one of them in 1978 before he later decided to step down from international rugby, scoring 166 points which included a try against Scotland in 1977 that in a poll of Welsh fans in 2020 was chosen as the ‘Best Welsh try ever’.
 
Phil also featured in another try chosen as one of the best tries ever scored as he played a major role in one of his 20 games for the Barbarians (for whom he scored 181 points) as he collected the ball under pressure near his own line, sidestepped his way past the lurking All Blacks, passed to JPR Williams in a move that was continued by John Pullin, John Dawes, Tommy David and then Derek Quinnell supplied the scoring pass for Gareth Edwards to finish the move off with a spectacular dive. I can still picture the whole movement now, over 50 years later!
 
He played for the British Lions eight times in tours to South Africa and New Zealand, beating the Springboks 3-0 and staying undefeated through a 22-match tour where 21 were won and he scored 101 points. Phil captained the 1977 tour to New Zealand and was top scorer with 125 points so it is a small wonder that he was inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame in 2015 and in 1978 was honoured with the OBE in her New Year’s Honest List by the Queen ‘For his services to rugby’.
 
When he retired, Phil was soon kept very busy as a rugby columnist in several newspapers and became a natural rugby pundit, with his analytical expertise soon becoming very evident and if he was alive today, he could earn a small fortune as an after-dinner speaker with his wealth of stories, but sadly he passed away in June 2022.
 

Fitting tributes for a great player

 
The WRU rightly described him as ‘A rugby Legend in every sense of the word and a true gentleman’,  and by knowledgeable people like the late Eddie Butler as ‘one on the greatest Welsh No 10s in history.
 
But perhaps the most fitting, and lasting tribute to Phil Bennett is the wooden statue that stands in his memory in his home town of Felinfoel, carved by local wood carver Simon Hedger.
 
Anyone who met Phil Bennett could only be impressed by his natural charm and modesty, as I was, and I would definitely count him in the top three top stars I have ever met, although I suspect if he read it, he was so modest he would not be impressed by my describing him as a ‘Legend of Rugby’!