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- By Adam Julian
The mystery began in 2019. Keryn Martin and Logan Ainsworth were preparing the walls of the Paremata-Plimmerton Rugby clubrooms for a significant refurbishment when they removed eight framed jerseys.
Seven of them bore the inscription “Presented by K Gray” and another black jersey was simply entitled “New Zealand Women’s Rugby” with no other detail.
This raised the question: Who wore the jerseys? And how could their stories inspire those at the club?
So began the ‘Ken Gray-Ericka Rere Legacy Project’ to acknowledge two champion Paremata-Plimmerton players and the whenua they played on.
Rere was the Hammerheads first Black Fern and started three games for New Zealand in the first Women’s Rugby World Cup in 1991.
Ken Gray ranks among the greatest All Black props of all time. Gray gifted eight of his Test rugby jerseys to the Paremata-Plimmerton Rugby Club in 1983.
Until 2025 the identities of those who wore the jerseys were unknown.
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DETAILS
Date: December 21, 1963
Fixture: All Blacks: 6 vs Wales: 0
Referee: Ray Williams (Ireland)
Venue: Cardiff Arms Park
Welsh Jersey #10: David Watkins
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TEAMS
All Blacks (1-15): Wilson Whineray, Dennis Young, Ken Gray, Allan Stewart, Colin Meads, Waka Nathan, John Graham, Kelvin Tremain, Kevin Briscoe, Bruce Watt, Ralph Caulton, Bluey Arnold, Paul Little, Malcolm Dick, Don Clarke
Wales (1-15): Ken Jones, Norman Gale, Iona Cunningham, Brian Price, Brain Thomas, Dai Hayward, Alan Thomas, Alun Pask, Clive Rowlands, Dave Watkins, Dewi Bebb, David Jones, Dick Uzzell, David Morgan, Grahame Hodgson
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THE MATCH
Wales fielded five players in their starting line-up from the Newport team who had beaten the All Blacks at the start of their tour, including Dick Uzzell who had kicked the winning drop goal. Uzzell was lubricated on a pre-match diet of sherry while All Blacks winger Bill Davis complained, “It was raining, the ground was muddy, cut-up and the groundsman came out and hosed the field before the game.”
The All Blacks dominated from the outset though the final winning margin of 6-0 didn’t entirely reflect their ascendancy.
Fullback Don Clarke had a rare off day with the boot only kicking one goal from three attempts. He did kick a penalty in the first half but was hampered by a groin injury. Ken Gray reflected.
“The Welsh failed to recognise that Clarke was one-legged for a large part of the game. He suffered an injury and could only kick with his left foot.”
They required the All Blacks forwards to work even harder. Men in Black reported. “Straight after halftime, the New Zealand pack marched the Welsh forward back for twenty yards in a display of scrummaging power.”
It took a Bruce Watt drop goal to give the visitors greater breathing space. Had Cardiff’s Alun Priday been more accurate with his goal-kicking it could have been a different story. Priday had a shocker and only played one more Test. For Cardiff, he played 410 games and scored 1799 points.
There was a moment of controversy involving Colin Meads. Meads infuriated the crowd when colliding with Clive Rowlands after he claimed a mark in the dying stages. Rowlands was unable to continue. Meads was unrepentant:
“I didn’t punch the wee man. What happened was Clive was yakking and kicking the ball, yakking and kicking. Wales had bugger all backs in those days, they kicked it all day. And then our man (Kevin) Briscoe put up an up-and-under and I had a five-yard start, Clive was under it and I got the little bastard. Ran right over the bloody top of him. He put on a good act, 80,000 people booed me and all I did was knee him up the arse. God, the memories are good.”
The All Blacks hadn’t beaten Wales since 1935 and their success was a first triumph at Cardiff Arms Park – the 19-0 victory in 1924 was staged at St Helen’s in Swansea.
The Welsh jersey from the match at Paremata-Plimmerton FC belongs to the legendary Welsh first five-eighth David Watkins.
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THE RISE OF DAVE WATKINS
Born in Blaina in 1942, he joined Newport RFC in 1961 from Cwmcelyn Youth but also played some games for Abertillery, Ebbw Vale and Pontypool.
A coal miner’s son from Blaina in the Gwent Valleys, Dave Watkins (MBE), ‘The Welsh Wizard,’ is regarded as one of best Welsh first fives of all time.
He won 21 caps for Wales in rugby union and toured New Zealand and Australia with the British and Irish Lions in 1966 before switching to rugby league.
After joining Salford for a club-record £15,000 in 1967 (two million pounds today), Watkins became the club’s record points scorer and played six Tests for Great Britain.
He captained the Wales rugby league team and coached Great Britain on their tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1977.
Standing only 5ft 6in (1.68m) and weighing in at less than 10-and-a-half-stone (66.7kg), he relied on a lightning turn of pace and clever tactical nous to undo defences.
Watkins played 202 matches and scored 294 points for Newport. He came to prominence in 1963, playing four times for Wales and helping Newport record a memorable 3-0 win over the All Blacks – the only match the New Zealanders lost on that tour.
Watkins rapidly established himself as the leading ten in Britain. Wales won the 1965 and 1966 Five Nations Championship. On the sevens front, he was in the victorious Newport sides that won the Snelling Sevens in 1962, 63, 65 and 67, earning him the title of one of the greatest players of all-time in the small-sided game.
BRITISH & IRISH LIONS CAPTAIN
He was picked for the 1966 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia, New Zealand and Canada and stood tall on a trip that kicked off in Perth on 7 May and ended in Toronto on 17 September. Watkins played in 21 (W14 L6 D1) of the 35 games, including all six Tests, and scored 43 points (3T 1C 1P 9DG). It was one of the longest Lions tours on record, with the team leaving London on 30 April and arriving back in London on 19 September.
He was at his best in the 2-0 series win over the Wallabies, scoring a try and a drop goal in the 31-0 victory in the second, while Watkins captained the Lions in the second and fourth Tests on the New Zealand tour.
The Lions tour wasn’t a happy one as the tourists were soundly beaten 4-0 in the Test series though the Lions weren’t without opportunities.
That wasn’t the case during the first Test 20-3 defeat in Dunedin. Captain Mike Campbell-Lamerton was alleged to lament, “I’d rather die than suffer humiliation like that again.”
Watkins was handed the captaincy reins for the second Test at Athletic Park in Wellington and the Lions proved extremely competitive. Terry McLean reported.
“Victory was there for the taking and the Lions missed it because they couldn’t catch. Each team had chances to score. The All Blacks offerings were delivered in the 15th, 43rd and 75th minutes, and they were taken by Tremain, Meads and Steel respectively. The Lions’ chances all occurred in the first half.”
Across the four-match series, the aggregate score in the first half was 32-26 to the All Blacks, and in the second 47-6.
Watkins was unsatisfied with the standard of refereeing and reflected in Behind the Lions by Stephen Jones, Tom English, Nick Cain and David Barnes.
“Pat Murphy, the New Zealand ref who had charge of the last three Tests, whistled to stop the game when we would almost certainly have scored a try in the Second Test in Wellington after Colin McFadyean had broken clear. He then awarded us a penalty 65 yards back! We were trailing 8-6 in the mud with 20 minutes left, and a try then would have put us in a very strong position.
We complained bitterly afterward to the New Zealand Board and asked them to replace Murphy, but they refused…Then, at the first scrum in the third test, Allan Lewis, our scrumhalf asked him whose put-in it was. His response was, ‘Ours – whose do you think it is.”
The Lions lost that third Test 19-6 at Lancaster Park in Christchurch. The pattern of the match wasn’t dissimilar to Wellington. Terry McLean reported.
“The test was there for the taking and the Lions threw the chance far, far away. The explanation was quite simple: basic faults. They scored two wonderful tries. They could have scored more. In scoring, they committed no fault. In failing to score, they committed faults. Basic, simple, silly, faults.”
By contrast, the All Blacks were clinical. Tries by Waka Nathan (2) and Tony Steel plus ten points from fullback Mick Williment sealed the series.
When the Lions lost Welsh flanker Alun Pask early in the fourth Test at Eden Park with a broken collarbone, the Lions faced an uphill battle. There were no injury replacements allowed at the time and the All Blacks duly won 24-11 with tries scored by Nathan, Steel, Ian MacRae and Malcolm Dick. Mac Herewini slotted a drop goal and Williment kicked nine points.
“In scheduling terms, we were pulled from pillar to post. Imagine the culture shock of swimming in the warm waters of subtropical Queensland one minute and being in Invercargill in the cold, wet and windy south of New Zealand the next,” Watkins complained.
Terry McLean surmised of Watkins tour.
“When he was good, he was very, very good, for he had strength, the Welsh fire, and a hard outlook towards his opponent; and it was undoubtedly a misfortune that his contribution on the tour never matched either his reputation or his true ability.”
Note: Watkins didn’t play in Wellington’s 20-6 win against the British and Irish Lions. Ken Gray was captain of that triumph. Sir Terry McLean reported. “Wellington had four strings to their bow – Gray with his driving forwards, Lister and Williams with their foraging in the loose, Coulter with his kicks and runs, and Williment. There could have been 15 strings, so devastatingly superior was the team as a team and most of the individuals and individuals.”
WATKINS & LEAGUE
On his return to Wales, Watkins was dropped for the legend that would become Barry John.
However, following defeats against Australia and Scotland, Watkins was reinstated as first-five and appointed captain for the rest of the season. His last international was a 34-21 win over England on 15 April 1967.
Wales Rugby reported: “Quite simply, this was the Keith Jarrett match. Winning his first cap at the age of 18 years 1 month, the former Monmouth schoolboy not only scored 19 points to equal Jack Bancroft’s effort in 1910, but he also scored a try that almost brought the house down…Normally a centre, Jarrett was selected as the last line of defence and his club, Newport, was asked to try him there in the previous week against Newbridge. So bad was he, however, that Newport and Wales skipper David Watkins brought him back to centre at half-time!”
Watkins made a dream start in the 13-man game, scoring a 70-yard try and dropping two goals on his debut for Salford. Such was the esteem in which he was held throughout the country that, upon his signing, the attendance of 3,500 at The Willows, for the previous week’s game v Castleford, rose to an incredible 10,500 for his home debut against Oldham,
His small stature and big transfer fee made him a target for opponents. Speaking in 2002, Watkins said:
“In my first two seasons, I broke my nose four times, fractured my ribs and broke my jaw and they were all off-the-ball incidents.
“I remember being pole-axed in a game against Leigh. I got up and asked the ref what he was going to do about it. He said, ‘Hey, son, you’ve been paid enough to look after yourself’!”
However, Watkins proved he had the courage and determination to go with his talent, and between August 1972 and April 1974 scored in 92 consecutive matches for Salford. In the 1972-73 season he kicked a world record 221 goals.
In his 12-year stay at Salford, he helped them to win the First Division in 1973-74 and 1975-76, take the Lancashire Cup in 1972-73 and capture the BBC 2 Floodlit Trophy in 1974-75. He was captain at Wembley in the 1969 Challenge Cup final, which they lost 11-6 to Castleford in front of a crowd of 97,939.
He played in all six games for Wales at the 1975 World Cup, captaining the side to wins over New Zealand, France and England. He then went on to coach the side in three games between 1977-84.
He played for Great Britain (six tests) and was their coach at the 1977 World Cup when they lost 13-12 to Australia in the final in Sydney.
He transferred to Swinton in 1979 where he spent a further season, before retiring having amassed a total of 2907 (1,241 goals, 16 of field-goals, 147 tries) in 403 games
He was appointed an MBE for services to sport, and after retiring as a player was chief executive of the short-lived Cardiff Blue Dragons rugby league franchise.
Watkins always maintained his links with Newport Rugby Club and in 1992 led a consortium that took over the club.
He was later appointed chairman and elected president of the Newport Gwent Dragons when the region – now named Dragons RFC – was set up in 2002.
A passionate supporter of the 13-man code, Watkins was also patron of the Wales Rugby League and was inducted into the Welsh Sports Hall of Fame in 2000 and the Rugby League Hall of Fame in 2022.
Watkins’ passing was announced shortly before Newport hosted Pontypool in the Welsh Premiership, with flags lowered to half-mast in tribute.
Tributes also came from leading figures in both sports.
Ex-Wales and Great Britain forward Jim Mills posted on social media: “Heartbreaking news the legendary David (Dai) Watkins has passed away, a wonderful player in both codes of rugby, the only man to captain the Lions in RU & RL.
GRAY V WALES 1967 & 1969
Gray played Wales on three more occasions. On the famous 1967 tour of the UK and France, the All Blacks beat Wales in Cardiff 13-6 in their first international of that tour.
Men in Black noted, “The All Blacks played hard, sensible, controlled, and balanced rugby, realistically styled to suit the conditions.”
The All Blacks tries were scored by wingers Bill Davis and Bill Birtwhistle with Fergie McCormack kicking seven points.
Teammate Earle Kirton remembered in the New Zealand Herald. “Ken was a colossus on the field. Without him I think we may have lost the test with Wales. Our other prop, Jazz Muller, was struggling, so Ken told him to swap sides. In the next scrum we marched the Welsh back metres. There was silence, and then the Welsh crowd started clapping.”
Gray’s last international series was against Wales in 1969. In the first Test in Christchurch, the All Blacks forwards produced a masterful display with the assistance of a fierce wind to construct a 13-0 lead. Gray scored a try in the second half supporting a break from Grahame Throne. Keith Jarrett missed five kicks at goal for Wales and Gray was in no mood for mercy. Greg McGee reflected in Nine Lives, New Zealand Writers on Notable New Zealanders in 2021.
“In an era of minimal television coverage and no interventions from the touch judges, the players self-policed. In the law of the rugby jungle, Ken Gray was king…. When Jeff Young, the pugnacious, bolishe Welsh hooker, was carried off Lancaster Park in 1969 with a broken jaw, Colin Meads was given credit, almost by default. Those in the know saw a short right from Ken Gray that travelled less than six inches.”
June 14, 1969, was the date of Gray’s last international at Eden Park and it was a world-record-breaking day for Fergie McCormack. The Canterbury fullback scored 24 points (5 penalties, 2 conversions and a dropped goal) to eclipse Daniel Lambert’s 22-point haul for England against France in 1911. Waikato wing George Skudder scored in his only test with Ian Kirkpatrick the other try scorer.
From December 1963 until the end of the 1969 international season, Gray had started in 24 of a possible 28 victories. Following a third Test loss to the Springboks in 1965 the All Blacks had won a world record 17 Tests in a row with Gray featuring in 13 of those internationals.
A contemporary scribe at the time wrote Gray had “the finest natural snarl God ever gave in any rugby player.” Greg McGee argued Gray was an even more formidable player than Colin Meads.
“He was, more so than Colin Meads and Kel Tremain, the lynchpin, the tighthead prop of the original Unsmiling Giants, the potent, brutal All Blacks pack of the sixties. Like Meads, but much less famously, Gray would pick up an ewe in either hand by grabbing a fistful of wool, lift them over a fence and deposit them safely on the other side. Unlike Meads, who would be too short to compete with the behemoths of the modern game at lock (despite being perennially named the best-ever All Blacks teams by rugby writers who need a physical update), Ken Gray would still cut it in the contemporary game: six two and eighteen stone, technically correct, mobile, skilled and mean.”
BRUCE WATT’S WALLABY JERSEY
An Australia jersey given to Ken Gray by All Blacks teammate Bruce Watt, who played several exhibitions at the club in the 70s and 80s, hung on the wall until Watt’s widow Valerie asked for it back in 2023. Watt passed on 15 July 2021 aged 82 and the jersey was presented to Valerie for her grandkids after Paremata-Plimmerton defeated Petone 53-24 on 17 June 2023.
Bruce Watt (All Black 628) was a first five who played 29 undefeated matches (eight Tests) for the All Blacks from 1962 to 1964. He was revered for his two-try debut in a 20-6 win over the Wallabies in Brisbane in 1962. His only other Test points were equally memorable, a 30m dropped goal to clinch a 6-0 win over Wales at Cardiff in 1964.
The All Blacks hadn’t beaten Wales since 1935. A marathon runner and Hawke Cup cricketer for Rangitikei, Watt made his senior first-class rugby debut for Wanganui as an 18-year-old in 1957, then moved to Christchurch in 1959.
Linking with the famous Christchurch club where he won senior championships in 1960 and 1961, Watt played 117 matches for Canterbury and was a regular South Island representative. During his rugby career, he also ran several marathons. On Canterbury’s Queen’s Birthday trips to play Buller and the West Coast Watt would strip down and, when given the nod by the bus driver, would run on the spot in the aisle. He would pound away until the bus driver told him they had travelled 26 miles and 385 yards. Watt was later a coach of Marlborough (1976) and Nelson Bays (1978-79).
The Wallabies jersey that Paremata-Plimmerton had was a 10 jersey from Watt’s famed debut. It was worn by Wallaby’s first five Norman Storey (Wallaby 474) and it was the first time Australia wore gold jerseys in a Test against the All Blacks.
Gold jerseys first appeared as a backup item on the 1961 tour of South Africa. Storey was a clever, talented and much-travelled first-five whose international career was impacted by injury and the emergence of the great Phil Hawthorne.
Storey was born in Sydney and educated at The Scots College, where he played three seasons in the 1st XV, and became a commercial airline pilot. He played his club rugby with Eastern Suburbs. In 1962, Storey was selected as the starting first five for New South Wales to play the All Blacks. New South Wales pulled off a stunning 12-11 upset and Storey was rewarded with a Test debut in Brisbane.
Wallabies captain Peter Johnson later said that Storey was “arguably Australia’s best player” but he was one of six changes made for the second Test and never played for Australia again, but he did captain Western Australia. Storey died on 20 November 2023 aged 87. He had three children and seven grandchildren.
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KEN GRAY V AUSTRALIA
Gray played Australia on four occasions. The All Blacks won the 1964 Bledisloe Cup series by two to one. Tries by hooker Bruce McLeod and winger Ray Moreton in addition to eight points from Mick Williment secured a 14-9 victory in the first Test in Dunedin. Terry McLean reported Gray was “a most effective all-round forward fit to rank with Meads.”
The All Blacks bettered that margin in Christchurch with an 18-3 win with Gray in imperious form, including a try. Men and Black reported.
“During the next period of play, Australia again looked dangerous but poor handling and over-eagerness cost them the opportunity to open their account. Gray scored New Zealand’s final try twelve minutes from time following a blindside movement started by Tremain and carried on by Caulton. An in-pass found the big prop in support ten tears from the line and he scored outside.”
Australia wasn’t given much chance of winning the third Test in 1964. They’d past Bush 19-13 in their final midweek fixture.
However, Men and Black reported, “It was soon obvious that the Wallaby team, playing with great resolution, were going to be difficult to beat.”
A turning point was at 6-5 when Phil Hawthorne nailed a 40-metre drop goal. The lethargic All Blacks pack couldn’t rally and precise kicking by Terry Casey and a second try to Stewart Boyce secured Australia their largest victory in New Zealand.
The fallout would be spectacular for the All Blacks. It was the last Test for Don Clarke, Sir John Graham, Ralph Caulton, Allan Stewart, and Barry Thomas who collapsed in the dressing room with severe concussion.
Gray missed the Jubilee Test against the Wallabies while injured in 1967 but returned for a 27-11 win over Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 1968. The match was famous for Ian Kirkpatrick becoming the first All Blacks injury reserve. He replaced Brian Lochore after two minutes and scored a hat-trick, still the only All Blacks forward to achieve that feat against Australia.
“BJ (Lochore) tore his hamstring and broke his thumb so the warm-up was walking down the stairs of the members’ stand. I don’t remember the tries, I think I fluked them.,” Kirkpatrick recalled.
Kirkpatrick had broken his thumb shortly before the match but didn’t disclose the full extent of the injury to the selectors, paying an Australian Olympic shot put representative $2 for regular massages.
Terry McLean noted, “Gray and (Jazz) Muller most ardently pursued everything.”
References: Men In Black, Willie’s Army, Terry McLean, ESPN Scrum, Wales Rugby official websites, Behind the Lions by Stephen Jones, Tom English, Nick Cain and David Barnes, Beer With An All Black: Ian Kirkpatrick, New Zealand Herald.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2023/09/06/david-watkins-rugby-lions-salford-died-obituary/
https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/66702871
