This will always be remembered as Ronnie Boon’s match. It was the day that the ‘Twickenham Bogey’ was lifted at last. Wales had waited 23 years for it and this first success at rugby’s headquarters was watched by a record championship-match attendance of 64,000, which included the Prince of Wales.
England led 3-0 at half-time with a try by fly half Walter Elliot, but within a minute of the second half starting, centre Ron Gerrard soccer-kicked straight into the hands of Boon who, in his usual cheeky manner, dropped a goal (then counting as four points) with three men outside him for a possible try!
At 4-3, it was Boon who clinched the win as Maurice Turnbull sent the ball along the line for Claude Davey to feed the Cardiff wing, who then raced round to the posts for a try. The Welsh touch-judge flagged the conversion kick by Viv Jenkins as over, but Irish referee Tom Bell ruled that the effort was wide.
Watcyn Thomas, the Swansea back-row forward, led Wales for the first time in a side that contained seven new caps, including three magnificent backs who were all to play cricket for Glamorgan; Viv Jenkins, Wilfred Wooller, Maurice Turnbull, who won an England test cap, but was killed in Normandy in 1944. It was said that Wooller’s tackle on the flying Elliot was alone worth the admission fee!
Harry Bowcott and Claude Davey were the ‘old hands’ who controlled splendidly and Iorrie Isaacs, who joined Leeds RL seven months afterwards, made a fine start, despite the first-turning up, first-packing down rule for forwards arriving at a scrum. Welsh-speaking, Pontarddulais-born Arthur Vaughan-Jones played in the England pack.
