Six new caps were blooded by Wales at the Parc des Princes in Paris, including Pontypool props ‘Charlie’ Faulkner and Graham Price, who joined Bobby Windsor in the infamous front row.
Price was remarkably young for a prop at twenty-three years of age but Faulkner, a judo black-belt, kept his age a mystery; though he was reputed to be “around 34”. Phil Bennett was surprisingly dropped and had been replaced by Aberavon fly half John Bevan.
Centre Steve Fenwick opened his international career with a try after Gareth Edwards had missed with a drop-kick and tries by Terry Cobner and Gerald Davies took Wales to 17-7 at the interval. Edwards produced one of his specials in the second half after which came the try that sealed one of the best wins by Wales for many years.
France were attacking when the ball fell loose and was hacked upfield. With the speedy JJ Williams favourite to score the ball fell clear to Price, who had run some 75 yards backing up. He fell, as much from exhaustion as from scoring, and registered an astonishing fifth try for Wales. It was a great win and a fine start for the new captain, Mervyn Davies. Wales were not to win again in Paris until 1999.
