There have been some great wins for Welsh club sides against the mighty All Blacks and Cardiff, Swansea and Llanelli all point proudly to wins over New Zealand. These wins quite rightly stand proudly in their club records but was there ever a greater victory of any club side anywhere than when Newport RFC lowered the colours of the touring All Blacks back in 1963? The side that the Black & Ambers beat that day contained truly great players and the defeat was the only loss suffered by Wilson Whineray’s 5th All Blacks team in the 36 matches they played which included the Home Nations, the Barbarians and British Columbia.
The New Zealand side was DB Clarke, WL Davis, IR MacRae, RW Caulton, PT Walsh, E Kirton, KC Briscoe, WJ Whineray (capt), J Major, IJ Clarke, CE Meads, RH Horsley, KR Tremain, W Nathan, BJ Lochore. This was a side full of household names and between them they went on to win an incredible 302 caps and they were held in regard in New Zealand with Ian MacRae (current) and the late Ian Clarke becoming NZ Rugby Presidents and 3 receiving knighthoods – late Sir Willie Whineray, Sir BJ Lochore and Sir “Pinetree” Meads and another member of the touring party also being knighted Sir DJ Graham.
Newport had not made a very impressive start to the 1963/4 season, having already drawn two and lost four of their games and although a crowd of some 25,000 - who had paid £4,722 and many had bought a programme for 1 shilling (5p) - were there to cheer the home side on, the All Blacks were certainly favourites to win. But Newport captain Brian Price led his team to a momentous win with the magnificent forwards giving the All Blacks 8 a torrid time. They tore into the tourists’ set piece game and took an incredible 7 scrums against the head to deny them any real platform. In wet conditions the boot dominated and David Watkins kept dragging New Zealand's legendary full-back Don Clarke from one side of the field to the other and such was the Black & Ambers dominance that Clarke, who possessed one of the greatest boots in the history of the game, was denied even one shot at goal. The game was certainly not a free-flowing classic and was decided by a single drop goal from the boot of John “Dick” Uzzell that struggled over the bar after about 20 mins.
