The Last Line: The Full Back

In most team sports I would suspect that the full-back should be the star. However, instead it’s the flashy fly-half who steals the show as the fulcrum between forwards and backs. I think that’s not always fair. Unlike, say, the football goalkeeper, rugby’s number 15 is not only the last line of defence, but also usually a reliable kicker, often allied to a potency in attack.

Throughout my rugby-watching life, full-backs have tended to slot into one of three broad categories: the kickers, the runners and the more versatile all-rounders. After all, it’s not a uniquely specialist role, and many of its most notable exponents have also played on the wing or indeed anywhere else in the back division. JPR Williams was even a frustrated flanker. A cool head, strong tackle and agile brain able to calculate a risk assessment in a split-second are common to all.

In the monochrome early Seventies, the international ‘15s’ I saw in the Five Nations tended to be in the former grouping. It’s not that they never scored tries; they did. However, my abiding memories of men such as Ireland’s Tom Kiernan, England’s Hiller and Frenchman Pierre Villepreux were of their punts for goal. Bob Hiller had a rather ungainly kicking style, as illustrated by these toe-poke penalties against the Irish. Villepreux had a more stylish elegance about him but was the go-to man for the longer kicks.

In later years, the likes of Dusty Hare, Paul Thorburn, Chris Paterson and Leigh Halfpenny all forged a formidable reputation for goal-kicking, reliably punishing any infringements by the opposition with three points. Starting in the amateur era, Midlander Hare was famously a farmer by profession but went on to score more points in club and international rugby than anyone in the sport’s history. Thorburn’s 70-yard monster penalty for Wales in ’86 remains an international record while Paterson’s sequence of 36 consecutive goals for Scotland between 2007 and 2008 was phenomenal. Halfpenny is still going, of course. Like Paterson, he is at 5 feet 10 a relatively small man for the position, and yet is a Wales cert as long as he stays fit.

However when it comes to the boot, Neil Jenkins was my favourite full-back. It may in part be explained by his being a fellow redhead but during the Nineties he was so metronomic with his point accumulation it was unbelievable. This son of Pontypridd also played number ten and it was in his position that he nailed nine penalties in one game against France in 1999 and combined all four types of scoring to defeat the same opposition two years later and become the first to accumulate 1,000 international points As kicking coach, it seems a bit of a comedown to see him in the role of waterboy and tee-carrier but at least he remains involved.

When it comes to those for whom goal-kicking was not on their regular list of duties, there have been some great crowd-pleasers. Personally I’m no fan of England’s Mike Brown but he’s a Twickers favourite, and the current penchant for full-backs fearless in the tackle and under the high ball has also given the home nations the likes of Liam Williams, Stuart Hogg and Ireland’s Rob Kearney. However, two giants of the game revelled in the attacking side of the sport.

JPR Williams was no physical giant; his most notable attribute was his pair of impressive sideburns rather than muscular thighs or barrel chest. Also, when not having his other facial features rearranged in horrific challenges, JPR was a respected Bridgend family doctor and orthopaedic surgeon, a handy skill to possess in such a crunching contact sport. On the pitch he virtually invented the modern full-back While he had a useful boot, Williams was rarely called upon to take penalties as Wales had a plethora of kickers. Instead, it was his attacks from defence which made him such a superstar throughout the Seventies.

However, when it comes to outrageous counter-attacks and tries, surely none can match Serge Blanco. Born in Venezuela but talent honed in Basque Biarritz, Blanco restored my faith in French flair in the Eighties. He must have given his coaches palpitations whenever he retrieved the ball in his own twenty-two. Safety-first was not in his psyche, but when he began sidestepping and streaking past forwards and backs alike, he could be thrilling in the extreme. How much was luck and how much pure skill it’s hard to say, but Blanco made and scored so many superb tries for les Bleus. Indeed, he still holds the national try record but what elevated him above his peers was the entertaining way he played his rugby.

The all-rounder is less prevalent these days, at least in the Six Nations sphere. Two memorable full-backs who could run and kick with equal skill represented Scotland and the Lions with pride and success a generation ago. I recall Andy Irvine wriggling his way through unlikely defensive gaps in the Seventies as well as planting numerous penalties and conversions.

However, the man who wore the 15 shirt between 1986 and 1995 was arguably even better. Gavin Hastings was a burlier figure altogether and possessed all the attributes a full-back could ever wish for. Blanco was more charismatic and a supreme athlete, but Big Gav was always worth watching.