First 13 February 1971 v Ireland at Lansdowne Road (England 9-6 Ireland) 

“Albert Agar, the chairman of selectors, rang me at the start of match week to say they’d like me to captain England but swore me to secrecy.  I didn’t even tell my mother who asked why I was shaking when I came off the phone. I just said it was a call about training. I couldn’t tell my friends in the pub but I told my mum on the Tuesday night before they announced it on the Wednesday. Then my dad rang me because he saw it in the paper! They were both so proud and supportive, dad never missed a Headingley match.

“It was a bit peculiar because I had to fly to Dublin on the Thursday when I was taking my Law Society finals in Leeds that morning. The RFU arranged for a police escort to Leeds Bradford airport and I had another escort when I arrived in Dublin and was on my way to training.

“I’d played 10 Tests by then but I wasn’t a senior player at just 23. When I got my first cap in ‘69 we’d become the first nation to have a coach, with the appointment of Don White. It was really all about the selectors. You’d have three trial matches each season, the first two at Durham and Falmouth and the final trial at Twickenham.  It was Blues v Whites, Probables v Possibles and England v the Rest.

'Selection was very inconsistent'

"We used to joke about who’d got a T-shirt saying ‘I was never dropped by Micky Steele-Bodger’. Selection was very inconsistent. Micky was a selector, then chairman of selectors, and only three of us could have worn that T-shirt over three seasons. Tony Bucknall was the captain for the ’71 season but we lost to Wales away and they dropped him. You never knew why you were being dropped.

“When the selectors made me captain I was in shock, you don’t expect that honour but I suppose it was because I’d had the experience of captaining Cambridge. I went straight to Thursday training from the plane and there was a film that evening to keep us under control with the Guinness beckoning. Then there was some light training at Lansdowne Road on the Friday. 

“England weren’t doing very well at the time, so at the team meeting on the Friday night I said it was essential to get a win under our belts and to do that we needed to be disciplined, to focus on our own job and to be ruthless. I repeated that to the media and got criticised for using the word ruthless. 

“We provided our own shorts, got given socks for the season and an England shirt every time we played. We were better off than some. I played 10 years in the centre at Headingley with Ian McGeechan, so I knew the Scots only got one shirt and had to pay for any others.

“At the team hotel on the morning of the match someone from Adidas came to clean up the white stripes on our boots, especially those of the kickers. We loaded up our kit onto the bus and then on the way to the stadium the nerves kicked in. I could see all the fans waving and we were in the changing room an hour and a half before the whistle.

“Before we went out I gave a similar team talk to the night before and then we were on the pitch lined up and I was introducing Irish dignitaries to the team, trying not to use players’ nicknames. I knew my parents were somewhere in the crowd but I didn’t want to look up, I was so nervous singing the anthem.

Embraced by chairman of selectors

“As soon as the ball was in play I was fine and we were all desperate for a win, which we got thanks to Bob Hiller’s three penalties against two Irish tries, a try being awarded just three points back then. The relief at the final whistle was amazing. Albert Agar met me in the tunnel, embraced me and lifted me off my feet. The changing room atmosphere was great, we’d done it, got a win when we were going through a poor period and they were unlikely to change a winning team.

“It was back to the hotel to change into dinner jackets and I dashed round to my mum’s hotel to see her for five minutes before heading for the post-match function at the Shelbourne. As a young captain, I was so grateful for advice from people like David Duckham who’d got his first cap with me and told me if the players were happy and if I was doing OK.

“But speaking at the dinner was nerve wracking that first time. I remember having plenty of Guinness. I needn’t have worried though because the captain’s speech hasn’t changed in 50 years. You exchange ties, say what a good guy the ref is and wish the opposition luck for their next match.

“It was the RFU’s centenary year, with masses of publicity, and the Union went to town with celebrations. What a time for the captaincy to fall into my lap but there wasn’t much time to reflect on it, it was straight back on the plane to players’ nearest airports and then waiting for the team to be announced for the next weekend.”