Our security bus had ‘England’ written on the side!

JOHN PULLIN, who passed last week, was famously a man of few words but he was in eloquent form a few years back over beer and cheese sandwiches when I visited him at his house – virtually under the old Severn Bridge – to harvest his insightful contribution toward the England Rose book, the players' history of England rugby.

On that famous game in Ireland in 1973 he recalled what looked like a battered old Army transport bus greeting the England team on the tarmac at Dublin airport to drive them into town. High security, very hush hush, except for the large cardboard sign on the front window saying ‘England rugby team' as they headed for the Shelbourne Hotel!

“Yes that did rather defeat the object! We had armed security guards on the bus and on our floor at the Shelbourne but strangely they clocked off on the Friday night and we never saw them again. I fancy they had a big night and that was it.

“The authorities were very clever and put the two teams in the same hotel which would be pretty unusual these days. If the bombers wanted to get us they would take half of the Ireland rugby team as well.

“You can joke about it but I felt pretty exposed throwing in at the lineouts in the match, I was a sitting duck as were the wings. I remember Alan Morley admitting he really didn't enjoy the experience one bit and I thought it very unfair that his performance that day seemed to count against him selectorial. He didn't play much for England after that.

“My little speech? Well I'm not sure it deserved the acclaim it got but yes it was a pre-planned line.

When I was England captain I always used to scribble a few thoughts on a piece of paper, usually on the coach to the hotel, before dinner and that was definitely one of the lines I wrote down.

“I've got no idea what I would have said if England had won but there was little chance of that.

“Irish hospitality did not extend to gifting us anything on the pitch. They were well worth their 18-9 win.”