Barry John, a mixture of Machiavelli and Napoleon, bamboozled and outplayed one of the strongest clubs in
Britain with his match-winning brilliance
There are many images of Barry John, but a personal favourite is of the outside-half sitting on the ball where the touchline met the 22 on the side of the main stand as Cardiff slid towards defeat against a club that was then one of the strongest in Britain. He wore the insouciance of someone watching his dog retrieve a stick as he waited for a Coventry player to revive from the ministration of what passed then for a medic, someone armed with a bucket of water and a sponge. It took a while and, with Cardiff having been awarded a penalty, the opposition retreated behind their line in readiness for John’s attempt at goal.
There did not seem much to concern them, leading 15-3 against a side they had beaten 22-10 at Coundon Road the previous September. They fielded seven
England internationals with two other players, Peter Preece and Geoff Evans, winning their first caps later in the year. Cardiff had two asterisks, but what a pair, John and his half-back partner Gareth Edwards. They had only recently returned to action after a long lay-off following the successful Lions tour to New Zealand. It was not a vintage period for the Arms Park club whose vet captain John James did not play all season after jabbing himself with cow vaccine.