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Barry John

Barry John (born 6 January 1945 in Cefneithin, Wales) is a former Welsh rugby union footballer. He is considered by many to be the greatest fly-half in the sport's history, and became known as "the King" [1] John was a product of the Gwendraeth Grammar school in the Gwendraeth Valley, North of Llanelli. He played his first international against Australia, on 3rd December 1966. He replaced David Watkins who went north to rugby league when a student at Trinity College, Carmarthen. John formed a devastating combination in the Welsh team with the scrum-half Gareth Edwards. John was selected for the British Lions in South Africa in 1968. In the first test in South Africa he broke his collarbone and was forced to return home.

He was again selected for the Lions; this time for their 1971 tour to New Zealand. In the first Test, under the orders of the Lions coach Carwyn James (also from Cefneithin), John terrorised New Zealand's fullback Fergie McCormick with ruthless tactical kicking. The Lions won the test, and McCormick never played for the All Blacks again. Despite losing the second test, the Lions won the third test and drew the fourth to win the series. It was on this tour that John received the nickname "the King". He scored 30 of the Lions 48 points over the four Tests, and cemented his reputation as one of the game's greatest players.

One year later, at the age of only 27, with only 25 Welsh caps and 5 British Lions caps, Barry John retired from the game. His last match was against France in March 1972. This makes the international recognition of his talent even more outstanding, since it is unlikely that he ever reached his full potential. John cited media attention as the key factor. This came as a huge surprise to many people as he was a confident, outgoing player and man. The story goes that he finally had enough of the attention his ability was drawing when a young girl curtsied to him outside the opening of a local bank, obviously in reference to his nickname. Once Barry John had retired from Rugby, he disappeared totally from the public eye.

Rodney Webb, the man who developed the modern rugby ball, also believes that John was the greatest kicker of all time. As he points out, these days the balls are coated in a laminate used on the hulls of giant oil tankers, have dimpled surfaces, unobtrusive lacing and multi panels. In the Seventies the balls soaked up water, swerved all over the place and were placed on muddy and sometimes uneven pitches (unlike many of today's professional rugby pitches) without the use of tees.

Barry John was inducted into the International Rugby Hall of Fame in the 1997 draft.

• Profile at International Rugby Hall of Fame website
• Profile at sporting-heroes.net
• 'Fame monster' forces Barry John to retire at 27
• Profile at nobok.co.uk