Cliff Morgan

There was one famous game in which Cardiff beat the New Zealanders. You were mixed up in that.

1953 the All Blacks at Cardiff with the great Bob Scott at fullbacks, team which was beaten everybody and I remember that game not only because we won it but because everybody in the crowd seemed when they shouted to put an extra two yards on your kick to touch. When you were running through the gap you felt 58,000 Welshmen pulling you through it. Yes. And this was the only game I ever remember where the chants and the shouting started at the beginning and didn't finish until the end of the game.

You also were in a number of British touring teams at the British Lions. Where did you go?

South Africa in 1955 were the Lions what I consider the best team I ever played in. It had toughness up front, it had polish and flair behind. Great side, the Druid Test Series for the first time ever against the South Africans.

Which is the game you like to replay in memory? Which was the most exciting game you remember?

Uh without any doubt, twenty three points to twenty two, one point the difference at seven thousand feet in Ellis Park, Johannesburg, temperature eighty two in the shade, one hundred thousand people in that extraordinary torrid bowl of Ellis Park. And to win by one point in a test scoring all those points is almost impossible. But I remember that because when you're a long way from home … it's lovely to be successful. When you're home, it's nice. When you're a long way and your family at home are listening and wondering how you've done. And I'm sure my mother cried and my father was proud. And that's, I think, what life's about.

Howell Davis gave you your first introduction to radio and television?

He did. He just picked me up. He took a chance. This is what greatness is about, I think. He took a chance on a fellow he didn't even know. He'd heard me doing certain things. But he took a chance on me. And he had this extraordinary ability to pick on something and say, how many of us can say, there's something wrong with this programme. There's something wrong with that. But he had this great art of saying, this is what's wrong. Put that right, and you've got something.

Do you prefer producing or doing the job actually in front of the craft?

I think appearing uh uh is the least satisfying of all the uh different facets of broadcasting. Producing is where the excitement is. Stuck in a dubbing theater, putting the nice edges on a film, a nice bit of music, or doing that. No one sees it, but you in your heart know that this is what the craft is about, I think.

Seeing Rugger from the commentator's box, as you do now, after such a distinguished career on the field, how does Rugger look?

Much better than in my day. We were slightly tatty in my day. We played it off the top of our heads. No one is to think. In fact, I reprimanded Ray Prother in Paris as captain one day and said, for God's sake, you know, don't hang on to the ball. And he said, listen, you can't expect us forwards to think and shove. But now they think and shove. They're all intelligent and bright, so they must be more difficult to play. Well, it's different from my day.