Gerald Davies said he had a Mount Rushmore of a face.
The journalist Hugh Godwin called him “the lad who put the ‘rough’ into Market Harborough”,
Not a man to argue with too vehemently on the field of play, then, was Martin Johnson.
It seems nobody told Richard Webster.
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Footage has been given a seemingly fresh airing online of the Wales, Lions, Swansea and Bath back-row forward in a tangle with the 6ft 7in Johnson during a Leicester v Bath encounter in 1998.
Webster hadn’t long returned from rugby league.
Earlier in his career at Swansea, he had built a reputation as one of the most fearless flankers around, with next to no regard for his own safety.
Evidently, he still operated to that principle when he and Johnson squared up three years after the game went professional. As the pair were parted after a skirmish, Webster landed a glancing punch to the cheekbone of then 6ft 7in, 18st 9lb England lock, who didn’t flinch but did shoot his assailant a look that suggested the discussion might be continued later in the game.
But the real eye-opener is the way the match officials handled the episode.
In today’s game, a fist to the face would likely result in a red card or at the very least a yellow. But not then.
Back then, touch judge Ashley Rowden gave a quick summary of events to referee Steve Lander, saying: “Grabbing hold of each other, Johnno’s trying to walk away, I’m saying ‘leave it’, Richard just gives him a slap in the face.
“Bo****king Webster, penalty will be on the five to Leicester.”
Lander brings the pair together before pointing to Rowden and informing Webster: “He’s telling you to walk away. You hit him as he’s walking away.”
A mini-protest from the Bath man rapidly hits the buffers as he is told by the man with the whistle: “Shut up. You can expect nothing but a penalty.” The call then goes against Webster, albeit without anything else.
Let’s just say they did things a shade differently back then.
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