The death has been announced of former Carlisle and England rugby union centre Chris Wardlow.
Wardlow, 81, was a member of the famous North West Counties side which beat the touring All Blacks at Workington in 1972.
He had started his career with home-town club Carlisle and later played for Northampton and Coventry.
Regarded as a hard-tackling, imposing centre he was capped six times for England. He had made his debut for his country against South Africa in 1969 when he came on as a substitute for injured full-back Bob Hiller in the closing stages.
He played centre in all four Tests of the 1971 Five Nations and also in the Centenary match against Scotland at Murrayfield.
The biggest disappointment in his career came when he was selected for the 1971 British Lions trip to New Zealand and Australia but had to pull out after breaking his jaw.
The victory over the All Blacks the following year at Workington’s Ellis Sports Ground was some form of consolation.
Indeed he had a major part to play in the winning try when he palmed the ball onto winger Stuart Maxwell who scored in the corner to clinch the 16-14 win.
Wardlow’s ferocious tackling had been a feature of the game from the Cumbrian prospective and his rugged style earned many a complimentary review from observers of both sides.
He was also involved in an incident later that night which would certainly have made headlines these days but was not revealed until a few years after the incident by Fran Cotton.
“The All Blacks weren’t happy with what had happened in the game and then later that night in the TV room – hotels had them back then – the Kiwis wanted to watch highlights of the Ali-Foster fight that had taken place in the USA overnight.
“We on the other hand were pretty keen to watch Sportsnight with Coleman which had our match highlights and an interview with Carwyn James discussing the events of the day.
“The Kiwis turned on the boxing at which point Chris Wardlow, who could be a bit mad, got up and turned it back to BBC for the rugby. This didn’t amuse Keith Murdoch – who hadn’t been playing that day.
“Keith basically lifted Chris up by his hair and evicted him from the room. At which point it all got a bit tasty before we decided we wanted to watch the rugby more than we wanted another fight so we went to a nearby pub.”
After living and working away Wardlow returned to Carlisle a number of years ago, which included a reunion with clubmates in 2013.
