JPR Gone - RIP

Jez, this one really caught me on the hop, the man seemed to be indestructible as a player and acheived so much as well outside of rugby.

One of my favourite players ever, when I started playing rugby in the 1970s, I wanted to be a full back.

RIP JPR and thanks for the memories

That’s a big shock.  I thought he was still practicing medicine so not sure if he was ill or if this was sudden.

One of the greats.

TAFKA The Oracle wrote:That’s a big shock.  I thought he was still practicing medicine so not sure if he was ill or if this was sudden.

One of the greats.

A short battle with bacterial meningitis according to the Williams family.

Such a sad loss. All sports have many 'great players'. JPR fit into the category of simply being one of the greatest to ever play his sport though. A true titan.

Oddly, I have several friends in cricket who came across him through the Lord's Taverners. An absolute gentleman by all accounts.

RIP JPR, what a legacy you leave behind.

In the mid 1980s when I was at college in London, one of the lecturers was teaching with his wrist in a plaster cast.

At the end of the lecture, I asked him how he broke it and he told me it was playing rugby.

When I then told him I was a rugby player, he gave me the full details. He was playing for a fun XV against one of the hospital teams in London, it was coarse rugby, not meant to be a serious game, so he was rather surprised to see JPR lining up for the opposition.

At the time, he had been declared a professional and was not meant to play amateur rugby, but being JPR,
he could not exactly go incognito and no-one really seemed to mind him playing in any case.

My lecturer tried to run past him and got absolutely clatterred, he said he had never been tackled so hard. He went straight up in the air and landed in a heap breaking his wrist. He was however quite proud of it and probably dined out on that story for years.

The BBC obituary said he was still occasionsly turning out for local club in Wales right into his 50s.

What a man, he certainly loved his rugby.

Very sad day yesterday, with this news. Bit before my time, but obviously any Welsh rugby supporter would be aware of the 70s and certainly JPR would be included in that. Just read a bit more about him on a BBC piece. Quite a tennis player too and never losing to England in 11 games is some feat really. I suspect he didn't lose too many internationals with that Welsh squad though.

JPR is a legend and one of the real all time greats. Can't really add to what has already been written. Sad.

A Welsh great and a Lions legend having been an integral part of winning tours over New Zealand in 1971 and South Africa 1974.  Away from the game he contributed to society as a consultant in trauma and orthopaedic surgery, and through many charitable events.  It is good to remember the sporting icon, but also the man.

RIP JPR, legend of the game.