Cliff Morgan, who has died aged 83, won 29 caps for Wales during an on-field career during which he established himself as one of the greatest fly-halves of all time.
A man much loved for his warm and generous personality, he then proceeded to spend 30 years in broadcasting. He became Head of Outside Broadcasts at BBC Television, and on radio his voice became familiar in millions of households during his 11 years as presenter of Sport on 4.
His most famous moment on the rugby field came on the British Lions tour of South Africa in 1955, when he played a starring role in the Springboks’ first defeat since the Second World War in an epic match at Ellis Park, Johannesburg, played in front of a crowd of 96,000. The Lions won 23-22 in what has been described as “without question one of the greatest Test matches ever played anywhere in the world in any era”.
Clem Thomas, later captain of Wales, who played in that game, recalled: “Cliff Morgan weaved some of his magic. I can still see him sticking his neck out and rocketing past the great Basie van Wyk with a devastating outside break to score an inspirational try.” A local rugby writer said afterwards: “Cliff Morgan is the best fly-half to have played in South Africa in the past 50 years. I have yet to see his equal.” Sadly, Morgan’s dazzling runs have come down to posterity only in jerky black-and-white newsreel clips.
A contemporary described his “passionate urgency” on the field, “with the ball held at arm’s length in front of him, his tongue out almost as far, his bow legs pumping like pistons, eyes rolling, nostrils flaring”. At 5ft 7in and 12 stone, with dark Celtic looks, stunning acceleration and a jinking sidestep, he was a great Welsh fly-half in the tradition of Cliff Jones and Glyn Davies — a line to be followed by Barry John, Phil Bennett and Jonathan Davies.
John once wrote: “The fly-half’s job is complex, a jigsaw where cunning, skill, awareness, daring, courage and more than a little arrogance are all part of the make-up.” Morgan, by common consent, had all these attributes in spades. It was once said of him that he had “an agility that made Harry Houdini look arthritic”. Yet, though it included two Lions’ tours, his international career stretched only from 1951 to 1958.
Of his first international, against Ireland in Cardiff, Morgan recalled: “I felt a hand gently touch my shoulder. It was the man I was having to mark, the maestro Jackie Kyle. He put an arm around me and whispered as fondly and genuinely as an uncle would: “I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful first cap today, Cliffie.” Frank Keating wrote of this episode: “Thus, like all true romances, was the baton passed on.” Kyle, who became a missionary in Zambia, has described Morgan as “the best fly-half there can ever have been, thrusting, darting, always unexpected”.
Clifford Isaac Morgan was born at Trebanog in the Rhondda Valley on April 7 1930, into a nonconformist mining family devoted to chapel and choir. His early years were dominated by both, helping to form his character. Music remained a lifelong passion, and he was never happier than when singing with the London Welsh Male Voice Choir, of which he became president.
At Tonyrefail Grammar School he came under the influence of an inspirational teacher, ER “Ned” Gribble. Morgan said of him: “He changed my life. He converted me from being a 'Soccer-mad Joe’, as he referred to me, to a game he loved, coached and understood. He saw to it that his charges developed a deep and abiding passion for the game which, he claimed, 'sweats the vice out of you’. He was a gale of humanity and cared for standards of performance, skill, behaviour, discipline and fair play” — all qualities for which Morgan himself became noted, both on and off the playing field.
With Gribble’s encouragement, Morgan moved from school to village rugby, turning out on a windy hillside for Coedely Coke Ovens XV at Llantrisant. “Before the game we had to drive a herd of cows from the pitch; there was little we could do about the cow pats. That is how we learned to swerve and sidestep. Those who failed to develop these skills smelled horribly for weeks.”
He was soon talent-spotted for Cardiff, where — in the days long before professionalism — he used to arrive by double-decker bus with his boots in a brown cardboard case. Those boots had been cleaned by his father, who also helped him on his way by giving Cliff a copy of a rugby manual by Wavell Wakefield, the former England captain, which the fly-half treasured all his life.
He made his debut for Wales at the age of 21. When, the following year, Wales won the Triple Crown by beating Ireland in Dublin, Morgan senior became so excited that he spat his false teeth 15 rows in front and never saw them again. His mother said to Cliff: “You are no longer ours. You belong to everyone now.”
Morgan resisted the temptations of Rugby League. One chairman arrived at his parents’ terraced house in a white Rolls-Royce and placed £5,000 in fivers on the kitchen table, along with a cheque for £2,500. His mother, a powerful figure, said money was not important and she wanted her son to stay at home. She cooked the chairman breakfast, then sent him on his way, saying: “It’s been lovely to have you down here, but on Sundays we go to chapel.”
After retiring from rugby, Morgan joined the BBC, first as sports organiser for Wales, then in London as editor of Sportsview and Grandstand. But in 1964, to the surprise of some, he moved to independent television to producer the cultural affairs programme This Week for two years, working with figures such as James Cameron, Ludovic Kennedy and Robert Key. An unashamed romantic, Morgan once said that for him the greatest pleasures in life were a Welsh choir in full song, watching Gareth Edwards play for Wales, working on television with James Cameron, and Richard Burton reading Dylan Thomas. Later, in Hollywood, he and Burton astonished staff who had placed them at the best table at the Beverly Hills Hilton by proceeding to order egg and chips.
In 1972, at the age of 41, Morgan suffered a stroke which temporarily left him speechless and paralysed down one side. Alarmed for the future, he and his then wife, Nuala, wrote down a list of everything they owned; from it they decided to sell the family car and her engagement ring. They returned money to friends, including a large sum offered by Burton. Nursing a slight limp, Morgan rejoined the BBC as Editor of Sport, Radio.
Just a year later, in 1973, he made one of his most celebrated contributions in the commentary box, stepping in for Bill McLaren, who was ill, to describe the match between the Barbarians and New Zealand at Cardiff Arms Park. New Zealand scored two great tries, but could not match the Barbarians, who scored four, including a Gareth Edwards touchdown that completed a flowing move that had run the length of the pitch. Still hailed one of the greatest ever tries, Morgan’s commentary, his soft Welsh tones sharpened by excitement, communicated the genius of the play unfolding in front of him: “Brilliant... oh that’s brilliant,” he exclaimed as Phil Bennett sidestepped a clutch of tackles to start the counter-attack almost from under his own posts. Seconds later, Morgan seemed barely able to credit the progress of the Barbarians down the pitch: “This is the halfway line,” he gasped, an instant before the team’s famous scrum-half appeared at a sprint, from out of the television shot, to collect a short pass on the left wing. “This is Gareth Edwards,” Morgan cried, “A dramatic start. What a score!”
He rose, in 1975, to Head of Television Outside Broadcasts, where he remained to 1987. He then began his long and popular stint as presenter of Sport on 4.
His controversial sacking in 1998 — on the grounds of his being too old-fashioned and sentimental about sport for a modern audience — brought a deluge of complaints from the public.
In retirement he was an outstanding public speaker, often travelling many miles to speak free of charge, and raising large amounts of money for charities, especially for the disabled and mentally handicapped. Audiences warmed to his humour and humility and to his rich fund of anecdotes.
He welcomed improvements in fitness and performance in modern sport, but feared that money might destroy its basic values. Rugby, he said “is about toughness, bravery and romance — and I’m old-fashioned enough to believe that sport is all about emotion.”
He was appointed OBE in 1977 and CVO in 1986.
His autobiography, Beyond the Fields of Play, was published in 1996.
Cliff Morgan possessed what Des Lynam called “one of the best broadcasting voices of all time”; ultimately, however, he lost his voice to cancer.
He married, in 1955, Nuala Martin, with whom he had a son; she died in 1999. In 2001 he married Pat Ewing, a former Head of Sport on Radio 4, and settled at Bembridge, on the Isle of Wight.
Cliff Morgan, born April 7 1930, died August 29 2013
Cliff and Nuala also have a daughter.
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