The rugby tales of the Welsh man mountain who was in the successful Lions side that were dubbed 'the dirtiest ever'

Mike Griffiths has some cracking stories to tell from both on and off the field during his rugby career

From being hand-cuffed to Dai Young to a fateful bike ride in Lanzarote, Mike Griffiths has some tales to tell from his playing days.

It was a fine career, one that spanned more than 25 years, taking in a triumphant Lions tour and 35 Wales caps.

As a prop who packed down in the 1980s and 90s, he also has a graphic story to recount about the dark underworld of the front row and he has the scars to back it up.

But, above all, he reflects on it with fondness and happy memories.

Born and bred in Clydach in the Rhondda, Griffiths actually started out as a back row forward before one life-changing afternoon as a 17-year-old.

“I was on the bench for my first ever senior game for Ystrad Rhondda,” he recalls.

“I was covering the back row, which is where I’d played for the Youth, and there was a prop on the bench.

“But then when we had an injury in the front row, our coach Bryn Elliot - God rest his soul - said ‘On you go, Mike’.

“I think he must have seen there was a potential prop in me. I had always worked on the buildings with my father from when I was about 13 or 14. He was a brick-layer and I used to do hod-carrying and mixing for him. So I had this natural strength.

“Anyway, I propped in that game and never looked back really. That was it then. Off we went.”

His obvious ability in the position soon attracted the attention of a number of first-class clubs and, in 1982, he joined Bridgend, where he was to spend seven contented years.

“The players they had down there were immense, the likes of Ian Stephens, Gareth Williams, Meredydd James, Glenn Webbe, Mike Budd and John Morgan,” he said.

“The style of rugby they played was great. We used to love running the ball.”

Griffiths helped provide the set-piece platform with his scrummaging power on the loosehead, while also showing startling pace for such a big man, once sprinting in from halfway against Bristol for the HTV try of the month.

International recognition came with a first cap against Samoa in November 1988 and, after impressing during the Five Nations which followed - being dubbed the Mountain by the French press - he was selected for the 1989 Lions tour of Australia.

It was to prove the experience of his rugby life.

“It never crossed my mind I would be picked. I didn’t even know they were going!” he said.

“But then I got the letter, saying I was invited to go to Australia. You don’t believe it at first. You look at it and show the family.

“That was followed by the phonecall, asking if I was available to go. I said ‘Too right, I am’.”

Griffiths was to play his part in one of the Lions’ most successful tours, finishing on the winning side in all six of his appearances and figuring on the bench in the last two Tests against the Wallabies, as the tables were turned to secure a 2-1 series victory.

“They harp on about the other Lions trips. It’s like ours is forgotten,” he said.

“But we won 11 out of 12 games. We were just half a game off Willie John’s invincibles from 1974 in South Africa, who drew a game.

“On top of the Tests, we had Australia B, Queensland and New South Wales, who played their Test players, and to finish off after all that we played the ANZACs, a mixture of the Wallabies and the All Blacks, with the Fitzpatrick, McDowell, the Whettons and all those boys.”

As Griffiths recalls, it was very much a tour of its time.

“If you look at these Lions trips now, they take 45 players and the management is about 40 strong,” he said.

“We had Clive Rowlands manager, Ian McGeechan and Roger Uttley coaches, Kevin Murphy, the English physio, and Ben Goodfellow, the doctor. That was it.

“So five them and 30 players for nine and a half weeks

“We were on 20 dollars a day - about £17. That was for your phonecalls home.”

It wasn’t a tour without its controversy, with the combustible second Test in Brisbane being dubbed the Battle of Ballymore and Aussie coach Bob Dwyer claiming the Lions ‘were at times the dirtiest team I have ever seen in international rugby’.

So what’s Griffiths’ take on all that?

“We weren’t a violent team, but we looked after each other,” he says.

“You had to protect yourself and if it kicked off it was the law of the land then.

“Bob Dwyer is harping on and whingeing on, but they brought Steve Finnane back for some of their coaching sessions and he broke Graham Price’s jaw out there in 1978.

“We just stuck our ground. We were not going to quiver up and die.

“You have got to stand up for yourself on the field.

“We didn’t go out there to create violence. We just went out there to bully and win.

“We were there for the one goal, to win the series.

“Everyone was rooting for each other, even in training.

“There was no bad feeling through the camp. We all helped each other and had each others’ backs.

“The midweek team was really valued. After we lost the first Test, if we had gone down the Swanny then, the wheels might have started coming off.

“But we put a big performance in against ACT in Canberra a few days later.

“That was massive for getting morale back up, because after a loss you are flat.

“Instead we headed the into second Test with everyone tapping each other on the back and moving forward.”

There were also some memorable moments off the field, including one involving fellow Wales prop Dai Young.

“Me and Dai used to train with the squad in the morning, but then the two of us would always look for a gym in the afternoon and train again then,” explains Griffiths.

“We are good mates. Dai and April are God parents to our youngest, Luc.

“So we were always with each other.”

That didn’t go unnoticed by the rest of the party, as the pair soon discovered when the attended one of tour’s notorious Kangaroo courts.

“Donal Lenihan was the judge,” recalls Griffiths.

“They said ‘Right, you two, you never leave each other’ and they clamped us in handcuffs!

“We had to stay like that through the night. So if one of us had to go to the toilet, we both had to go.

“But w are valleys people like, so we understand each other!

“Everyone had their fines. You would have to wear a wig and things like that as a forfeit.

“Mike Hall was up once and I was nominated as a defence lawyer for his case.

“But whatever defence you put up, it went in one ear and out the other.

“Donal hung us all!

“It was just such a great trip. Everyone had their own character and their little ways.

“We all blended in with each other and Finlay Calder led from the front as skipper. He was a fabulous guy. Like granite, intelligent, physically hard.

“It was such a privilege and a pleasure being with them all. I have never been on another tour like that.

“It’s got to be the highlight of my career.

“I went to the 25th reunion up in London a few years ago and we were soon back on the old stories.

“All things come flooding back and once you have had a few whiskies, the volume gets a bit higher.

“The memories last forever. There’s nothing like it. You reach the top of your playing career when you go on the Lions.”

Griffiths might well have gone on a second Lions tour - to New Zealand in 1993 - had it not been for an infamous incident which scuppered his chances.

He was Wales’ first-choice loosehead and looked to be in a strong position when the national squad gathered for a training camp in Lanzarote ahead of the Five Nations.

But that was when disaster struck.

“I have always liked cycling and mountain biking,” he explains.

“So we are in Lanzarote and had some down-time and they had these bikes there. So I thought great.

“A few of the others come along and so up we went. I loved it. We were climbing, climbing and climbing and got to the top of the mountain range.

“Coming back down then, you know what it’s like, you are zooming down. You see it on the Tour de France. You get clipped and you are going.

“I can remember looking round to see who was coming up the side of me and as I turned round, Colin Stephens had pulled up in front of me.

“As I braked, bang, and the next thing I know I was getting up off the deck.

“I was a bit shaken and thinking there’s something wrong here, my shoulder doesn’t seem to be right.

“So we went back down and they said you have broken your right shoulder. What I had done was snapped my collar bone in half.

“They weren’t too happy about it, Alan Davies and Bob Norster. I had the third degree read to me. But it is what it is. That’s what happens in life.

“It could have been worse. I wasn’t wearing a helmet. They weren’t around then.

“I might not be talking to you now. It’s all ifs and buts.”

Griffiths was sidelined for some six months, ruling him out of selection for the trip Down Under and, although he was put on stand-by, the call didn’t come.

Yet he remains philosophical about the whole episode.

“I am the one that will ever look back,” he declares.

“What will be will be and what is done is done. You can’t reverse it.

“There is no point thinking I could have gone on the Lions tour and getting depressed and down about it. It didn’t happen, that’s that.

“People say if you were playing now Mike you would be worth thousands.

“I’m not bothered. I enjoyed the time I had. I spent 20 years at the top. Not many players have done that.

“I was just honoured to play for my country. It’s like Richard Burton said, he would have given up all his wealth to play one cap for Wales. I won 35.”

He continues: “You can’t look back or tell what’s in front of you. It’s fate.

“You get up in the morning, here’s the day, things can change.

“You’ve got to look on the brighter things.

“You have off days in work sometimes, but it’s no good dragging your arse.

“You’ve got to get out of it, get out of the trench. There’s no point looking back, you can’t change anything, can you?”

Nor will you find Griffiths complaining about any of the skullduggery he was on the receiving end during his playing days.

“It wasn’t a place for the feint-hearted, especially up front,” he says.

“That was the nature of the game then. There was a lot of things that went on.

“It was the law of the jungle, especially in my early days. The violence was in the game then. You can’t get away from it. It was a dog-eat-dog world then.

“If you were getting the better of someone and they wanted to try and disrupt you, they would send it through. If they went down, you would go over the top of them or send a knee into them.

“Many times I have had stitches in my head or around my eyes. I had my cheek muscles torn in one game. That was a smack from behind. I know the team and I know the player. They were known for it, from behind. I caught up with them eventually.

“I have equalled my scored I can tell you! Every dog will have its day, whether it’s on one field or the field after.”

Griffiths played most of Wales’ Test match against New Zealand in 1989 with two fractured ribs after taking a smack in the back early on and a couple of years later he suffered a perforated ear drum against England at Twickenham.

“That was Mickey Skinner, bosh!” he recalls.

“I was in a maul and he just came driving in and caught me in the side of the head. I played the next week mind you.

“I’ve had boots in the head, scars on my head, right the way down. You never complained, you just got on with it.”

As for opponents who stick in the mind, Griffiths says: “Richard Loe was one of the nastiest. He was big, he was hard and had a nastiness about him.

“There was Phil Blakeway for England and Jeff Probyn, who was an awkward one.

“In my position, it was man on man, working each other out.

“My philosophy was to make my opposite number work at every scrum.

“I loved it. It was an art. You were always learning.”

Griffiths practiced that art for a number of clubs, spending seven seasons with Cardiff after leaving Bridgend, sharing in league and cup triumphs, while also having spells with Wasps and then Pontypridd, who he went on to coach as a scrum doctor.

He finished off where it all began, playing for Ystrad Rhondda into his mid 40s and also coaching the youth and seniors.

“I enjoyed a fabulous rugby career spanning over many years,” he reflects.

What’s remarkable is he kept on working outside of the game all that time, mainly in the building trade but also for a brewery.

Today, now aged 58, he is employed by a company called Newconn as a supervisor in their civil engineering section.

“We sub-contract for Western Power, doing polling and overheads. I’m still keeping busy.”

Married to Anne with two grown-up sons - Joel, 33, and Luc, 30 - he is a contented man with a great family life and happy memories of his rugby days.

After an hour’s chat, I give my thanks and say my farewells only for the big fella to pipe up with: “Hang on, that’s just the first half of my career!”

Mike Griffiths, the man mountain, yet another of Welsh rugby’s great characters.