OBITUARY: The little Welsh genius who was the best 飛行機で行く-half of them all... doctors told Phil Bennett he would never be strong enough to play rugby but his dancing feet 床に打ち倒すd the All 黒人／ボイコットs and 許すd him to do things nobody else could

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伝説の むちの跡s and Lions 飛行機で行く-half Phil Bennett (pictured in 1977) has died at the age of 73?

Of all the 広大な／多数の／重要な 飛行機で行く-halves from all over the world, there has never been one やめる like Phil Bennett.

The communion of rugby saints glorified for the divine gift of making teams dance to their tune, from Jack Kyle and Cliff Morgan in the 早期に 1950s to Dan Carter and Beauden Barrett more than half a century later, would say amen to that without a murmur of dissent.

For all their Grand 激突するs and World Cups, they, along with other 深い尊敬の念を抱くd No 10s like Richard Sharp, David Watkins, Barry John, 示す Ella, Michael Lynagh, Jonathan Davies, Gregor Townsend and Jonny Wilkinson, would touch their caps in a deferential nod to one who began his working life as a 給料 clerk in a steelworks known 地元で as ‘The Klondike’.

To stand out in the 中央 of the 優れた 要求するs a very rare talent, all the more so at 5ft 7in and 11 石／投石する. Bennett had shown 早期に 調印するs of it growing up in a 会議 house in the village of Felinfoel, making a mockery of a doctor’s 暗い／優うつな prognosis that the little boy would never be strong enough to play rugby.

He began making a 指名する for himself in his 早期に teens at Coleshill 第２位 Modern in Llanelli. Les Williams, a 同時代の who became the town’s rugby historian, remembers the headmaster at his school, Llanelli 第２位 Modern, 発表するing the result of the Coleshill match at 議会: ‘Our boys 6 points, Phil Bennett 27.’

His innate humility never 許すd him to think he was that much better, if at all, than his 相当するもの in the next village and yet he did things which 非，不，無 of those who had gone before him had done, nor those who （機の）カム after.

He leaves two indelible 示すs on the history of the sport; the first during a sharp winter’s day at Cardiff 武器 Park in 1973, the second some 18 months later on the parched grass of the Springbok rugby 神社s during the Lions’ one and only invincible 小旅行する.

The captain, Willie John McBride, called Benny ‘the little genius’. The All 黒人／ボイコットs called him all the 指名するs under the sun and still do beca use of what he did to them for the Barbarians when a hurtling Gareth Edwards finished off the greatest of all Baa-Baas tries.

It would never have happened had Bennett not conjured up a start even more outrageous than the finish. When Bryan ‘Bee Gee’ Williams, the 原型 Samoan superstar, cross-kicked from the 右翼, Bennett scurried 支援する に向かって his own 地位，任命するs to retrieve the bouncing ball.

McBride and his pack, blowing hard after a frenetic all-活動／戦闘 start, 推定する／予想するd Bennett to give them a breather by kindly hoofing the ball into touch.?

Instead of the 安全な 選択, he took the dangerous one as an 直感的に reaction to the fearful sound of Alistair Scown 追跡（する）ing him 負かす／撃墜する. The unfortunate flanker would never play for New Zealand again.

Bennett won 29 caps for むちの跡s and helped them 勝利，勝つ two Five Nations Grand 激突するs in the 1970s

For the first time in living memory, someone 設立する the 神経 to take the All 黒人／ボイコットs to the cleaners with a dance 決まりきった仕事 Fred Astaire would have been hard 押し進めるd to match. Within a few mesmerising moments of giving Scown the run-around, Benn ett left one All 黒人／ボイコット 飛び込み into thin 空気／公表する and two more going the wrong way.

Three 味方する-steps had torn New Zealand’s 防御の system off its hinges. From that day on, McBride never swayed from his 見解（をとる） of the ‘Welsh magician’, an opinion 確認するd the に引き続いて year during the Lions’ unbeaten 22-match 小旅行する of South Africa.

There seemed no 底（に届く） to his 捕らえる、獲得する of tricks, 特に when the occasion 需要・要求するd a 最高潮 for the history 調書をとる／予約するs as it did at Stradey Park on October 30, 1972 when Llanelli welcomed the All 黒人／ボイコットs to the old tin town.

Only Bennett could have struck a longish 刑罰，罰則 in such a devilish way that it would 二塁打 in value. When the ball 回復するd off a 地位，任命する, scrum-half Lyn Colling dallied just long enough for the Scarlets’ Lion Roy Bergiers to （人命などを）奪う，主張する the 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金-負かす／撃墜する try ― three points 二塁打d to six, enough to 安全な・保証する a victory for the ages.

Bennett’s sense of fair play 始める，決める him apart at a time when the sport took a 乱打するing from the 勝利，勝つ-at-all-costs 旅団. His defence of the old values was never more pointedly illustrated than when the All 黒人／ボイコットs returned to Stradey in 1980.

When Alan Hosie sent off New Zealand lock Graeme Higginson for stamping, Bennett’s 情熱的な 嘆願 説得するd the 審判（をする） to change his mind with a selfless 無視（する） for the Scarlets’ faint chance of 製図／抽選 the match.

With memories all too fresh of the Cardiff 実験（する） two years earlier when Andy Haden’s 悪名高い dive robbed むちの跡s of a 勝利，勝つ, Bennett’s 直感的に 介入 had been 誘発するd for 純粋に altruistic 推論する／理由s.

‘That was the centenary season of Welsh rugby and the last thing we needed was another major 出来事/事件 伴う／関わるing New Zealand,’ Bennett said. ‘The spirit of the game was what 事柄d more than anything else.’

There seemed no 底（に届く） to his 捕らえる、獲得する of tricks with Bennett 向こうずねing against the All 黒人／ボイコットs

認める Batty, the firebrand wing who always 炎d with 態度-加える, sent Bennett a letter of 感謝 for his 外交. ‘Thanks for your 態度 and 活動／戦闘,’ he wrote. ‘Your gesture has done a hell of a lot to 回復する sanity between New Zealand and Welsh rugby.’

By then, Bennett had retired from 実験（する） rugby at the age of 29, saving perhaps his greatest むちの跡s game for the unforgettable 1978 Grand 激突する decider against フラン. Nobody knew it at the time but he had 屈服するd out in the grand old showbiz tradition, leaving the 武器 Park multitude clamouring for more.

‘I was pleading with the players to hang in but we needed something extra. All of a sudden the singing broke out and I’d never heard singing like it. I said to the players, “God, listen to this. How can we fail?”’

Bennett had followed the toughest 行為／法令／行動する in the game stepping into Barry John’s shoes に引き続いて The King’s abrupt abdication and matching his 前任者’s imperious 業績／成就s. As Cliff Morgan said: ‘Phil made the game so exciting that you’d have paid an extra £10 at the gate to see him. I loved watching him.’

There were days, few and far between, when the 魔法 砂漠d him, never more so than when he 行方不明になるd a fusillade of 刑罰，罰則s against the All 黒人／ボイコットs in 1974. Not long afterwards the Welsh selectors, the Big Five, 誘発するd a public 激しい抗議 by dropping him from their Five Nations squad.

Suddenly, the world-（警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing Lions’ No 1 had been relegated to No 3, at best, in むちの跡s. 非，不，無 of the Big Five was big enough to tell him, let alone 申し込む／申し出 an explanation.

He 得点する／非難する／２０d two tries in his final game for むちの跡s during a 16-7 victory over フラン in 1978

Throughout his life, Bennett had two 悔いるs, that he 拒絶する／低下するd the 申し込む／申し出 of a scholarship from Llandovery College and, years later, 受託するd another 申し込む／申し出, to captain the Lions in New Zealand in 1977.

Before making the grimmest of 小旅行するs, Bennett and his wife, Pat, had 耐えるd a 悲劇 of their own, losing their first child, Stuart, 24 hours after his birth. The incessant rain and 内部の bickering made him yearn for Felinfoel.

‘I should never have 受託するd the captaincy,’ he said. ‘The 圧力 of those three months was just too much for me and when the matches were over, I just 手配中の，お尋ね者 to leave as soon as I could.’

A longing for home 妨げるd him from 受託するing 申し込む／申し出s to 追求する 代案／選択肢 careers in other forms of football during his teenage years.

The West Ham of Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and ツバメ Peters 申し込む／申し出d him a 裁判，公判 at 15 which Benny turned 負かす／撃墜する, ‘horrified’ not at the idea of 調印 for anyone other than Manchester 部隊d but of leaving Felinfoel for London.?

When strangers from Yorkshire （機の）カム calling 耐えるing gifts from Halifax Rugby League Club for the 17-year-old Bennett, they failed for the same 推論する／理由.

Bennett the evangelist did more than most to spread the rugby gospel and popularise the game without 存在 paid a penny to play it. The WRU 答える／応じるd with a stinginess which 攻撃する，衝突する 激しく揺する 底（に届く） the day after Bennett’s three 刑罰，罰則s had beaten England in the rain at Twickenham. Homeward-bound with wives and girlfriends 許すd on board for the first time, the coach stopped for lunch 近づく Swindon.

Bennett was later 認める into the International Rugby Hall of Fame in November 2005?

Bennett’s wife Pat ordered gammon and 半導体素子s which her husband assumed would have been taken care of by the Union as part of the 全体にわたる meal 法案.

‘A few days later I had a letter from the WRU. I could hardly believe it. They’d sent me a 法案 for £4.50 for Pat’s lunch! I thought that was a bit mean but I paid it.’

How typical of the man not to make a song-and-dance about it and other penny-pinching 出来事/事件s. ‘I 手渡すd my expenses sheet in on one occasion and 法案 Clement (WRU 長官) said to me, “Eh, I used to live in Felinfoel. You’ve 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金d 60 miles to Cardiff. I know it’s 55”.’

He won new admirers during some 30 years of punditry to BBC むちの跡s and 経由で a newspaper column. His humility never wavered.

When he 選ぶd his team for the greatest Scarlets’ XV, he told his co-author, former international 審判（をする） Alun-Wyn Bevan: ‘The No 10 position will not be filled by Phil Bennett. It will be filled by Stephen Jones.’

In the world’s best XV of the 1970s, he 選ぶd someone else in his position, Barry John. Bennett had never got above himself and he wasn’t about to break the habit of a lifetime.

As a deadly 病気 took its （死傷者）数 on his health, thousands prayed for him to find the strength for one more 味方する-step. Tragically, for his wife of 52 years, Pat, sons Steven and James, their families and his legions of fans, it was not to be. There will never be another.