Bobby Windsor - The Iron Duke: The Life and Times of a Working-Class Rugby Hero

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It was a tour which placed Windsor as one of the best in his position, with his technical ability and dynamism in the loose the key features of his game.

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Windsor played 14 matches on that Tour, including the first Test, and scored his only Lions try in the match against New Zealand Juniors.

This is a MUST read for any rugby player or fan of Bobby Windsor's era and, indeed, present day rugby players and fans who wonder what the game was like in its amateur days with only one referee and two "touch judges" . The valley clubs were great, everyone was saying well done and having a few pints and had a collection to help me on my way. On what it was like to be selected by the Lions for the first time, Windsor said: “I was the only player to be picked from Monmouthshire so I had plenty of pats on the back from all the boys in and around the valleys. Luckily, they phoned the caravan site in Tenby and spoke to the woman who owned the caravan next to ours.This revealing biography, which draws on endless interviews with the man, shows him to be an excellent raconteur, perceptive analyst of the game that he loved so much and played for free, and a genuinely nice guy and family man, though he could be a bit of a rogue! Bobby Windsor was the hooker of the triumphant Wales team of the mid ‘70s and a key figure for the invincible Lions on the tour of South Africa in 1974.

He made three appearances in 1945–46 and with the war coming to an end Windsor had the opportunity to being to push for a first team place. He is, quite simply, an Welsh icon, as hard as nails, rough, tough, quite ready to go in with a fist or a boot if necessary, when the game was at it's very hardest, but a sensitive, feeling man of great depth as well.The old hooker, revered the rugby world over as ‘The Duke’ for his fearless ferocity on the pitch and bonhomie off it, never intended to live to tell the tale. Unsettled seemingly by a frightening internal flight, Windsor was never at the top of his game and the New Zealand rugby public never really saw the best of this legend of Welsh rugby. I would only bind on Charlie (Faulkner) and I’d keep my right arm loose in front of me to block the blows. There were some crazy times off the field on that tour, but we trained like dogs and took the rugby really seriously. Erling Haaland reveals the pre-match routine he shares with 17-year-old darts sensation Luke Littler.