In fact, in the build-up to the 1974 final it was only really at hooker that I had any concerns about Featherstone Rovers. 'Keith' Bridges was not only the GB hooker at the time but was way ahead of Kevin Ashcroft when it came to winning posession. My view was that if we can get enough ball we would win , which is what happened. I don't miss the contested scrums, though, they were always a right mess and led to numerous 'differential penalties', something hardly seen today.

The thing that I remember vividly and after the effects of a 'couple' of my dad's beers, (I was a gawky teenager in 74), taken on the midnight Bank Quay train had worn off by match time, was that Derek Whitehead was so self assured with place kicking.

We were stood in the lower tier of the Featherstone end which was actually full of Wire and every time Derek landed one some wag was exclaiming that he could smell a bit more Brasso on the cup......

I might be wrong as the detail is foggy, perhaps it was the comfort of the afterglow of my last can of Long Life as we pulled into Euston at daft o'clock, or plain naivety on my part, but, it seems that the game was never in doubt??? Happy days

I would love to know what went on in those contested scrums and why certain hookers were able to dominate possession. Keith Bridges was indeed one of the best and he appeared to have all the skills at a fairly young age - but what were those skills? Certainly hookers were hard men but there must have been more to it than that. Any ideas?

The most successful hookers managed to break most of the rules most of the time and get away with it. We used to see Ashcroft or Bridges, or Stevo for that matter, striking before the ball went in ( offence) lying on the floor ( offence) getting one arm loose from binding ( offence ). The refs could not blow up for everything ( including half back violations notably 'feeding' which used to be a cry from the terraces heard almost as often as 'offside' these days ) or the game would never have restarted. Best done without, I reckon, unless you think rugby should be partly about winning the ball, rather than what you do with it when you've got it.

Good props were needed as well as a good hooker, I'm finding it hard to quantify but so much went on in scrums (some of it legal) that I'm not sure I could do justice to all the skills (and skulduggery) that went on, don't know how today's forwards could ever adapt to that world

Alan Whittle moved from centre to stand off when Murphy went off....Murphy went to scrum half in place of Parry on his return I think?

For sure....Bernard Manning led the community singing!@@!