Apologies again, this time!
It was disappointing to read the shameful and inaccurate claim by former Wales and British & Irish Lions prop Graham Price about how All Blacks lock Frank Oliver got his nickname 'Filth'.
Price made his remarks in a tribute to Oliver's All Blacks locking mate Andy Haden published in Cardiff's Western Mail.
While critical of Haden's lineout move in the 1978 Test that has rankled Welshmen ever since, Price said Haden still deserved to be remembered 'because he was a wonderful lock'.
Price said, however, that Oliver had been the 'main culprit' in the incident. And it was a fact that referee Roger Quittenton penalised Oliver's marker Geoff Wheel for jumping off his shoulder, not for either Haden or Oliver falling out of the lineout.
Oliver had been 'barging Geoff Wheel in the lineout the whole game. Given this was the last minute and we had to win the ball to secure victory, Geoff held out his arm to hold him off'.
Then Price made his claim about Oliver's nickname.
"Oliver, 'Filthy Frank' they called him in New Zealand because he would kick anything that moved and was a dirty player, was clever and fell over."
Sorry Graham.
Oliver's nickname 'Filth' was a reference to the fact he was a policeman in the early stages of his career. 'Filth' was a common usage at the time to describe members of the force.
Oliver was a hard man but to claim he kicked anything that moved is wrong. And it is an insult to the memories of coaches JJ Stewart and Jack Gleeson that they would have selected a player guilty of that sort of claim.
This is yet another example of British rugby people being completely unable to understand the technique of rucking.
Where Oliver learnt to play rugby, in New Zealand's deep south, rucking was an integral part of the game. He may have lifted his foot but, in the way of all rucking, it involved the backward motion of the foot to achieve quick release of the ball, sometimes involving raking players back who were trying to shut off access to the ball.
Generations of New Zealand players grew up understanding that going with the flow in being rucked out meant being able to get up immediately and continuing to play. Resistance, aimed at denying the ball, was when the chance of injury occurred.
Pretty simple science made into an art form by coaches like Vic Cavanagh and Charlie Diack and their ilk.
Because of the blinkered view of British critics the game has now been denied the ruck and is the worse because of it.
Yes, Oliver made have had a tough man's reputation and you would not have wanted to be on the end of a blow from him, but the moniker 'Filth' had nothing to do with the way he played the game.