In an international career that spanned just six years, Barry John, who has died aged 79, won 25 caps for his country and appeared in five Lions Tests. But the fly-half made enough of a mark during his brief time as a player to achieve something approaching mythical status in Wales.
He was at the zenith of his powers on the Lions tour in 1971 to New Zealand, where his ability to ghost past would-be tacklers as if they did not exist was a major factor in the Lions winning the Test series 2-1. Not only did John possess the running skills of a classic fly-half: he was a dead-eyed place-kicker, could kick from hand with either foot, and was a rock-solid defender. Those attributes helped him to 188 points on that tour, a record for a Lions tourist.
The feat earned him the nickname “King John”, and more than made up for the disappointment of the Lions tour to South Africa three years earlier. Then he broke a collar-bone in the first Test against the Springboks in Pretoria and played no further part.
However, the soubriquet weighed heavily on his shoulders. John was as relaxed as any man could be in the harsh gladiatorial arena of international rugby. But the adulation back home became stifling. Rugby was an amateur sport and John had become perhaps its first celebrity. He was compared at the time to the footballer George Best, and in a later autobiography wrote: “I loved playing rugby and George Best loved playing football, but in the end we shared a common bond, for neither of us could handle the circus act surrounding our fame as it spiralled totally out of control.”
And so the year after the 1971 Lions tour, and after Wales had been denied a successive grand slam when they were unable because of the Troubles to play Ireland, John suddenly retired from the game at 27. The shock in Wales was alleviated only by the fact that the nation had a ready-made replacement fly-half in Phil Bennett, a central figure in a golden era for Welsh rugby.
Born in the village of Cefneithin, Carmarthenshire, to Vimy and William John, a miner, Barry was one of six children, and all three of his brothers, Delville, Alan and Clive played rugby. Barry was proud of his working-class roots, and his earliest memories in a Welsh-speaking household were of his father rising at 4.30 to get ready to catch the bus to the Great Mountain colliery at Tumble.
Though Barry failed the 11-plus, a year later he was accepted by Gwendraeth grammar school, and went on to train as a teacher at Trinity College, Carmarthen.
Excelling on the sports field, he had joined the Cefneithin village club before moving to the Llanelli club as a schoolboy, making a senior debut at 19 for the Scarlets against Moseley. John made his Wales debut against Australia in December 1966 alongside another West Walian, Gerald Davies, but soon had to stand aside for the Wales captain David Watkins. However, when Watkins became a rugby league professional with a move to Salford in 1967, John, who by this time had left Llanelli for Cardiff, established himself in the Wales side.
John had come under the influence of Carwyn James, another native of Cefneithin and who had won two caps for Wales himself at fly-half. James helped the young player survive an early snub by the Wales selectors when picking the Wales under-15 side and became a mentor. James was to coach the 1971 Lions when he made John the leading figure in a tactical assault on the All Blacks.
Once established in the Wales side, John scored 90 points in those 25 Tests. But that relatively modest haul does not tell the full story of his Welsh and club career. With a swivel of his hips he would, seemingly, drift without effort beyond the defensive barricades of the opposition.
A generation later the England captain Will Carling summed John up: “I hope rugby was tougher for Barry than it appeared to be, otherwise us gasping, sweaty also-rans were not even playing on the same planet.”
After his early retirement, John kept in touch with the game as a rugby correspondent for the Daily Express and later a commentator for Radio Five Live. He was also the promotional figurehead at the sportswear firm Gola.
Like Bennett, John was a modest man and, like Best, his life was often troubled. He was banned from driving for three years in 2001 for drink-drive offences.
In 1969 he married Janet Davies, whom he had met while studying to become a teacher; eventually they separated. She survives him, along with their four children, Kathryn, Lucy, Anna and David, and 11 grandchildren.
• Barry John, rugby player, born 6 January 1945; died 4 February 2024
