There are videos of David Duckham out there, but not as many as you’d hope. His twisting run past three All Blacks in that match against the Barbarians in ’73 is online, so is his whirlwind sprint down the wing against Scotland in that year’s Five Nations, in what they called the greatest try never scored at Twickenham (and there’s a conversation), and his side-step around Roger Blyth to score the opener when England played Wales in ’74. There’s a sharp finish, “one of his specials”, for Coventry against London Scottish in the Cup final later that same year, and bits and pieces of his Lions tour to New Zealand in ’71, when he scored 11 tries in 16 games.
Nothing that I can find, though, of the one Duckham, who died last week aged 76, scored on debut against Ireland at Lansdowne Road in ’69. “Duckham at once fed Rod Webb, his friend on the wing, and then looped round him for the return pass and a glorious, glorious try in the corner,” Frank Keating wrote in this paper a few years later. “The nation exalted, and the official history still calls it the most daring try of recent years.” England’s history, maybe, but the one that counts is written by the winners. Ireland edged it 17-15 and Duckham’s try didn’t make the edit in their documentary about the game. “I suppose I should have dived to make it perfect,” he said afterwards, “but the ground was hard and frosty.”
