Eddie Butler was my room-mate, my captain for club and country, my friend and just a good guy full stop.
My personal memories this morning are ones of extreme fondness, dating right back to the day he first walked into the Pontypool dressing room as a gangly 19-year-old who'd just left Monmouth School and had been accepted to study at Cambridge University.
Take it from me that dressing room was full of some real hard men, no-nonsense warriors our great coach Ray Prosser recruited from the valleys, who had cauliflower ears, broken noses, took no prisoners and who also helped form the bulk of the Wales pack.
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We'd certainly been through the mill. Dressing room spirit was everything. Then in walked this posh, very well spoken young man who wasn't even going to be available for many matches because he was away at Cambridge studying. It wasn't like Prosser to plan ahead like that, but he clearly saw something in Eddie that he believed was worth investing in.
As always, Pross was proven correct. What a reward he got for that investment, going on to make Eddie his captain. He would also, of course, skipper Wales.
Prosser had a tendency to give players rather descriptive nicknames, some of which aren't printable, based upon how you performed in games. He reserved two for Eddie. Depending upon whether he'd played well or not, at the next training session he'd either be 'Eloquent Edward' or 'You Educated so and so'.
Given his background, in many ways Eddie was an anomaly in our team, something of a fish out of water. We nicknamed him Bamber, after Bamber Gascoigne on University Challenge. We'd remark on how posh he spoke, pronouncing his 't's' properly, or his 'ings' at the end of a word. He never once complained, indeed was self deprecating at times in putting himself down. But trust me he could give as good as he got.
It says everything about Eddie's character, and his ability as a player, that he was able to blend into our dressing room, join in the banter and go on to successfully lead us to trophies as our captain. He won our respect for the person, and player, that he was. Maybe we had to put some rough edges into him to play the Pontypool way, but he certainly adapted quickly enough.
You had to have special qualities to be part of that hard-bitten Pontypool pack back then, but he fitted in. Eddie always gave everything for the cause at the back of the scrum, never took a backward step, went toe to toe at the opposition along with the rest of us. The rest of us were rough and ready; in his case it was like a poet grafting at the coalface.
When Eddie made his Wales debut, against France in 1980, I was made his room-mate. I'd had five years playing for Wales at that point, was being asked to help bed him in, I suppose. I'm not sure Eddie was overly keen at first, he'd heard I was something of a snorer. So I bought a pair of ear plugs and gave them to him, making sure he could have a good night's sleep before the match. He was certainly grateful and we got on tremendously well, forged an even closer bond.
You have to remember Eddie's arrival on the Test scene coincided with the end of the golden 1970s era, our fortunes dipped somewhat and he received unjustified criticism. He was the No.8 who had to follow in the footsteps of the great Mervyn Davies. Everyone expected to see another Merv, but that simply wasn't realistic when you're talking about a player of that quality.
How do you replace Mervyn Davies, or Gareth Edwards, or Phil Bennett?
However, it must be stressed Eddie was a fine player in his own right, always prepared to put his body on the line, and he had to grow up very quickly at international level, as well as with Pontypool. After the debut win over France, his second game was the infamous one against England at Twickenham when Paul Ringer was sent off.
For the bulk of that match Eddie and Jeff Squire had to work as a two-man back-row against England's three of Tony Neary, Roger Uttley and John Scott, repel their threats, then get up off the floor and do it again and again. We had no openside on the field, the work Eddie and Jeff put in that afternoon was truly phenomenal, without doubt one of the main reasons 15-man England were not able to score a try that day. England had a heck of a pack back then, they had a man advantage and they may have scraped it 9-8, but they certainly didn't get the better of the seven Welsh forwards.
Eddie was to go on to become my captain for Wales, as well as club, always led by example, made sure he watched your back and you watched his. He was selfless too. We had such riches in the back-row at Pontypool that for big games Eddie often had to play in the second-row to get our best players on the field. As a front-rower that initially concerned me; I quickly realised me fears were unfounded. Whether No.8 or lock, Eddie gave everything to the cause, left nothing out on that field.
We played the touring Australian side in 1984. They were beating everybody back then, pushing teams around. They didn't get the better of our pack. Eddie helped make sure the Pooler pack of forwards he led weren't second best.
If I can give one final story. Eddie hadn't played particularly well in one match and as we didn't have a training session planned, Prosser wanted to speak to him on the phone to put the wrongs right before the next one.
He telephoned Eddie's home several times. Each time Mrs Butler answered and said, 'I'm awfully sorry, he's not here. Would you like to leave a message?'
'No thank-you', replied Pross. 'I'd really like to speak to Edward himself, if you don't mind.'
Anyway, this happened a few times. On the last occasion, Mrs Butler said, 'He's still not here. Are you sure you wouldn't like to leave a message?'
Exasperated at this point, Prosser said, 'Yes. Can you tell Edward last week he played like a ......'. He used the c word, I'm not quite sure how Mrs Butler reacted, or whether the message got passed on!
The last time I was in Eddie's company was when I won an award at the Welsh Rugby Writers' 50th anniversary dinner. They thought it appropriate that he made the presentation. I will always be proud of that, will cherish the moment even more given the truly awful news rugby has just had.
My deepest sympathy and condolences to Eddie's wife Sue and everybody else close to him. Eddie was a truly great man.
How interesting, too, that he went on to become such a leading commentator on the game. Not many can combine eloquence with the deep-seated rugby knowledge he possessed, having been there and done it himself on the pitch. Eddie was able to tick those two boxes brilliantly, unique in a way.
Everybody accepts Bill McLaren was rugby's greatest commentator, but for me Eddie runs him a very close second.
Farewell my friend, but most certainly never forgotten.
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