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Mike Slemen threading his way gracefully down the left wing was a
sight that warmed the hearts of
England
and Lions
supporters between 1976 and 1984.
The Liverpool wing was an automatic choice for the 1980 Lions
tour to South Africa and wore the England number 11 shirt 31 times – a
then record for an England flyer - between the retirement of David
Duckham and the advent of Rory Underwood. He was an ever-present in
the side that took the 1980 Grand Slam and later, in 1994, took
charge of the coaching of the
England
backs as part of
Geoff Cooke’s successful management team.
Educated in
Liverpool
at St Edward’s
College, his first loves were cricket and football. He spent three
years in the school first XI as a quick bowler whilst in winter he
played Sunday-League football in that soccer-mad city before forcing
his way into his school’s first XV in his last year there.
He was a scrum-half in those days, but soon outgrew the
position, reaching 6 foot before he left to study pharmacy at
Aston
University
. Even so, the
skills that had made him a more-than-useful soccer player were to
underpin his emergence as a versatile rugby player who was equally
at home at fly-half or full-back.
He spent a year studying at Aston before transferring to St
Luke’s College down in
Exeter
. At St Luke’s
he vied with future England #10 Neil Bennett for the fly-half berth,
but despite a stunning performance during an Easter tour match at
Llanelli he later settled on the wing, the position where he was to
quickly become recognised as one of the most promising players in
the country. He played for
Devon
in the
County
Championship
during his student
days and gained his first national recognition in his last year as a
student, playing for
England
under-23s against
the touring Tongans.
After St Luke’s he successfully applied for a teaching post
at Merchant Taylors’,
Crosby
, returning to his
roots. He resumed his club rugby with the
Liverpool
club and quickly gained selection for
Lancashire
and the North. His
first full
England
cap came in 1976
when he was called up to replace David Duckham against
Ireland
.
Mike learned of his selection for that match while he was in
the staff-room at school, where the rugby correspondent of the Press
Association telephoned to inform him that he was in the side. “I
couldn’t stop shaking all week,” Mike said.
It was the start of a 24-match run in the England side that
was only broken five years later when he was unavailable for
England’s two-Test tour of Argentina. By then he had established
himself as a household name in Bill Beaumont’s
England
side, tasting the
joys of victory and the despair of defeat.
His first major tour was with the
England
side coached by
Mike Davis and led by Bill Beaumont that visited the
Far East
and
Pacific
Islands
in the summer of
1979. Mike Slemen had
already turned down lucrative offers from Barrow and Widnes to play
rugby league before going on tour and playing in six of the seven
matches, including the four non-cap Tests.
He hit the ground running, scoring two tries in the tour
opener against Japan B in
Tokyo
’s Olympic
Stadium where the tourists won 36-7.
His second try in that match was the result of a clever piece
of anticipation. The ball went loose from a long pass into the
midfield, but reading the bounce perfectly he stepped in from the
left wing, gathered it and sprinted through. In scoring, however, he
injured his leg. (The in-goal areas in
Japan
were very narrow
and sliding through to score he slipped of the turf and into a
tartan running track adjacent to the dead-ball-line).
He thus missed the pleasures of downtown
Tokyo
when the squad ventured onto the bullet train on their first
Saturday in
Japan
, but he did
recover quickly enough to play in the first international against
Japan
on the Sunday. The
tourists struggled to win 21-19, only a last-minute Dusty Hare
conversion saving
England
from the ignominy
of a draw. Clive Norling
accompanied the Englishmen on this tour as referee, but it was
another Welshman’s deep accent that cut through the crowd to say
(inaccurately as it turned out), as the relieved visitors trooped
off: “You might just about manage this lot, but it’ll be 1990
before you beat us.”
Normal service was resumed in mid-week when
England
thrashed an
undersized
Kyushu
selection 80-3,
Mike scoring a handsome hat-trick of tries. That was the famous
occasion on which Bill Beaumont, his side 32-3 up at half-time, told
his charges: “Come on lads, don’t let it slip now.”
For the second
Japan
test
England
redeemed some lost
esteem with a comfortable 38-18 win, but the ball did not run
Mike’s way, a story that was to be repeated in the 19-7 victory
over
Fiji
when the party
moved south for the second half of the tour.
The visit ended in
Tonga
with a 37-17 win
after a decidedly shaky start. The English backs gave plenty of
possession away and one correspondent was moved to write, “The
only
England
backs who seemed
capable of doing the basic things well were Hignell and Slemen.”
Tonga
led for part of
the first half and were only five points adrift with ten minutes to
go before Mike, who had opened the scoring, crossed for his second
try of the game. That score heralded a late flurry of 15 points that
cemented
England
’s victory.
Although the tourists returned with their 100% record intact,
few felt that
England
had grown
sufficiently in stature to pose a threat when the 1980 Five Nations
season came round. Confidence, it was true, had been gained on tour,
but English rugby had suffered a long period of disappointment since
last securing the Championship title in 1963 and few predicted that
a champagne season was about to follow.
But 1979-80 was to go down as a golden year for English rugby
and the strength of character that had enabled the team to win tight
matches and even come from behind in the South Pacific proved a not
insignificant factor as the domestic season unravelled. Mike was an
integral part of the success.
The All Blacks made a short visit to
England
and
Scotland
in the autumn of
1979 when, on a grey Saturday in November at Cross Green, Otley,
they were outplayed to the tune of 21-9 by the Northern Division. It
was a wonderful shot in the arm for English rugby. The technical
efficiency of the North’s forwards undermined the much-vaunted New
Zealand pack, and the purposeful play of the home backs enabled them
to build an unassailable 17-3 lead. Mike didn’t manage to get on
the score-sheet for this game, but his defence as an auxiliary
full-back was superb and he played a crucial part in the game’s
decisive try.
The North were leading through a penalty to nil after
half-an-hour before Steve Smith put in a low trajectory kick into
New Zealand’s half. The All Black defenders were unable to cope
with the bobbling ball and Mike Slemen was the first to gather it
cleanly before sending Smith scampering over for a try that brought
the house down. The North’s win was only the third (but easily the
most substantial) by an English division against the touring All
Blacks.
The nucleus of the England 1980 Grand Slam fifteen was built
around that victorious Northern Division outfit, with Bill Beaumont
carrying on as captain. Mike’s
silken running and subtle changes of pace were assets to a side that
coasted past
Ireland
with a 24-9 win on
the opening Saturday of the Five Nations season. He put the
world-class mark on everything he did that afternoon, taking his
chance brilliantly to capitalise on a Steve Smith blind-side break
to put
England
ahead with a try
just before half-time. Defence
was his order in the more hard-fought victories over
France
in
Paris
and
Wales
at Twickenham, but
he was on the score-sheet again in the Grand Slam decider at
Murrayfield in March. Clive Woodward had an outstanding first half
that afternoon and put Mike in for
England
’s second try as
the champions accelerated into a 16-0 lead.
England
’s final margin
was 30-18, a fitting way to round off their first Grand Slam since
1957.
1980 was also a Lions year, the famous tourists setting out
for
South Africa
under the
captaincy of Bill Beaumont, the first Englishman to lead the
tourists for 50 years. The champion country was well represented,
ten of the Grand Slam side accompanying the Lions. Mike was a
first-choice for the tour and was described by the doyen of South
African critics, Reg Sweet of the Durban Daily News, as
“unquestionably the most talented all-rounder of all.”
The 1980 visit went down as the unlucky tour, the Lions
having to call for eight replacements during their 18-match trip.
Mike himself only played in five matches, returning home owing to a
family illness after the narrow defeat in the first Test. But in his
short time on tour he stamped his class on the team and scored one
of rugby history’s most memorable tries.
The Lions were trailing against the South African Invitation
XV at altitude in Potchefstrom as the match entered its dying
moments. In a desperate effort to snatch victory from the jaws of
defeat the tourists launched an incredible attack that went left to
right,back and fore …… the ball eventually passing through 40
pairs of hands before Bruce Hay gave the final transfer to Mike on
the left wing, who scored the winning try.
He told the Guardian’s Frank Keating afterwards: “We
didn’t actually realise what we’d done until we trooped off and
walked past the grandstand, the crowd cheering us to the echo. It
was mesmerising. Okay, I finished it off, but it was the third time
I’d had a dash in the whole amazing sequence.”
English rugby, after its annus mirabilis in 1980, fell into
decline, though Mike scored THE try of the 1981 Five Nations when he
was twice involved in a flowing movement on each side of the pitch.
The commentator Peter West reckoned “the try illustrated
Slemen’s instinct for keeping himself in the game, and not
standing waiting in the wings for something for happen.”
Mike, who felt that that was the most satisfying try he
scored in his
England
career, was also
involved in the memorable try scored by Huw Davies that afternoon.
He lost his place in the
England
side in 1982-83
but bounced back the next season to become
England
’s most-capped
wing. He took part in a famous victory over the All Blacks at
Twickenham where the late Maurice Colclough, his old Northern
Division chum and another with
Liverpool
connections,
scored
England
’s decisive try.
Then, after a defeat at Murrayfield in the opening match of the 1984
Five Nations, he lost his place to Rory Underwood.
Mike always believed in putting something back into the game
and his loyalty – to rugby union as well as to his employers at
Merchant Taylors’, Crosby, where he has been a master for 30-plus
years – has been exemplary. Despite offers, he never felt tempted
to follow many of his contemporaries by penning an autobiography,
staying with the Union code and devoting much of his leisure time to
coaching.
He played his last first-class match in May 1986, leading
Liverpool
against Preston Grasshoppers. Fittingly, it was the last
match played on his club’s grounds, for the next season the club
merged with St Helen’s. Mike was to give many years to the
coaching at LSH’s Moss Lane HQ before joining the
England
coaching set-up in
the 1990s. During
England
’s Golden Era in
international rugby Mike’s quiet authority and intelligence
commanded huge respect among the back division that he directed.
The player once described as “a wing of resplendent
athleticism and polished control” was equally effective at
polishing the skills of arguably the most successful
England
threequarter line
of all time.
MIKE
SLEMEN STATISTICS - CLICK HERE
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READING - CLICK HERE
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