Cardiff’s rich and unrivalled history with the British & Irish Lions is being showcased in a new exhibition at the Arms Park – and a quartet of legends helped with the grand opening.
The Blue & Blacks have supplied more players to the famous tourists than any other club and four of them – Sir Gareth Edwards, Alan Phillips, Terry Holmes and Rob Norster – took centre stage at the official launch.
They sat on a panel, hosted by Phil Steele, discussing their Lions memories and expectations for this summer, before three-time tourist Sir Gareth Edwards opened the refurbished trophy room.
Test Lion Jeff Whitefoot was also in attendance and he was joined by the likes of Steve Cannon, Richard Cardus, John Huw Williams, Gabe Servini, Chris Collins and John Harding.
The project has been undertaken by the Cardiff Athletic Club heritage committee and the intention is to allow as much access to the exhibition as possible.
Items on display span the history of the Lions, including the likes of a stunning rare blue jersey from the 1938 tour and Sir Gareth’s 1971 jersey to modern day memorabilia such as the boots Leigh Halfpenny wore during his record-breaking Test haul in 2013, and Sam Warburton’s Test jersey from 2017.
Heritage Committee
Sally Carter, who sits on the heritage committee’s management board, said: “It’s been an amazing event and seeing people like Alan Phillips and Jeff Whitefoot come in and talk about their experiences, what it was like and what they remembered has been amazing.
“Or Gareth Edwards and his reaction. Seeing him stood in front of Barry John’s boots, you don’t get that very often!
“It began as a sort of a radical idea because it’s always been very Cardiff focused. But we’d got a shirt from Ivor Williams, a rather unusual blue Lions jersey and we just came up with this idea that we should take everything out and have a display that was completely dedicated to the Cardiff Lions.
“Cardiff, as you know, has supplied more Lions than any other club team so it seemed like a natural idea.
“It seemed like a good idea and then we realised just how much work was going to be involved and it’s been massive.
“We put out a call for volunteers. Gabe Servini from the former Players Association has been amazing in managing to locate a lot of interesting memorabilia, particularly newer stuff. We had a lot of heritage material but it’s been great being able get Leigh Halfpenny’s boots and Martyn Williams’ stuff as well. It’s just been great.
“We’re hoping that as many people as possible can come in here and see it as often as possible and we’re going to have special openings on every British Lions Test Match Day.
“Most importantly we want to get supporters in to see it who don’t normally get a chance to come into the committee room to see it and turn it into a Cardiff Rugby Museum.”