Jack Matthews

I'm told Jack Matthews invented the crash tackle. Certainly, he used it a lot in his games for Cardiff and Wales when he played at centre with Bleddwyn Williams. One game I recall: Cardiff were playing Coventry, at that time a quality team, not so now I believe. Soon after the start Jack found himself on the ground with the Coventry forwards, possibly revenging themselves for tacjkles in previous games, putting their boots into the small of his back. He got up, probably had a word with his scrum half telling him to let the Coventry backs have the ball, and, when his opposite number received the ball, he received the canon ball that was Jack Matthews with it. The poor bloke was knocked clean out; he lay there on the ground like a dead man. Revenge was, no doubt, sweet.
I did hear once or twice that Jack had once killed an opponent in a tackle. While of course it was possible I don't think it happened; it was one of these tales that went around which told the listener how powerful his tackles were.
I know that he once did his best to save a player's life. Someone who had played with Jack Matthews in the forces told me that in a certain game, something happened and a player lay there on the ground with blood pumping out of his neck. Jack went straight to him and, being a doctor, knowing what to do, put pressure on the man's neck where it was needed and kept the pressure there until an ambulance arrived.
He was not considered as great a player as Bleddwyn Williams but they complemented each other in the way that Jack could penetrate the opposition with his hard and fast runs while Bleddwyn could penetrate with his side-step. They were in the fifties a lethal combination in the Cardiff side and in the Wales team.
Now Jack Matthews is dead but he will be remembered by people of my age and admired for his skill and of course for his tackles. I wouldn't have liked to have been a centre playing against him.
O yes, I almost forgot: When he was a young man in the forces he met, in a boxing ring, Rocky Marciano who was then in the American army. They went three rounds and the match was drawn. Was Rocky over-rated or Jack under-rated I wonder.