John Vivian Pullin (1 November 1941 – 5 February 2021) was an England international

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player. A hooker, he played club rugby for

Bristol Rugby Bristol Bears (officially Bristol Rugby Club or Bristol Rugby) are a professional rugby union club based in Bristol, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded as Bristol Football Club in 18 ...

and captained the

England national rugby union team The England national rugby union team represents the Rugby Football Union (RFU) in international rugby union. They compete in the annual Six Nations Championship with France national rugby union team, France, Ireland national rugby union team, ...

for which he played 42 times between 1966 and 1976. He also won 7 full caps for the

British & Irish Lions The British & Irish Lions is a rugby union team selected from players eligible for the national teams of England national rugby union team, England, Ireland national rugby union team, Ireland, Scotland national rugby union team, Scotland, and ...

and has the distinction of having beaten the

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks, is the representative men's national team in the sport of rugby union for the nation of New Zealand, which is considered the country's national sport. Famed for th ...

with three different sides, England, the Lions and the Barbarians.

Rugby career

Pullin's career reached the highest levels of achievement possible in rugby union prior to the establishment of the

Rugby World Cup The Men's Rugby World Cup is a rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams, the winners of which are recognised as the World championship, world champions of the sport. The tournament is administer ...

. As an international, his first match was in 1966, and two years later he was selected for the South Africa Lions tour, in which he played three tests. In 1971, he was again selected for the Lions, and was part of the side that defeated New Zealand.''Clear case for Pullin to enter the Hall of Fame'', By Brandan Gallagher, 5:51PM BST 10 Oct 2001
/ref> Then, in an eighteen-month period, he captained England to victories over South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, the first time a European national captain had ever done this. South Africa were beaten at home 18–9 at Ellis Park in 1972, Australia defeated by 20 points to 3 at Twickenham, and then New Zealand 16–10 in Auckland. Pullin proved to be a talisman for defeating the All Blacks as in the same year, he was also in the Barbarians side that defeated the All Blacks 23–11. Pullin was also the England captain who took England to Ireland after both the Welsh and Scots had refused to play their 1972 Five Nations matches in Dublin because of the Troubles. Of the 18–9 defeat suffered at the hands of the Irish, he later said, to great acclaim at a post-match dinner – ''"We're not much good but at least we turned up"''. Pullin's speech has become part of rugby folklore, and features as the title of the film The Team That Turned Up. He is the first of four England captains to lead and beat all of the "Big Three" Southern Hemisphere sides: , and . As captain, he had 1 win each against Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Death

Pullin died on 5 February 2021, aged 79.

References

External links

Lions profile
1941 births 2021 deaths Bristol Bears players British & Irish Lions rugby union players from England England international rugby union players English rugby union players Gloucestershire County RFU players Rugby union hookers Rugby union players from Gloucestershire 20th-century English sportsmen {{England-rugbyunion-bio-1940s-stub