Ray Gravell flattened Clive Woodward to the ground every time he worked as a pundit at Wales games

Sir Clive Woodward and Ray Gravell were not the most obvious buddies — Woodward the think-outside-the-box Englishman who went to naval school and Loughborough University, Gravell the passionate Carmarthenshire native and son of a collier who would run through brick walls for Wales.

But bond the pair did on the British and Irish Lions tour of South Africa in 1980.

It was an unlikely coupling in so many respects. Grav had been the player who led the Welsh team in impromptu unaccompanied singing of Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau when the band at Twickenham failed to play the Welsh national anthem ahead of the England v Wales game in 1976. Mervyn Davies later said: "I recall Grav, as a Welsh nationalist, being incensed. He was not going to play until he had sung it so he started singing and we all joined in. It felt like an insult to the Welsh but it galvanised us."

Remembering Ray Gravell, a special man of great standing

It would not be hard to imagine the bearded warrior battling the English in ancient times.

Yet he and the future England head coach Woodward got along famously.

An anniversary quietly passed virtually unnoticed last week with it being 40 years to the day that Mynydd-y-garreg's finest played his final match for Wales. They lost 34-18 to Scotland in Cardiff. The next time they took the field, their side showed 10 changes, including one at outside centre. An era had truly ended.

But the memories linger.

Earlier this term, Woodward paid his old room-mate and co-centre with the Lions a nice tribute on what would have been the late Grav's 70th birthday. "I have lots of memories of Ray Gravell and it’s strange that internationally, we never played against each other," said the now pundit.

"We both got picked for the Lions