The Wales World Cup squad has been forged in principles of Rhondda Valley rugby union country, just as the last one was in 1958. Rob Page and Jimmy Murphy, the managers of the respective squads, were brought up three miles apart in adjacent valleys, on opposite ends of the hilltop St Mary’s Wells, one of the nation’s most sacred sites.
The two never met before Murphy’s death, though modesty is a characteristic they share. Murphy, Sir Matt Busby’s assistant at Manchester United, never liked a fuss.
He never discussed how the young players, who viewed him as a father, were killed in the Munich air disaster, which he avoided by taking Wales to a World Cup play-off in 1958.