As we build up to the Ireland-Wales showdown how strange that 30 years almost to the day after Wales' triple Triple Crown glory in Dublin many of those wonderful players from the 1970s gathered one more time under the same roof today.

It was in the Gwent village of Mathern though for a desperately sad occasion, the funeral of Gerry Lewis.

He was the physio and baggage man for the great teams right through that golden decade, but he was no ordinary physio.

He was the confidante for so many of them, a father figure close to them all and looking after them as he would members of his own family.

He had three different practices in Newport over three decades, the most popular being the White House on Bassaleg Road and they were packed all day and every day - I know for I had treatment at all three from the ever affable Gerry.

Members of the public mingled with the likes of Gareth Edwards and Gerald Davies as they were all treated with equal enthusisam and dedication by the man dubbed Mr Magic Fingers' and Wales' 16th man during the seventies.

Gareth, Gerald, JPR Williams, Mervyn Davies, John Dawes - they all acknowledge the great debt they owed to Gerry who gave of his time equally to members of great Southern Hemisphere touring teams at his surgeries.

I don't know how he did it, working that slender frame through hour after hour of back breaking massage and other forms of treatment - and all for nothing, for his position with the Welsh Rugby Union was entirely unpaid. Imagine that now!

Gerry was on duty for over 100 Welsh internationals. We will never see his like again.