In 1974, after England finished at the foot of the Five Nations table, attention turned to a tour of Australia where a selection experiment saw young blood given a chance. The Australians, who needed little prompting when it came to taking offence from any sleight from Mother England, real or imagined, decided they were not being taken seriously enough - and opted for boot and 'biff' as their menu of retribution. After winning the first Test in Sydney 16-9, hostilities were renewed a week later in Brisbane where in the opening minutes the Australian forwards started swinging punches in a premeditated mass assault.
The upshot was that Mike Burton sought retribution and he became the first England international player to be sent off. With England reduced to 14 men after just three minutes the Australians clinched the series. Yet at no stage during the 30-21 loss did the tourists capitulate and afterwards the RFU was so incensed that they considered cancelling Australia's return fixture at Twickenham.
In the superb new book 'Behind the Rose', Stephen Jones and Nick Cain spoke to several key English protagonists and this was their account of the original Battle of Ballymore.
Tony Neary: We treated that 1975 trip to Australia as an experimental tour, and the Wallabies decided that they should be treated better than that. You could see what would happen - it was planned intimidation. It's the way Australia approaches any game, and it's what you expect if you go on their patch. We had a young fly-half, Alan Wordsworth, and a lock, Bob Wilkinson, both from Cambridge University, on their first tours. It was not the place to blood them.
Chris Ralston: I was dropped by England for the Australia tour in 1975, and didn't win another cap. They said it was due to a bad knee, but it upset me because in my view I was okay to tour.
Roger Uttley: The most annoying thing was the selection of young guys like Alan Wordsworth and Steve Callum when guys like Alan Old and Peter Dixon were left behind and both had to be flown out mid-tour. I was concussed during the first Test. I got smacked and I can remember bawling my eyes out in the toilets afterwards.
The Australians viewed it as payback time for their defeats at Twickenham. It is a great country to tour, but their coach, Dave Brockhoff, was a nutcase, and they wanted to make a name - I suppose a former colony wanting to make a point. They had punchers like Steve Finnane and Ray Price, but also some very good players, and that along with home referees and injuries to key players like Tony Neary and Fran Cotton meant it was all uphill.
Alastair Hignell: England had a disastrous 1975 Five Nations Championship, and then I got this card saying that I'd been picked to go on tour to Australia that summer. By that time I had gone from scrum-half, where I had played for Bristol the previous season, to fullback for Cambridge, and then as soon as the Varsity match was over, back to scrum-half. That's why I asked, 'Who's the other scrum-half?' Only to be told that I had been selected as one of two uncapped fullbacks, along with Peter Butler. England took a whole load of youngsters: at fly-half Wordsworth and Neil Bennett had one cap between them, and at scrum-half Richard Harding and Brian Ashton also had no caps.
I remember the first Test in Sydney mostly for cricketing reasons, because at the time my main focus was cricket, as I was on Gloucestershire's books. It was at the SCG and the rugby pitch was right across the cricket square, which I thought was sacrilege.
From the kick-off at Ballymore in the second Test there was kicking, punching and stamping from the Australian pack. Our blokes had had enough of being pushed around by that Test. Dave Brockhoff and John Burgess were both tub-thumping coaches of the 'no step backwards' approach, and they whipped their players into a frenzy.
After the punch-up farce the referee blew and gave us a penalty. However Mike Burton had unfinished business with their prop MacDougall and dropped the nut on him. The referee reversed the decision and when Australia missed the penalty we cleared to them. Their winger Osborne caught it and ran the ball back when Burton intercepted him with his elbow. For anyone to be sent off in an international back then was extraordinary. You thought it was the forwards sorting it out, as often happened, but you didn't expect him to be sent off. I think Burto had also been sent off in my first game for Gloucestershire!
From there it was 14 men, and we knew it would be uphill. We learned later that at half-time Brockhoff got a message from the president of the Australian Rugby Union which said, 'Brock, call them off.'
We lost 30-21, and when we played Australia at Twickenham the following season there was a strong appeal by the RFU president to both sets of players not to indulge in anything like that ever again. We beat them 23-6 by turning good old English tactics on them on a better surface for us, and scoring three tries to nil. I kicked a few penalties as well, although you didn't worry too much about percentages in those days.
Fran Cotton: I injured my back in the second match of the tour and took no further part. Tony Neary, the captain, ended the tour with a rib injury in the first Test, Brian Ashton had to fly home on a personal matter, and half a dozen players were on the injured list before the last game. It was most revealing that the tour party seemed to be strengthened every time a replacement arrived from home, which served to emphasise the weakness of the initial selection. A scapegoat had to be found afterwards and John Burgess, the coach, resigned.
Bill Beaumont: The turning point for me was Australia in 1975 where I replaced Tony Neary in the first Test after he broke his ribs. I played quite well. And then I propped every scrum in the Battle of Ballymore when Burton got sent off. When I came back with three caps I thought, 'Well, I may never play again, now that I have three caps under my belt.' But then the drive was to play at Twickenham.
Roger Uttley: The Battle of Ballymore. They kicked off to us, and it was premeditated. They just ran through and smacked anything in white. When Mike Burton was sent off I thought the world had gone crazy - just Pommy bashing, hitting anyone. In the England side there were not many who would have a go apart from Nigel Horton and Fran Cotton, although Mike (Burton) would dive in and out if there was trouble.
Mike Burton: The first thing to say about the Battle of Ballymore when I became the first Englishman to be sent off - and this was after 103 years of international rugby - is that I never, ever had any regrets about what I did. It was the second Test of a brutal series in which Australia set out to treat us like dogs; the opening stages of the second Test were like a war, they were kicking and punching everything as if it was a war - as if on a pre-arranged signal. The scenes were astonishing.
Thirteen years later, I took Andrew, my son, to Australia and I took him to Ballymore and showed him the place on the field. They had cleaned up all the blood. At some point, someone sent me a DVD of it and my grandchildren gathered round to watch. They saw all the fighting, a head-butt by me, and all that sort of thing, and it was quite a sobering moment. They were all there eating sweets and fruit and watching the film. 'Cor,' they said.
Right at the kick-off they started pummelling us, and kicking us, and in charge was a local Queensland referee, Bob Burnett, refereeing an international in Queensland - he didn't find anyone to send off in the Australia team, even though Ray Price of Australia must have thrown 14 punches. This is why I would not have done it any other way. Before the sending-off I got in a head-butt on MacDougall in the earlier shamozzle, and Burnett saw it. He said, 'Burton, I saw that Gloucester kiss.' Someone had to step up and react to what they were doing. Just after that incident I was warning Australian players. 'Burton's got the biff on,' someone shouted. After only three minutes played, I followed up a kick a long way down the field and late-tackled Doug Osborne, the Australian wing. I was sent off. It was unfortunate because that left 14 men, and Bill Beaumont never forgave me because he had to spend 77 minutes as a tight-head prop.
Now we have a bit of a laugh about it. The other chap wasn't actually mortally injured. And as for the late tackle, there were only three minutes of play gone so it couldn't have been that late! Bill got that joke and he used to use it on A Question of Sport. He filched the story. I am not concerned if the incident gave me any notoriety, which it did. It was a reflection of the way I played the game. At Pontypool, or Gloucester, no-one would have said anything about the tackle.
Alan Morley: My last two Tests came on the 1975 tour to Australia. They were just out to beat us up, and in the second Test when Mickey Burton retaliated and was sent off after slotting their wing Osborne - he arrived as quickly as he could - we were up against it. You cannot play an international with 14 men.
Fran Cotton: Australia will never know just how close they came to having the English part of their British tour cancelled for the following season. When Mike was sent off I immediately rushed down to the changing rooms to console him. Already in there was Billy Beaumont having stitches put in his eye which had been cut during the brawl at the kick- off. As I put an arm around my tearful colleague the door burst open and Ken Chapman [RFU President], Alec Lewis [tour manager] and John Burgess stormed in, their anger being directed at the Australian Rugby Union, and not towards the disconsolate England player who was the first to be sent off while wearing the white jersey. Chapman was fuming, threatening to cancel the following season's tour and was about to leave the ground in disgust. The emotional Burgess was having none of it. 'No-one is leaving this ground while there are Englishmen out there.'