At 67 years old, John Gadd has finally received the recognition he earned on the rugby field more than four decades ago. The former Gloucester flanker is among 47 players awarded retrospective England caps by the Rugby Football Union (RFU) for international appearances that weren't officially recognized at the time.
Gadd played for England against Fiji in 1982 and Canada in 1983 at Twickenham, but those matches weren't considered capped games during that era. "In our day, playing against Fiji was never a capped game," Gadd explained. "It was more or less the home nations games and usually Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, and then anything else was considered not capped."
Despite playing the full 80 minutes in both matches, Gadd remained uncapped until now. "I feel I earned my cap at least," he said, noting the contrast with modern players who receive caps for similar fixtures.
The RFU's initiative identifies players dating back to 1945 who represented England's "best available" men's team against another nation's top XV but weren't capped before or after those matches. A ceremony honoring these players is scheduled for later this year.
"For any player in any generation, the ultimate is to play for your country and to get a cap, and now the nice thought is that my son and my grandchildren will be able to look in the records and see that I got a cap," Gadd told BBC Radio Gloucestershire.
Gadd, who played alongside England and British and Irish Lions international Mike Teague at Gloucester, had long given up hope of receiving this honor. "It's more than 40 years now. I thought the opportunity had passed by," he admitted. "All these years I've thought about it and now it's come to fruition, so it's a bit unreal. Surreal."
The veteran expressed mixed emotions about the delayed recognition, wishing his parents and rugby-mad uncle could have witnessed the moment. The RFU continues searching for families of 28 additional players they've been unable to contact for this retrospective honor program.