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"We heard a rumour that someone in the Exeter camp called us soft, so we had to make a point," Ludlow told TNT Sports in the wake of a 79-17 thrashing at Kingsholm.

Ludlow's team-mate Christian Wade went on to suggest one of Exeter's Welsh players was the source of the misguided assessment and Gloucester's motivation, narrowing the possible candidates down to a handful.

Now 98 and living in Ludlow, Shropshire, Mr Mason added: "We also thought the Germans were losing and weren't in good fighting condition and this'll be easy – but it wasn't. We had a very high casualty rate."

Or, to take a different issue, workers’ rights: A strike that had simmered in the Colorado coalfields for a year exploded in April 1914 with “Bloody Ludlow,” when state guards torched a miners tent colony, killing 11 women and children.

His family have been farming near Ludlow in Shropshire for over a century, with arable crops and livestock on their 420 acres.