From 1967, John and Edwards made an inseparable partnership with rugby selectors, being chosen to play together at all levels of the sport, for Cardiff, Wales, the Barbarians and in 1968 for the British Lions' tour of South Africa.

[4] He once played a game for rival team Pontyberem while still a schoolboy, but John recalls in his autobiography that the local resentment at making such a sporting faux pas ensured he never did so again.

[7] He continued to represent Llanelli while at Trinity College, Carmarthen, and gained a reputation as a kicking fly-half with a penchant for putting over dropped goals.

One of the trials forced him to miss the second Swansea encounter of the season, played away on 12 November 1966; his place in the Llanelli team was given to a youth debutant from the Felinfoel club, Phil Bennett.

[12] In 1966, John was awarded his first international cap for Wales, taking Watkins' place at fly-half for the match against the touring Australia team.

[13][14] This was seen as a surprise move by the Welsh Rugby Union selectors, as Watkins had recently returned from a British Lions tour where he was team captain.

[15] Although experiencing defeat in his first international, John managed to gain revenge over Australia just over a month later when the same team faced Llanelli at Stradey Park.

John regained his international place after Watkins had switched to professional rugby league just the month before, joining Salford for a club record fee of £16,000.

[19] After 22 minutes East Wales took the lead when a missed drop goal attempt from John was collected by Cardiff wing Frank Wilson for a try.

[20] Three days after turning out for East Wales, John and Edwards were paired to face the same New Zealand team, this time played at Twickenham for invitational touring side the Barbarians.

[23] John was selected for the British Lions in their tour of South Africa in 1968, but played in just four games before an injury forced him to return home.

The Welsh selectors had dropped five players from the previous Championship, and notable debutants in the team to face Scotland at Murrayfield on 1 February 1969 were J.P.R.

[27] When Ireland came to Cardiff Arms Park in March the team was on a seven-match unbeaten run, and were looking at taking the Grand Slam after defeating England, France and Scotland.

[28] Wales won 24–11, with Dai Morris the stand-out Welsh player, though John also had one of his best matches, keeping pressure on the Irish with long touch kicks and scoring with a dropped goal.

[37] John was unavailable for the encounter having fractured a rib while playing for the Barbarians against an Oxford University Past and Present team eleven days earlier.

[49] The second game of the Championship, played against Scotland, was a close encounter, won by Wales 19–18 thanks to a late Gerald Davies try converted by John Taylor.

[52] Seen as one of Wales' more accomplished victories, the 23–0 win gave the team a Triple Crown title, and set up a Grand Slam encounter with France.

[58] Under the management of Doug Smith and the coaching of Carwyn James (also from Cefneithin), John rose to great individual heights with his match-winning performances.

John dummied a drop-goal before running through the Universities' defence, stepping inside the final tackler before touching the ball down under the posts, stunning the home crowd.

[25] The second Test, played at Christchurch, finished with the series drawn after New Zealand won 22–12, John scoring half of the Lions points.

[68][69] The Welsh Rugby Union's refusal to allow travel to Ireland stole the team's possibility of a consecutive Grand Slam title.

As the authors of the official history of the Welsh Rugby Union, David Smith and Gareth Williams wrote of John: The clue to an understanding of his achieved style lies in what he could make others do to themselves.

The kicking, whether spinning trajectories that rolled away or precise chips or scudding grubbers, was a long-range control, but his running, deft, poised, a fragile illusion that one wrong instant could crack, yet rarely did, was the art of the fly-half at its most testing.

[77]Gareth Edwards, in his 1978 autobiography, when describing John, wrote: He had this marvellous easiness in the mind, reducing problems to their simplest form, backing his own talent all the time.

In his 2011 book Appy, businessman and football manager Meirion Appleton said that in the 1970s he made illegal payments to both John and Gareth Edwards.

[86] His early schooling was at Cefneithin Primary, and after failing his eleven-plus exam he spent a year at Cross Hands senior centre.

[90] John moved to Cardiff and shared a house with several other rugby players, including former Llanelli team mate Gerald Davies.

[93] Following an interview with David Coleman for the BBC programme, Sportsnight, in which his jobless situation was discussed, John was offered a job working for Forward Trust, a finance company in Cardiff.

[94] When John quit playing rugby in 1972, he also left his job as a finance representative, signing a contract to write a weekly column and cover important matches for the Daily Express.

[99][100] A family statement read: "Barry John died peacefully today at the University Hospital of Wales surrounded by his loving wife and four children.