World of Boxing and Rugby Union
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4. Willie John McBride
Willie-John McBride didn’t start playing until he was seventeen years old but boy did he make up for it! 2nd row players need the size and genuine jumping ability to dominate and not just compete in the line outs. Willie-John did this and had the immense strength to power the props into the scrum. The whole front five should engage as one tight unit not as five individuals, under his tutorship this was always the case. He was also mobile enough to get quickly around the pitch.
Although he played 63 times for Ireland in a 13-year international career, 11 times as captain, Willie John McBride will forever be associated with the British and Irish Lions, with whom he toured five times and won 17 caps. Although he had to play nine Tests before tasting success, he was a key member of two of the most successful tours in the history of the Lions - New Zealand in 1971 and South Africa in 1974.
Against the All Blacks he was pack leader. In South Africa three years later he was captain of the team and led his squad to an unprecedented unbeaten tour and a series win. As I previously stated McBride did not pick up a rugby ball until his late teens. But by the time he was 21 he was already a full international and had played his first two tests for the Lions against the Springboks in 1962.
Originally from Ulster, he was a genial man off the field, regularly disarming hotel managers who were
irate at the behaviour of some of the players. But on the paddock it was a different matter.
He also tasted success in the emerald green of Ireland, notably in their first win against the Springboks in 1965 and when Ireland beat Australia in Sydney - the first time a Home Nation had defeated a southern hemisphere team in their own country.
McBride retired from international rugby in 1975. Fittingly he scored his only try for Ireland in his last international at Lansdowne Road against France although his final game would be against Wales in Cardiff.
Inevitably for such a legendary player McBride went into coaching and guided the Ireland team for a period. He also managed the 1983 Lions tour to New Zealand which, it is fair to say, was not as successful as his playing experiences there in 1971.
It is astonishing to think he participated for the Lions in 1962, 1966, 1968, 1971 and 1974. McBride's outstanding leadership qualities led to his appointment as captain of the 1974 Lions tour to South Africa. The Test series was won 3-0, with one match drawn — the first Lions series ever won in South Africa. It was one of the most controversial and physical Test match series ever played. The management of the Lions concluded that the Springboks dominated their opponents with physical aggression and so decided to match fire with fire. Willie John McBride instigated a policy of "one in, all in" - that is, when one Lion retaliated, all other Lions were expected to join in the melee or hit the nearest Springbok.