Ian Mallard: ‘club loyalty is the big thing’

Press, 12 April 1978, Page 18

Ian Mallard: ‘club loyalty is the big thing’

By

RAY CAIRNS

The Linwood senior team wears a strange and different look these days from the great sides of the 1960 s and 1970 s which were always challenging for the senior championship. The McCormicks and the Jellymans, the Gimbletts, the Crons and the Elders have all gone, and Tane Norton is in the twilight of his illustrious career. Through all these comings and goings, however, lan Mallard has remained a constant figure in the scheme of things and now, at 30, he is charged with the captaincy and the task of restoring a differentlooking Linwood side to the heights it attained when he was one of the troops. Facing a season in which both Fergie McCormick and Peter Jellyman — between them scorers of more than 2400 points in senior rugby — have left the scene, Mallard is not worried about Linwood’s prospects. “Footballers are all the same: they have only two arms and two legs, and who knows, those who replace those guys — well, they may not be as good, who could be? But they may be very good players. “The coaches we have had over the years have always placed tremendous emphasis on team loyalty. That sounds hackneyed

and cliched, but club, loyalty is a big thing; it is something that is typical of Linwood teams and players.” It is a shade surprising that Mallard is still only 30. but perhaps the longevity of Linwood senior players has something to do with the illusion. He entered the senior team in 1967, when Andy Holland was concluding his long career, and players like Bob Eastmond, “Jinnah” Mansfield and McCormick even then had been around for years. Now Mallard has seen them all off, and he admits that it often feels he has “been there longer” than the 160 or so senior games he has played. With the exception of missing the first 10 games of last season, when he finally had removed a cartilage that should have been taken out years before, Mallard has been ever-present in the strong Linwood pack. Nor, it seems, does he have any intention of lightly relinquishing the position. “Perhaps I will have only one season more after this, because there are one or two good players down in the grades and I wouldn’t want to hold them up. But I’m in no rush to go, and if a young fellow wants mv place, he will have to earn it.” There is no question

that Mallard is happy with the players he has around him, and his side started impressively against Merivale-Papanui on Saturday. “With the players there, and their attitudes, I’m not having any problems. They are knitting together well, and the team spirit is there. My job is to ensure they do well on the paddock, and what I want is a sense of team involvement.” One way Mallard strives for that is to get different players to take different exercises, “so I’m not cracking the whip all the time.

“You have to get the squad feeling they are all in it together. Take Tane — nothing’s a trouble to him. Sure, it’s an unusual experience, captain over the last All Black captain, but let’s go back to this

club loyalty. He was available to captain the senior team, but he was the first to congratulate me.” Mallard has no illusions about the task of improving Linwood from its seventh placing of last season. “In this year’s team, there are no stars, and the 20 or so have to do it jointly. I think we might surprise a few, and there will be a different style of play. “We are going through a rebuilding period, and these days in club rugby, it is pretty unrealistic to hope to win every game. Those teams in the middle: every one of them provides a hard game.” Mallard himself likes to play “a going-forward game, a running game, and we are hoping for this this year.” Strictly from the personal point of view, he says he likes to “set up the ball, make a short dab, or

steal from the opposition.” But he is clearly reluctant to dwell much on himself. Asked to name the best or most satisfying personal performance, Mallard instead recalled a game at Lancaster Park south in his first season. “There was a howling southerly, and we were never out .of our territory in the first half. We turned round and won 18-0. That match showed tremendous qualities by Linwood; it was players against the elements, not players against players.” No reference to his own contribution, not; an insistence instead that “I prefer to think I am more a cog in the machine and what I do is part of that team thing." It is strange to think that lan Mallard has never played a first-class match, not even when the quality of Canterbury’s loose forwards of the last 10 years

are considered; Wyllie, Cron, Kirkpatrick, Penrose, Matheson, Cochrane, Henderson, and now Harvey and a team-mate, John Phillips. He was in the Canterbury colts for a season or two, has played occasionally for Canterbury B or Town squads in matches outside the firstclass arena. Not that he lacked ambition in his younger days: “Well, I think probably every player hopes to be picked for his province, but I never really expected it, especially in Canterbury. I was actually told to leave the province if I want to play representative rugby, but I was resigned to my position. I didn’t really have the size among the big men.” Mallard has contented himself instead with serving his club most nobly. “I have loved playing for Linwood, for the great cameraderie that a group of use had, on and off the field, during the 19705.” Now the elder statesman of the Linwood team, and one of the most senior players in the senior competition. Mallard has a message for those responsible for the placement of senior matches. Aside from participating in two championship victories, Mallard remembers most fondly a match at Rugby Park in which Linwood beat Lincoln College, 9-6, about six years ago. “That was the best game I played in, and part of it was because there is something special about Rugby Park, something unique in the atmosphere. I think the administrators should play more matches there. “There have been some really good club matches at Lancaster Park, but it has no atmosphere for club play. The public are too far away.”