‘The team that found itself’, by the man never lost for a word

Press, 18 July 1979, Page 25

‘The team that found itself’, by the man never lost for a word

New Zealand rugby owes a tremendous debt to Terry McLean. A critic who criticises, as McLean has never been afraid to do, will always step on a few toes and McLean has left more rugby folk hobbling, and mumbling darkly, than any undisciplined pack. But in his writings, 23 books on rugby topics, McLean has provided the sport with an invaluable legacy. His latest volume, “Mourie’s All Blacks, the team that found itself” has been slow in reaching the bookstands, but as with all McLean’s tour books, he saw things that escaped other authors. Last year’s tour was a silver jubilee one for McLean, marking 25 years since he first toured Brit-

ain with Bob Stuart’s All Blacks and he missed none in between. This gives him the right, which he exercises frequently, to delve into the past and draw scholarly comparisons with the players of different generations. As also is his habit, McLean formulates many of his conclusions from conversations with people, both well-known and obscure, that he encountered. There are, in fact, more characters in the book than a village telephone directory.

McLean earned the displeasure of many of Mourie’s All Blacks for some of his daily newspaper reports; there is even a hint of pride in his description of a hangman’s humour presentation the

side made him just before it left London. It is little surprising, therefore, that McLean should be generous, almost to a fault, in his praise for Mourie’s side. He chides only gently John Ashworth for the “Bridgend incident” and there is no righteous thundering about Andy Haden’s line-out dive, at Cardiff or his king-hit of Alistair McHarg in the Scottish test. The one incident that really raises McLean’s ire is the haka move the All Blacks tried unsuccessfully against the Barbarians. And, even more inexecusable is that such a mockery should be enacted on Cardiff Arms Park, of all places. As a penetrative and academic review of an historic tour, McLean’s bouK is hard to fault. His attention to detail is meticulous and if some of his conclusions are arguable they are soundly based nonetheless.

The one exception might be an assertion that Clive Currie was invalided from the tour by a brutal assault, rather than a tackle. Currie made no such accusation. McLean squarely attributes the success of the tour to the quality of the leadership. There is high praise for Russell Thomas (“the most accomplished manager of any team I have travelled with”), Jack Gleeson and Graham Mourie, although he seemingly found Mourie a hard man to get to know. He also stresses the importance of the tackle bags the All Blacks used in practice to the side’s success. The bags, he says, turned the team into the most powerful tackling side of his experience. (Where were the bags last week? one might ask.) There is a touch of vintage “McLeanism” in his disappointment that Mr Thomas did not speak out after the “Bridgend incident,” when, he reveals

for the first time, that Mr Thomas prepared a statement, but never released it because of a fear that newspapers, for reasons of space or sensationalism, might cut or vary it. Although approaching his three score years and 10, no-one could confidently predict that this will be McLean’s last book. He is a wordsmith of gigantic statue and while “Mourie’s Men” might rank slightly below some of his earlier tour books it is a full and fascinating account of a tour that deserves all the kudos a somewhat mellowed McLean freely dispenses.

The photographs, which are lumped together on 16 pages in the heart of the books, are well chosen and, as always with McLean’s volumes, the captions are intriguingly written. The same goes for some of the chapter headings. “Mourie’s All Blacks, The team that found itself” (Hodder and Stoughten Ltd, 184 pp., $10.75) must because of the standing of its author, rank first and foremost among the "approved” versions of last year’s tour. It is also a worthy addition to the marvellous chronicle McLean has compiled of post-war New Zealand rugby. — K.J.M.