Hugo, Larry attract fans

Press, 16 July 1983, Page 1

Hugo, Larry attract fans

The 1983 Lions will not be remembered as one of the great rugby combinations to tour New Zealand, and many adult followers of the game will even brand them as deficient in certain techniques, or lacking in flair. But to children, the Lions rank with pop stars and Hollywood cartoon characters as subjects for awe and admiration. The player chiefly deserving of credit for this state of affairs is Hugo Mac Neill, the Irish full-back, who has humped the team’s bulky mascot, Larry the Lion, all round New Zealand. Mac Neill, a personable young man, has not offered one word of complaint at being turned into a sort of comic cuts zoo-keeper. Rather, he has been amazed at the response this large brown and white stuffed animal has evoked from primary school children throughout New Zealand. Fan mail addressed to “Larry the Lion” has been received by the team since the tour began. From one school alone in Greymouth came 200 letters, containing questions about how Larry was enjoying New Zealand food, and why was he not growling more to perk up his players. Mac Neill has been Larry’s honorary keeper since the tour began, and he has visited as many as five

From John Brooks, in Auckland

schools in a day with his furry charge. Even though the Lions have lost three tests, their appeal to the youngsters of New Zealand has not diminished, thanks to a simple mascot. The Lions have made a point of visiting schools wherever they have travelled, and Mac Neill has always been first to volunteer to show the flag — or the lion. But it was his fellow Irishman, Ollie Campbell, who received the most touching gesture, when he visited a Catholic school in Hamilton this week. ’ The children presented the demon goalkicker with $3OO which they had raised to give to his sister who works with Mother Theresa among the starving people of Calcutta. Test preview, back page