Dusty Hare Midlands’ hero

Press, 10 November 1983, Page 38

Dusty Hare Midlands’ hero

From DON CAMERON William Henry Hare, farmer, will go out and buy some sheep today and if justice is done he should get them at bargain rates. For William Henry, otherwise known as “Dusty,” the balding 29-year-old fullback, became the great hero of Leicester with two incredible goals which finished off the Midlands 19-13 win over the All Blacks at Leicester yesterday morning.

With the score at 13-13, Hare, from two metres inside his half at 16 from touch, kicked a penalty goal

for 16-13. Four minutes later and with 12 minutes to play Hare fielded a loose kick and from one metre inside his half and 12 from touch dropped the goal which sealed the famous win.

“I thought that penalty goal had a chance as I hit it well,” said the beaming Hare afterwards.

Was the dropped goal a desperation effort? “No, not really. I caught the ball well and had plenty of time to line things up. I hit it very sweetly.”

For Hare, who has played five losing games against

the All Blacks and who was not treated kindly by the test selectors during the British Lions tour of New Zealand this year, the goals and the victory were sweet repayment.

“It is nice to let the people in New Zealand know that ‘Dusty’ is still around,” he said. Hare’s dropped goal really shook the All Blacks: “He had just got that penalty goal from the other side of half-way,” said Stuart Wilson, the All Black captain, “and then he had the cheek to line up a pot from about the same dis-

tance. “I thought to myself: ‘No, not two in a row, he couldn’t get two in a row.’ “Sure enough, he got it, the last nail in our coffin.” Yesterday’s loss to Midlands was the fourteenth defeat All Black teams have suffered in 12 tours of Britain.

The last loss was in 1979 to North of England and the grand slam team of 1978 won all four tests, but lost to the Irish side at Munster. Since 1905 All Black teams have played 231 matches in Britain, won 209, drawn eight and lost 14.