Record beckons Lynagh

Press, 12 June 1987, Page 21

Record beckons Lynagh

By

ROBERT WOODWARD

NZPA-Reuter Sydney Australia's Michael Lynagh is a sporting all-rounder who thinks of his golf swing when he kicks goals and amasses rugby points with the same appetite that the cricketer, Don Bradman, scored runs. Lynagh enters the final stages of the inaugural World Cup requiring just eight points in tomorrow’s semifinal against France to beat the Australian test points record of 260, held by Paul Mac Lean. He has amassed his 253 points in just 19 tests, a striking rate of more than 13 points a game, which puts him alongside Argentina’s Hugo Porta and South Africa’s Naas Botha in the premier division of kicking metronomes. Mac Lean needed 31 tests between 1967 and 1982 to put together his tally and earn the honour of having the grandstand named after him at Brisbane’s Ballymore ground, the venue of Sunday’s semi-final between Wales and New Zealand. However, purely kicking comparisons between the two

Queenslanders do Lynagh an injustice, because his value to the Wallabies spreads far beyond his ability to boot goals. After a slow start to the tournament against England — his first game for three weeks after a knee injury.—

Lynagh has proved the Australians’ most potent attacking force, running the threequarter line with verve and courage. Unlike many first fiveeighths who avoid the physical side of the job, Lynagh tackles like a tiger and is prepared to “die” with the ball rather than put a teammate in trouble. “Noddy,” as Lynagh is known by his team-mates, for reasons now forgotten, has the natural ball-player’s knack of instinctively knowing the right option. Lynagh put his kicking success down to rhythm. “When I practise I think of golf. The main thing in golf is rhythm and that’s what I’m after,” he said. The Australian uses the round-the-corner kicking style, a legacy of his love of soccer when a boy. Lynagh, the son of a Brisbane sports psychologist, made his Queensland debut at 18 as Mac Lean’s successor and played his first test for Australia against Fiji in June, 1984, when he kicked three goals.