AS THE MOST capped British and Irish Lions player of all time, the legendary leader of the 1974 Lions victory over the Springboks, and the instigator of the ’99 call,’ Willie John McBride knows a thing or two about winning against the odds.
“You have to have the belief,” he says, speaking from his home in Ballyclare, Co Antrim. “When you play a sport at that level, confidence is a massive thing.”
Not only did McBride oversee a ruthless win over the Springboks in ’74, he was also part of the first (and last) Lions squad to win a tour in New Zealand.
That distinct honour was earned back in 1971, when John Dawes’ side won two Test matches and drew one to overcome a seemingly invincible All Blacks team, astounding everyone – not least the Kiwis.
“In New Zealand there’s a psyche about rugby,” McBride explains.
The All Blacks don’t accept anything other than winning. They’ll say it themselves, and I’ve heard them say it: winning is not everything, it’s the only thing. That’s how they think.
With this year’s return to New Zealand off to a shaky start for the Lions following their 22-16 loss to the Blues in game two of the series, it’d be easy to write the 2017 tour off as a no-hoper, but McBride remains hopeful.
We have the talent to win this year. Sam Warburton has the respect of the players. We just need to cut out the mistakes. Be more aggressive, go in among them and don’t let them breathe. That’s what’s most important now in these early stages.
Does McBride reckon the ’71 squad had a tougher ride than the Lions today, given that they were an amateur team facing into a brutal schedule of 26 games, versus today’s ten-game tour? Yes and no, he says.
“We were in Australia and New Zealand for four and a half months in total, so there was time to get used to the country, to the people, to the other men on the team.”
There may be fewer games this year versus the same tour 46 years ago, but the timetable is far less forgiving now, in McBride’s view:
Playing your first game three days after arriving in New Zealand – that wouldn’t have happened back then, but it’s standard these days.
As for captaining a Lions team, as McBride did so successfully in ’74, does he think it takes a certain quality of player to lead a team to victory?
“It’s a different set of responsibilities now to when I was captain,” he says.
“There’s a lot more tactical work in it. Back then it was all about motivating the players and talking to them on the field. They’d never even consider taking the captain out of play during the game as they might do now. I never left the field in my life. If I’d been asked to I would have told them to stuff it.”
Sam Warburton’s second turn as Lions captain has been plagued by injuries, with Alun Wyn Jones stepping in to take his place for Saturday’s game against the Crusaders in Christchurch, but McBride reckons Warburton still has the confidence of his team.
As long as he stays close to the players, he’ll do just fine. When I was captain, I made sure to sit with a different table of players for dinner every night. No favourites. I needed to be all things to all men.
As for the first Test match on June 24th, McBride will be watching the action live in Dublin at an exclusive outdoor screening for fans hosted by Standard Life Investments, a Principal Partner for this year’s Lions. “I’ll be speaking on a panel with Paul O’Connell and some others,” he says of the event.
There’ll be lots to discuss, no doubt. Of course, if all else fails during the Test, Warburton could always turn to the one thing that worked for McBride – the now-legendary 99 call.
“It’s a bit of a myth, but it served a purpose,” McBride laughs, recalling the moment his team turned on the Springboks during their third Test match in Port Elizabeth, throwing some punches to teach them a lesson.
These days, McBride plays the whole incident down. “There were a couple of reasonably organised fracas,” he says. ”It sorted out a few problems and stopped all of the nonsense. It couldn’t happen these days, of course, but it worked for us then. At the end of the day, we weren’t there to mess about. We just wanted to play rugby.”
Fancy joining Lions legends like Willie John McBride and Paul O’Connell to watch the first British & Irish Lions Test match live in Dublin on Saturday June 24th?
To celebrate being a Principal Partner of The British & Irish Lions and jersey sponsor of the 2017 tour to New Zealand, Standard Life Investments is giving ten lucky winners a four-person family pass to its world class viewing event in Fitzwilliam Square Dublin, with kick off at 8.35am. Younger guests are even invited to pick up tips from the greats at an exclusive Rugby Legends Mini Camp after the match. Enter here for a chance to attend.
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