Battling the Lions: An expert on matters red and black

Fabulous Fergie McCormick, the nuggety Canterbury fullback rated by 1924 Invincibles star Bert Cooke as being on a par with George Nepia, played against three Lions tours in the course of his long and distinguished career.

He rates the 1959 tourists as the best, even though it was the 1971 team who ended his All Black career.

He was dumped after the first test Carisbrook where he was taunted by Barry John (set up by the armchair service he received from Gareth Edwards) who appeared to have the ball on a string. McCormick also missed a couple of easy penalties.

In the bitter encounter with Canterbury a week earlier the Lions coach Carwyn James and John, who sat out the game, had observed Fergie struggling to get under the high ball properly.

John wrote in his autobiography that the Lions were enormously pleased that he was axed.

"Fergie McCormick was a good player and potentially very dangerous." McComick, who had a fearsome reputation as the last line of defence, rated a star of the 1959 side, Tony O'Reilly, as the best wing he faced in his career.

"Although I was young and green at the time [it was only his second appearance for Canterbury] I found that team pretty sharp, blessed with many players of high quality." He reels off the names of several backs who remain sharp in his memory: Ken Scotland, Dave Hewitt, Peter Jackson and Bev Risman. They all displayed considerable skills even though their side lost 14-20 to Canterbury at Lancaster Park.

But most of all he remembers O'Reilly, a dashing and formidable attacker who scored 17 tries on his New Zealand tour.

"I had a single one-on-one confrontation with him, and I managed to bowl him, but I must admit I had some help from Hugh Burry and one of the others." What McCormick neglects to mention is that he twice stopped the other wing, John Young, an international sprinter, in his tracks, and also toppled Hewitt, who had the wood on most New Zealand centres in the country that winter.

McCormick remembers the 1966 Lions team as lacking in cohesion and beset with internal bickering. A Canterbury liaison officer was aghast when Lions captain Michael Campbell- Lamerton ordered soccer balls for the final training run before the third test in Christchurch. That team lost the test series 0-4 to an All Black side boasting arguably the best forward pack in history.

Fergie reckons the series-winning 1971 Lions team was made to look better than it really was by a weakened All Black side plagued by too many changes. He believes that coach Ivan Vodanovich wanted him recalled for the fourth test to replace Laurie Mains, only to be outvoted by his fellow selectors.

In the next three seasons McCormick played the best rugby of his career. His performance for Canterbury against Otago in September 1972 is acclaimed by many as his best.

On that occasion, he spearheaded many Canterbury attacks by running the ball from the rear. Which is why he would enjoy playing rugby these days - "what is wrong with running the ball up?" Brian O'Brien, former editor of the now-defunct Sports Digest, wrote in an article on fullbacks that Fergie McCormick would never be an All Black but would always be remembered as a rugby character. Well, O'Brien was wrong on one point but correct on the other. But you can expect Fergie to play it by the book next month when he welcomes the 2005 Lions to Christchurch as Canterbury Rugby Union president.

Player Snapshot

Played 43 matches for the All Blacks including 16 tests.

Made his debut against the Springboks in 1965.

Against Wales in 1969 he scored 24 points, which at the time was a world record for an individual in tests.

A Canterbury legend, he made a remarkable 222 appearances for the union between 1958 and 1975.