Battling the Lions: Captain's heroics set standard

Few tries in All Black test history have become as enshrined among the game's legends as that scored by Ron Elvidge in the third match of the 1950 series against the Lions at Wellington's now-disused Athletic Park.

It was an episode which could have been stolen straight from the pages of a book for youngsters idealising the courage and heroism inherent to sport.

The All Black captain's try gave the All Blacks the match at 6-3 and with it an unassailable lead in the series.

But the circumstances of his matchwinner late in the game were dramatic.

Just before halftime Elvidge seriously injured his collarbone, a knock which continues to plague him occasionally even now, and also suffered a facial gash which needed stitches.

He was led from the field shaken and, as photographs show, in obvious agony. But early in the second spell he returned to the match and adopted a roaming role among the backs despite being a virtual spectator.

He went back on only because the All Blacks had already been reduced to 14 men through a crippling knee injury to prop Johnny Simpson.

But rather than basking in praise for the heroism he showed, Elvidge has always preferred to concentrate on the wider implications of his return.

And that was the fact that at the time international rugby - in contrast to New Zealand's domestic policy, even to the highest representative levels - forbade replacements, even for players like Simpson and Elvidge who had been seriously injured.

Elvidge was a medical man, a graduate of Otago University who subsequently became a leading gynaecologist and obstetrician in Auckland, and it has always been the risk to players' health and well being which has most rankled him about the injury.

"If it had not been for the rules I'd have not gone back," says Elvidge, now 81 and living in retirement at Herald Island on the outskirts of Auckland.

"I'd have to say the rules of the time were absolutely stupid and dangerous." By coincidence, he had a direct interest in the match at Eden Park 15 years later which played a big role in the no-replacement rule at last being relaxed. His nephew Denis, a prop studying at Lincoln College in Canterbury, was in the New Zealand Universities side hammered 55-11 by the Springboks largely because the Varsities were reduced to 12 men through injuries to Mick Williment, Chris Laidlaw and Ian Uttley.

Elvidge and his brother, John, with whom he sat in the stand, could not contain their anger at what quickly became a farce and a debacle as 12 players tried to battle 15.

Thankfully, the International Rugby Board came to its senses soon after, though it is much to Elvidge's bemusement that replacement rules in the modern professional era seem to have gone to the other extreme, with players subbed on for non-injured players even for just a few seconds.

That is just one of the many things which bewilders Elvidge. For example, he finds it hard to get used to halfbacks such as Justin Marshall and Piri Weepu, who are about the same size as himself. A midfield back at about 1.80m and more than 82kg, Elvidge was considered to be a big man in his playing hey-day.

But all of his rugby watching is confined to his lounge and watching telecasts (replays, he points out, because he doesn't have Sky) and he is reluctant to be too scathing of modern rugby.

"It's comparing apples with oranges," he says. He does wonder, though, at the frequency with which backs today are confronted with props and locks.

Of his 1950 match against the Lions, which was to be his last, and his try, Elvidge also prefers to be circumspect. He says that in any case, he does not recall too much about the try. "I know Cleaver [the Lions fullback] was in front of me and Peter Johnstone [the loose forward shifted to the All Blacks backs because of the injuries] was beside me.

"I was still shaky and groggy and it was because of that I decided to have a go at Cleaver myself. I was scared that had I passed to Peter, my handicap might not have meant the ball even reaching him." Elvidge believes that the Lions, opposed by only six forwards, should really have won. But he has enormous praise for the severely depleted All Black pack, especially the loose forward Pat Crowley who was inspirational.