Battling the Lions: Heartbreak for a £10 Pom

Don Clarke's try: 'Oh, the heartbreak.'

For New Zealanders, he was a hero dressed in black. For opponents he was a devil in the same colours.

And for a 14-year-old Pommie - and thousands of others around the world - Don Clarke broke our hearts.

The 1959 Lions tour was a prime example. The tourists lost the first test in Dunedin 18-17 despite scoring four tries to none. Clarke kicked six penalties.

But the Lions appeared set to take the second test in Wellington, leading 8-6 with a minute to go. Then up popped Clarke to score the winning try.

It's hard to believe, but tries were worth only three points then.

I had arrived in this country as a £10-assisted Pom along with my parents, brother and two sisters.

We settled in Hawera, South Taranaki, and on my first day at school I arrived in long trousers, socks and shoes. Much to my surprise, boys were running around in shorts and kicking this funny-shaped ball with bare feet.

It was mid-winter and I believed it must have been a poor area, much like parts of London we had left.

No, it was part of the Kiwi heartland, and within a few days I had "dressed down".

To a weedy, bow-legged, pasty-faced youth, rugby was a foreign sport. My sporting diet had comprised soccer.

The coach threw me into the forward pack, but after one match - and several bruises - I asked for a job out on the wing. We were not much of a team and the ball rarely got along the back line, so I was in seventh-heaven.

I had never seen a major match until 1959. The excitement of the Lions tour was as great in those days as it is now. The major difference then was that they played many more games and getting into them was much easier (no ballots).

A week before the Athletic Park test the Lions took on Taranaki (the Ranfurly Shield holders). Hundreds of us kids were taken to the Hawera railway station to wave to the team as they travelled north from Wanganui to New Plymouth. They stopped for 20 minutes and there was a mad scramble for autographs.

Pride of place among mine were those of first five-eighth Bev Risman, who later turned to league with considerable success, halfback Dickie Jeeps, who the following year became the first player to be selected for three Lions tours and 23-year-old Irish winger Tony O'Reilly who, with his red hair and dashing looks, had become a pin-up boy (little did I know that many, many years later he would become my boss).

Then came the big day - August 15. I can't remember how I and countless numbers of other pupils from around the country were picked to attend the game, but we were and travelled to the big smoke in the usual mode of transport those days - by railcar. They were bone-shaking affairs with little in the way of comfort. What the hell, it was fun.

I had never been to Wellington and the size of it, and the number of people, took my breath away. It seemed light years away from little Hawera.

The crowd poured over the fences and through gates lifted off their hinges. The Herald estimated that between 58,000 and 65,000 packed into the ground, but only 43,000 paid.

The kids were crammed in like sardines around the touchline (not uncommon those days). There was no way of getting a drink or a pie, or even having a pee.

Stories have abounded since of men wearing hosepipes in their trousers at the big games. I can assure you, they're true.

As for the women ...

The noise was ear-shattering and the game terrific - until Clarke dived over the tryline virtually in front of me. Oh, the heartbreak.

Never mind, I had had the opportunity to see some of the great players from Britain who turned on some memorable performances throughout the three-month tour.

The All Blacks went on to win the next test 22-8 at Christchurch but lost the fourth, 6-9, at Eden Park, when Clarke actually missed what would have been a match-levelling penalty. Yes, he was human. And I'm now a devoted All Black fan.

* Bob Clements is on the Herald's sports staff.