Former Ireland rugby player and captain Willie Anderson has spoken of the life-changing support he gained form ex-ABs captain Andy Leslie during and after his playing career. Photo / Getty Images
Irish rugby hardman Willie Anderson has revealed how former All Blacks captain Andy Leslie helped him through some of the hardest moments of his life – including the aftermath of killing a schoolboy in a car crash.
Anderson is best known to Kiwi sports fans as leading the Irish national rugby team he captained face-to-face into the front row of the All Blacks' haka in Dublin in 1989.
But what is not so well known is his close friendship with Leslie; a former star of the Wellington rep team who captained the All Blacks in 33 of the 34 matches he played in the black jersey.
At their first meeting, Leslie inadvertently provided the motivation for Anderson to confront All Blacks captain Buck Shelford during the haka.
Three years later – by the time the duo had a close friendship – the bond came to the fore after Anderson killed an 11-year-old schoolboy who walked into the path of his car.
The tragedy happened just moments after Anderson had farewelled the former All Blacks captain at a train station in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland.
In his new autobiography, Crossing the Line, Anderson revealed: "For weeks after the accident when I tried to talk about it I would break down. Andy Leslie was very supportive.
"He would ring on the pretext of some rugby detail and then let me share with him what I was feeling."
Talking to the Herald, Leslie said his showing of support – via the phone 18,500km away – was "just what any friend would do".
"It was such a tragic accident. If Willie had been driving down that road two seconds earlier, or a second later, it wouldn't have happened," Leslie said.
"Willie is like a big teddy bear. With guys like him, larger than life characters, what you find beneath them is that they are big teddy bears and emotional men.
"I just wanted him to know I cared. What I did is what I would expect any of my friends to do if I was in the same position as him . . . wrap an arm around him and know I was there for him."
In 1992, Leslie was contracted by the Irish Rugby Football Union to carry out a review of the game in Ireland.
Leslie had captained the All Blacks during their win over Ireland in 1976 and Anderson said he was "considered a friend of Irish rugby".
During his consultations with local rugby officials, he travelled to Anderson's home town in The Loup, Londonderry, on December 1, 1992.
"As part of his IRFU report he consulted far and wide, including a few meetings with me," Anderson wrote.
"To be honest I was honoured to have him. He's a knowledgeable, humble man, and very good company. We got on famously. We had a great chat about lots of things."
The following day Anderson offered to pick up Leslie and drive him to Portadown Railway Station so he could catch a ride to Dublin.
But the kind-hearted decision to wait until the very moment Leslie boarded the train, so he could wave him goodbye would turn out to be a tragic one.
"To this day I'm not sure why I waited to wave him off, but I did," he confided
"And to this day I regret with every part of me that I didn't just drop him at the gate, wish him all the best, and head back home. Maybe it's because it was Andy Leslie, former All Blacks captain and a good man. He had been a guest at my house. I wanted to look after him, if you like.
"I stayed until he was on board and the train was actually pulling away."
As he neared his home in The Loup, 11-year-old schoolboy Glen McLernon ran out from behind a school bus into the path of his car.
"I slammed on the brakes but the collision was unavoidable. It felt like a dull, heavy, horrible thump." Anderson wrote.
"I have an image of his school-tie on the windscreen. I couldn't move a muscle when the car stopped."
Tragically, the schoolboy died of injuries suffered in the crash.
An inquest later deemed the death as a result of a tragic accident.
But Anderson revealed the aftermath for him was a period of "self-loathing", and he tried to mask his feelings via alcohol.
Anderson and Leslie had first met in 1989 when the Ireland were preparing to play the All Blacks in Dublin in 1989.
The meeting was arranged by then-Irish coach Jimmy Davidson, a member of the team beaten 11-3 by the Leslie-captained All Blacks at Athletic Park in June 1976.
In the lead-up to the meeting, the touring All Blacks had slayed Welsh and Irish club teams, and the Wales national team.
"In addition to how we were going to stop John Gallagher hitting the line at speed, and from angles we couldn't work out, there was one recurring theme: teams looked beaten before they started," Anderson wrote.
"The haka was a killer. It was like: 'Ye stand there like sheep while we work ourselves into a physical and psychological lather. And then we'll wade in to ye!'"
Two weeks prior to the Irish test, Welsh club team Newport – the only team to beat the touring 1963 All Blacks - had turned their back on the haka and gone into a huddle deep in their own half.
An infuriated All Blacks team followed them down the field to perform the haka, then destroyed them 54-9.
Anderson wrote of the tactic: "Mistake. The All Blacks pursued them. It looked like the Welsh had just seen their home territory invaded. By the time Shelford had finished the war dance the match as good as done."
As Ireland prepared to play the All Blacks, Davidson told Anderson: "It has to be a confrontation. We have to change the tone, the whole psychology of this. We want the crowd cheering us, not the f***ing haka."
Several days before the test Davidson brought his captain along to a catch-up with Leslie, who was leading an All Blacks supporters' tour.
"Off his own bat Andy mentioned how the All Blacks loved it when teams wouldn't meet the challenge of the haka full-on. Better still if they conceded ground," Anderson wrote.
The All Blacks captain said that when teams retreated it was akin to the men in black gaining a "mental advantage".
"Andy wasn't giving us advice. He had no idea what we had planned, but the moment the words came out of his mouth I could hear the wheels spinning in Jimmy's brain."
Come game day on November 18, 1989, as the All Blacks prepared to do the haka at Dublin's Lansdowne Road, Anderson and his team-mates linked arms and lined up on the halfway line.
A fired-up Anderson then veered off script to march towards the All Blacks, eventually stopping right in front of Shelford's face.
"I was wired. From the moment the All Blacks were getting into their wee shape my focus was locked on Shelford," he wrote "I started shouting at him: 'We're gonna bate ya! We're gonna bate ya!'
"Shelford was already halfway to 'Ka mate, ka mate' land with his nostrils flaring and eyes bulging. And I was en route to joining him.
"The march forward was spur of the moment stuff. It just felt right. They were able to stomp their feet and make all sorts of gestures and we had to stand there and admire them? No, I wasn't having that.
"Honestly I've never been as pumped in all my life. My adrenaline rating would have been off the charts."
Leslie told the Herald that he didn't take long in their first meeting to realise Anderson was a "great character".
He realised Ireland wasn't going to back away from the haka, but said even he was shocked by the challenge that Anderson laid.
"I told them that when players walked away from the haka, it was like they were already conceding territory to the All Blacks,' he said.
"But I never expected to see what happened before the Ireland test. I saw Willie walking forward, and thought 'Uh-oh'. It was incredible to see."
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