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13 January 2015
This story is part of folklore at the Barbarians Club in Auckland, New Zealand. It is one which shows that even in the middle of a feisty rugby test match a mother's pride will still come shining through!
Back in 1930 an excellent Wellington forward Hugh McLean made the All Blacks team to play Great Britain in the third test. No one was much surprised at this as McLean had been in excellent provincial form in recent seasons and two years earlier his strength and sporting capacity had carried him into a New Zealand rowing eight. That crew was bound for the Amsterdam Summer Olympic Games. Sadly they didn't make it as funding eventually was not on hand for such a large group of men to travel so far at one time.
But 'Hughie' got his chance in 1930 to play for the All Blacks. His debut was to be on Eden Park in Auckland.
When the team assembled beforehand and McLean was handled his hallowed black playing kit he expressed surprise that he was to wear jersey number 13. His reluctance was not because of any superstition. That number had not been allocated for him in that day's match programme or in the morning newspaper. In the centre pages he was down to pull on number nine.
But you see, seniority within the All Black team ranks played its part. The crusty veteran W.E. ("Bill') Hazlett of Southland had an apparent aversion to wearing the 'unlucky' number 13. So Hazlett claimed number nine and the new kid was 'told' to wear 13.
Whether this actually bothered Hugh is not known but when the game kicked off it could have been the reason he played so superbly. The young forward in fact dashed in for two tries as New Zealand won 15-10 and took a decisive lead in the series. As the action went on everyone watching soon started talking about the new forward in the All Blacks and how well he was playing. Those were days well before TV of course so even the keenest of All Black fans only had newspaper photos of players faces to go by. Therefore the crowd soon started calling out in praise of the great game which was being played by 'Number nine Hazlett! Go Hazlett!'
Sitting in the grandstand that call irked no one more than Mrs McLean - Hugh's mother.
When her son scored his second try on his test debut she could stand it no longer. When the cheering was dying down the redoubtable Mum rose from her seat. She turned to face the crowd and in her most commanding, if not demanding voice, shouted out to all and sundry - 'That's not Hazlett! That's my boy Hughie!'
That was it! McLean went on to play for the All Blacks until 1936. Was it just desserts that after that season was over Hazlett never donned any All Black jersey again!
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Comments 0
With one test win each NZ and South Africa battled on this day to a 0-0 game in the mud and slush of Athletic Park in Wellington; and the test series is tied.
DARROUY, CHRISTIAN
Mont-de-Marsan and France
40 internationals for France 1957–67
A Mont-de-Marsan wing who scored 23 tries in internationals for his country and who stayed in the French team for 10 years. Captain of his country in 1967, taking over from fellow club man Michel Crauste, Darrouy led the team to a Five Nations championship win and was so pleased he sent a famous telegram to President de Gaulle containing just two words – ‘Mission accomplished.’
He was once described as a ‘greyhound’ wing in the style of Adolphe Jaureguy, a star French player in the 1920s.
Darrouy was captain on his last tour, to South Africa in 1967, one of the few wingers to lead any international team on a tour. This was France’s only four-test series: his team lost the first two games but surprised with a win in the third and a draw in the fourth.
At the time of his retirement he was France’s highest try-scorer in internationals and had also beaten Jean Dupuy’s record as France’s most-capped wing.
His best performance in an international came when he scored three tries against Ireland at Lansdowne Road in 1964. He also had the satisfaction of sprinting nearly 50 metres to score the winning try against South Africa in Springs in the only test of France’s 1964 tour.
In the decade from the 1960s through to the fourth test of 1970 the All Blacks played exactly 100 test matches. What % did they win?
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