RIP Jules Le Lievre; A Good 'French' All Black Sadly Gone; The career of Jules Le Lievre is remembered.

Jules Le Lievre – the Gallic All Black? A tribute here to a good (French)man of Canterbury rugby stock.

By Keith Quinn

He had a name which told you from whence his forebears had come, generations before, to the new land of New Zealand. At birth and for all of his Kiwi life he was Jules Mathew Le Lievre.

His birthplace, out on the far reaches of the Banks Peninsula in New Zealand’s South Island, 85 kilometres from the large city of Christchurch, also offered more than a hint of his family’s background. Jules was born in Akaroa in 1933, in New Zealand’s only French village settlement. (The first French settlers had purchased the small piece of land off local Maori in 1840)

While he was always proud of his heritage Jules did not speak French at all. Though he lived his early years in the French-Kiwi village which even today has many French place names and the tricolour flag flies on cafés and pubs it was via rugby, farming and living a good and proper life that he made his mark.

Sadly Jules, the French All Black, died on January 17 2016 aged 82.

In his teenage years he attended St Bede’s College, an inner Christchurch boarding and Catholic secondary school which has a fine sporting and religious influence. Le Lievre became a Bedean and is now one of ten All Blacks the school has produced.

Le Lievre was distinctive in life and on the rugby field in one other way. Did it help his rugby that he had a wavy but always fiery-looking thatch of red hair – to aid easy recognition by selectors watching? Maybe not, but by his teenage years he was soon identified as a prop forward of real promise.  After playing for Akaroa in his junior years he was encouraged to head to the brighter lights of Christchurch club play. He joined the solid Marist Club.

He played senior rugby first as a 17-year old. His first-class debut then followed, for Canterbury B v Mid-Canterbury on Lancaster Park in 1954. With his strength, talent, red hair (perhaps?) and a distinctive white headgear he was soon continuing upwards into the Canterbury top team squad in the years ahead.

By 1957 he was in one of Canterbury rugby’s best wins of that era. The red and blacks were offered a game against the unbeaten returning All Blacks from their tour of Australia. Canterbury had five players in the full All Black squad and though only three played in the actual match against  their mates (to some consternation at the time the other two local All Blacks sat in the grandstands and watched) Canterbury won by 11-9.

By then Le Lievre was a regular in the front row and his upward swing of form continued in the years ahead. He appeared in regular games of significance in the All Black trials (13 in all over six years), for the South Island (6 seasons in a row) and Canterbury’s famous win over the 1959 British Lions. On a wider scale he appeared for other teams like a ‘New Zealand XV’ and ‘The Rest of New Zealand.’

By then good observers were saying All Black selection seemed inevitable for Le Lievre and indeed it came in 1962, though by then he had had to wait until he was nearly 29 years old.

(His debut game was on the Sports Ground in the New South Wales town of Bathurst – the town better known these days for motor sports). On Le Lievre’s big day the All Blacks won the first match of that tour by 41-6.

Jules didn’t play any tests on that trip; he was very much backup to the team’s skipper Wilson Whineray plus the former captain Ian Clarke. When Australia returned for a three-test tour to New Zealand in the same season they held the All Blacks to a 9-all draw in the first test in Wellington. It was a poor effort by New Zealand so the selectors stepped in to give some of the established players a harsh ‘reality check.’ Four of the forwards, all long-time internationals Kel Tremain, Colin Meads, Dennis Young and Ian Clarke were dropped and Le Lievre was one of those who came in.

Alas for Jules it didn’t work out. Dunedin became his only test match. Although New Zealand won (by 3-0) the Aussie forwards had dominated and calls went out for the ‘old guard’ to come back. Jules therefore was stood down again.

(Full TV coverage exists of that game in the TVNZ library. It does not display 1960s rugby in a very favourable light!)

Jules’ next appearance for New Zealand became the highlight of his career. In late 1963 Wilson Whineray led a full squad of 30 players on a five month tour of the Northern Hemisphere and Canada. Le Lievre comfortably made the squad along with other props Whineray, Clarke and the rising Wellington star Ken Gray. But as a result of Gray’s powerful emergence Jules did not play in any of the five test matches.

Nevertheless he was of solid value to the touring team. In all he played in 18 of the 36 fixtures, including two in the land of his descendants.

At the end of that tour Le Lievre, like so many in those amateur years, had to return home and get to work. By then he was a farmer in North Canterbury and it was reported ewe prices had improved while he was away on the trip. Therefore rather than cost him money he was actually doing rather well financially in his absence!

His career with the All Blacksd had lasted two years. He played 25 games in all. He was always in a winning team.

In his excellent book about the 1963-64 tour, called ‘Willie Away,’ the distinguished New Zealand writer Terry McLean devoted a feature chapter to each of the tour party. The one on Le Lievre was called ‘The Third Man’ a reference to Jules being, by then, the third man to come from the small Culverden area where he farmed. (The other two All Blacks from that club, according to McLean were the 1920s boxer Brian McLeary and the 1950s fellow-farmer Nelson Dalzell)

McLean wrote warmly of Le Lievre and the commitment he gave to the big tour. His team, said McLean respected him as well; There was a nice touch from the team. At an unofficial meeting they decided not to call him ‘Red’ or ‘Bluey’ (possibly because two other red-headed players were of prominence in New Zealand at the time ; ‘Derek ‘Bluey’ Arnold and Dick ‘Red’ Conway)

No, to the 1960s All Blacks and for decades afterwards in Canterbury rugby circles everyone, everywhere was proud to call their man, simply ‘Jules.’

Au Revoir Jules!

....

With thanks to Lindsay Knight and the New Zealand Rugby Almanack. Plus the books of the late Sir Terry McLean.

[Note; In much more modern times the 2009-2010 All Black Aled de Malmanche was another player with a French name. He was said to be a distant relative of Jules Le Lievre]

[Note II; In the All Black history there have been at least three other distinctively red-headed All Blacks; the aforementioned Derek Arnold and Dick Conway were two, plus James Ryan (an All Black in 2005-06).]

 ......