RIP

TV commentator John McBeth was touched to be asked to go to a New Zealand-Springbok test with Peter Henderson in 2009.

RIP Peter Henderson 1949-50 All Black

28 November 2014

It is always very sad when a man who once thrilled New Zealand with his youthful rugby zeal and became an All Black, then reaches his senior years - and then passes away. This week we say RIP to Peter 'Sammy' Henderson. Read more »

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RIP Kevin Skinner 1927-2014

Let's face it; Kevin Skinner was a very vital All Black

22 July 2014

I felt really sad when I heard of the death of Kevin Skinner. He was such a genial man in his later years until his health started to fade. At the Barbarians Club at Eden Park in Auckland he was always a friendly face, chatting away. And invariably gently chiding anyone who tried to push onto him the reputation many New Zealand rugby followers had that he was forever and only a rugby thug. He was not that at all. I prefer to call him a vital man who was very much needed by his country in some most critical rugby years. Read more »

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Every day there is Rugby History 2 November 1991

Click to show Australia won the second Rugby World Cup final in London.

A tight game saw Nick Farr-Jones's team beat England by 12-6. Well played the Wallabies!

A-Z of Rugby

Click to show ALLIGADOO

ALLIGADOO
A rugby term sometimes spelt ‘alickadoo’ and rarely heard outside Britain, which means a club ofﬁcial or highly-placed committee man.

One story says the spelling ‘alickadoo’ is derived from the words ‘all he can do [is talk]’.

The other story comes from J.B.G. Thomas’s Great Rugger Players, where it is said Ireland’s ‘Jammie’ Clinch was asked by his team-mate, Ernie Crawford, about the subject matter of a story Clinch was reading on a train, while returning from an international in 1925. When Clinch replied, ‘I’m reading about a Spaniard called Alicardo, who thinks a lot of himself and is always blowing his load,’ (bragging) Crawford was highly amused and likened Alicardo to the rugby ofﬁcials riding on the train with the team.

After that Crawford used the word frequently around Dublin. It became distorted by Irish accents to ‘alligadoo’ but it stuck as a term for an ofﬁcious committee man.