Battling the Lions: Commission Impossible

The Scot puffs out a tune with Bay of Plenty captain Dick Conway's help.

Much of the blame for the lack of success in 1966 was placed upon captain Michael Campbell-Lamerton, an austere army officer.

As the tour approached, Welsh loose forward Alun Pask was the leading candidate for the captaincy, followed by the Irish scrummaging magician Ray McLoughlin.

Campbell-Lamerton's elevation to the position was greeted with gasps of surprise throughout Britain, and howls of anger from Wales.

There was another glitch which was to further confuse the tour leadership.

The Four Home unions committee picked likeable Irishman Des O'Brien as manager, and then joined the modern rugby thinking by naming a coach, John Robins, an honest prop forward in New Zealand with the 1950 Lions and a physical education expert.

But instead of placing the manager in overall control, the Four Home unions committee allowed Campbell- Lamerton to take sole responsibility for the tactical arrangements, whether or not the manager and coach agreed.

So Campbell-Lamerton, a large man at 2m and 111kg, had to carry (or perhaps took upon himself) too heavy a leadership burden. He had size, but not agility and as his team stumbled along it became apparent that the captain was below test ranking - and he withdrew from selection for the fourth test.

Campbell-Lamerton toiled hard. JBG Thomas, the newspaper voice of Wales and thus not a total admirer of Campbell-Lamerton's leadership, still gave the man credit - no one tried harder to make the tour a success, wrote Thomas, and the worry caused him to lose two stones in weight during the tour.

During the tour the Daily Mail called him a disappointment at second row forward and "a stubborn failure" as a tour captain.

"Always bet against the Lions when Campbell-Lamerton is captain," Terry O'Conner wrote.

Chris Laidlaw wrote in his book Mud in Your Eye, that Campbell-Lamerton was "one of the most likeable of people but severely austere - a product more of the 1920s than the 1960s." The All Black halfback said: "He could have been 50 or even 60 years old. It would have made little difference, so far was he removed in spirit and temperament from his fellows." There was an undercurrent of feeling in New Zealand that Campbell-Lamerton was perhaps a bit of a softie.

Tell that to the Marines, or especially the Duke of Wellington's Regiment.

His father, a Royal Navy lieutenant commander, was killed in World War II and Campbell-Lamerton, after joining the Dukes, fought heroically as a 20-year-old in the Korean War.

At one time Campbell- Lamerton led two British platoons on a counterattack which, after a savage fight, repulsed a much larger Chinese force.

At another, he was on patrol when he stood on a land-mine. He remained cool as he stood immobile and called for help. A bomb disposal expert defused the mine while Campbell-Lamerton stood atop.

In action against the Eoka guerillas in Cyprus, Campbell-Lamerton was part of an airborne force when he fell from a helicopter, wearing full combat kit, some 20m to the ground.

The result was severe back, hip and leg injuries and he was posted to a Royal Air Force rehab centre where he literally had to learn to walk again.

In 2001 Campbell-Lamerton was found to have prostate cancer, and he died in March this year.

The Scotland and England teams stood in silent tribute to Campbell-Lamerton before the Calcutta Cup match last season.

His son, Jeremy, also played for Scotland, winning three caps in 1986 and 1987.

Player snapshot

Lions captain on their 1966 tour of Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

Earned 23 caps for Scotland between 1961 and 1966, leading his country against Wales and Ireland in 1965.