Terry Lineen in action for Auckland. Photo / Photosport
Terry Lineen in action for Auckland. Photo / Photosport
Former All Black Terry Lineen has died.
Newshub reports the Auckland midfielder, who played 35 matches for New Zealand between 1957 and 1960, has died aged 84.
Lineen was forced to retire from rugby at just 24 because of a shoulder injury, but made his mark for the All Blacksduring the 1959 British Lions series. He was also a part of tours to the countries such as Australia and Japan.
The midfielder made his debut for the national side in 1957 of a tour of Australia, playing 10 times including two tests, and found plenty of success, scoring six tries on the tour.
In 2015, Lineen made headlines over how a strange coincidence "saved" him when he vanished from Heathrow Airport.
Lineen went missing between his connecting flights from Auckland to Edinburgh while en route to visit his son - former Scotland player Sean Lineen - and take a seven-week Rugby World Cup holiday. He was found injured 19 hours later by a local cyclist, Sean Eckett.
"I can remember that I was so tired through walking that I'd come to this little road and there were a lot of trees and shrubs around and I made myself a little bed in the shrubs," Lineen told the Herald Scotland at the time.
"I only had shorts and a T-shirt on and I woke up and I had scratches all over me and blood all over me. I reckon that guy who found me saved my life," he said.
In his later years, he battled through bowel, prostate and blood cancer.
