Sir Tony O’Reilly: Lions star on what it’s like to face the All Blacks

Tony O'Reilly in action on the 1959 Lions tour of New Zealand. Photo / New Zealand Herald

Lions wing Tony O’Reilly, who died at the weekend, was a star on the 1959 tour to these shores. In this exclusive piece written for the Herald ahead of the 2005 Lions tour, he recalled how close his side got to the All Blacks and shared his hopes for the 2005 generation.

The wonderful thing about rugby, and Lions tours in particular, is that they are so important in one’s life that they live on as though it were yesterday.

I can still remember, as an excited 18 year old, coming down the aircraft steps at Jan Smuts Airport, Johannesburg, in 1955 with a brilliant group of British Lions.

Cliff Morgan, our icon, and to my mind the greatest Welsh first five-eighths of all time (perhaps heresy in New Zealand), was our choir master.

He had coached us in the Afrikaans version of Sarie Marais, and to the undisguised delight of the waiting crowd of 10,000 people, we sang the great Afrikaner folksong in Afrikaans on the tarmac.

It was to be the song of the tour, but also the symbol of a team that was to enthrall South Africa, who had beaten the All Blacks 4-0 in 1949 and were now to have their first defeat at the hands of a Lions team that played rugby in a way that concentrated on back play, with Morgan our star – and not forward power.

Tony O'Reilly: "We left New Zealand, but New Zealand never left us." Photo / Getty Images

Despite leading 2-1 going into the final test, we split the series 2-2 and have the fondest memories of a remarkable tour. That tour led us to the 1959 Lions series in Australia/New Zealand.

Having beaten Australia 2-0 in the tests in Brisbane and Sydney, we went with a certain confidence to New Zealand. The first test will remain, forever, a matter of controversy between myself and Sir Wilson Whineray, who was captain of the 1959 All Blacks.

We scored four extremely exciting long-range tries. Don Clarke kicked six penalties. In present-day scoring, we won at least 20-18. Sadly, in the devalued scoring of those days with a try earning only three points, we lost 18-17, and Clarke’s six penalty goals in the mud of Dunedin will live in New Zealand rugby history.

I think the thing that struck New Zealanders after this, shall we say, unjustified defeat, was the simple gaiety of the team and the sense that, at the end of it all, it was only a game – even if it was one we clearly should have won!

The second test was won in the last minute by a try by Clarke. Again, this was a tense match which could have gone either way. With a late tackle by Clarke on me, which was so late that he could have had a cup of tea before he hit me, we got a penalty and not a penalty try, and that decided the match.

Tony O'Reilly: "New Zealand is a singular country, with singular passions, and foremost among them is rugby."

In the third test, we were comprehensively beaten, and Clarke kicked a magnificent drop goal and a long-range penalty.

In the final test, almost willed on by the New Zealand crowd, we beat New Zealand for the first time since World War II and entered the history books when Andy Mulligan presented me with a try in the corner, my 17th in New Zealand, early in the second half and Bev Risman scored a brilliant try 20 minutes later.

We left the following day. Mulligan and I took over the air-traffic control tower at the airport at Auckland and misdirected planes all over the Pacific.

Lions double act Andy Mulligan and Tony O'Reilly in the traffic control tower at Whenuapai Airport in 1959. Photo / NZ Herald

We sang Now is the Hour with tears in our eyes, and we left New Zealand, but New Zealand never left us.

It was a memory of a lifetime, almost six months of extraordinary rugby, great friendship, a chance to soak up New Zealand’s short history and its rugged determination to achieve all its goals in its own time and by its own methods.

New Zealand is a singular country, with singular passions, and foremost among them is rugby.

The Lions will know they have been on tour.

The provincial games will be almost as tough as the tests, and because the world stage, now through television, offers rugby on a grand scale, it will be a world event. We had 30 players and two managers on our tour.

This tour will be 44 players, 27 officials and countless media, including, happily, our own media from around the world. All 44 players are enormously fortunate that their careers crested in that one year in the decade when New Zealand again becomes the focal point of all world rugby.

Whatever the result, rugby on the world stage will benefit hugely by this tour.

I hope that rugby will glitter and, equally important, that the tourists will have the opportunity to enjoy the sights and the sounds of one of the most hospitable, interesting and independent countries in the world.

■ Sir Anthony O’Reilly played four tests for the Lions in South Africa in 1955 and six tests in Australia and New Zealand in 1959. He was executive chairman of Independent News & Media, which at the time this article was first published in 2005 was the largest single shareholder in APN News & Media, owner of the Herald.

The 2005 Lions series ended 3-0 to the hosts.