Faltering amateur game dismays great man of rugby

The flames have been all but put out in the powerful body and mind of Willie John McBride.

The burly Irishman who became a legend for the Lions will be in New Zealand again in June, 39 long years after he first experienced rugby in this country on the Lions' 1966 tour.

But McBride today surveys a very different game, a vastly changed rugby landscape.

I worked with him for several months on his life story, but he was always reluctant to retell his story and confront the truth. Not the truth of his own life but his views on the game.

McBride feared censure and the impact of his words. His principal concern? The state of the amateur game the world over.

"The truth is, the game is dying in so many countries of the world. In Ireland, New Zealand, England and Wales - countries where once its health was robust and vibrant have seen enormous declines.

"Fewer young people are playing the game, fewer still adhere to the values it used to teach us all, and fewer volunteers come forward to help. So many clubs in so many countries are either amalgamating, closing or declining.

"Great clubs, too, like Ponsonby in New Zealand and North of Ireland FC in my own country ... It has now amalgamated, its identity all but lost.

"In England, where are clubs that were once by-words for the game? Great institutions like Coventry, Bedford, Blackheath and Richmond.

"In Wales, it has been sad to see once-proud clubs like Aberavon and Bridgend lose their status. And look at what has happened to the Barbarians and institutions like their Easter tour of South Wales.

"Is that progress? Is that what we would have sought from the game had we mapped out its long-term health and prosperity 20 years ago? Of course it isn't."

McBride blames professionalism, its hurriedly implemented and poorly thought-out consequences for so much of this state of affairs.

Of course, he acknowledges that other elements have risen as replacements; competitions such as the Super 12, the Heineken Cup and the Tri-Nations and teams such as the Crusaders, Blues and Brumbies.

Indeed, at the top level of the game, even McBride admits that things appear prosperous.

Yet even in the domain of international rugby, he points to the sometimes empty stretches of terraces when New Zealand meet South Africa, traditionally THE rugby clash of the old game.

That, he says, smacks of over-exposure, too many games and more matches piled on for the great god of the modern world - television.

Today, he says, just about all decisions taken by countries the world over are done so on the basis of one consideration - money. It runs rugby, makes it dance to its tune.

And that kind of music doesn't get Willie John's toes twinkling.

Rugby now is just a game played by huge men, forwards or threequarters, all trying to smash into one another and emerge victorious.

He readily concedes this is a different game and does not take issue with modern marketers who would point to its growing audience among young people and women. That might be so, he says, but at what cost to what we had before?

He bemoans the life of the modern player, cocooned within his sponsored car, training behind locked gates at a private ground.

Where, he asks, are the fundamental struts all young men need to retain a grasp on reality? He means exposure to critics, the public, people whose views should be heeded.

Today, McBride lives a quiet life with his wife Penny in a country area outside Belfast.

He will be in New Zealand for the tests as part of a business venture that will supplement his retirement income, although it is simple pleasures that give him the most enjoyment.

But if there is one thing this great Irishman truly yearns for, it would be the restored vibrancy and health of the old amateur game he so loved.

* Willie John, The Story of my Life, by Willie John McBride and Peter Bills, is published in paperback by Portrait.