OPINION:WATCHING THAT wonderful display in Cardiff on Saturday, in my mind also was the image of a young boy way back in the 1930s, playing pretend rugby with a ball of rolled-up newspapers, writes
PETER MURTAGH.
His name was Hugh and he grew up in Barrington Street in the centre of Limerick. I expect he scampered around the streets near his home or perhaps in People’s Park which was close by. His family weren’t poor but they weren’t rich either: the paper rugby ball evidence of a lack of funds to buy the real thing.
Hugh was the sixth of eight children of John and Anne de Lacy. A brother immediately above him in age, Stanley, was keen on hockey. A sister, Olive, was the youngest and last of the children. She loved to play tennis.
From an early age, Hugh lost few opportunities to play rugby with school pals – “always practising his passing techniques,” his son Mark told me just before Saturday’s Grand Slam match.
The practising paid off. Hugh eventually played for Garryowen and Munster and later, when work took him to England, for Moseley near Birmingham and then Harlequins in London. In the 1947/48 season, his prowess as a scrumhalf saw him on the Munster side that beat Leinster in the inter-provincial final.
Stanley meanwhile was cutting a dash on the hockey pitch, playing for Munster and Ireland. Hugh’s elevation to the national rugby team came in the wake of the Ireland v France match on New Year’s Day 1948 which Ireland won – to the surprise of many. But Jackie Kyle’s usual scrumhalf partner, E Strathdee, was one of four players dropped for the next game – the one against England at Twickenham.
Hugh was called up, his first cap for Ireland. The game was won by a single point and Hugh, seen to have delivered ball well to the brilliant Kyle, got his second cap for the game against Scotland on Saturday, February 28th.
Stanley and the hockey team meanwhile were on their quest for a record fifth Triple Crown in a row. They began well: on Friday, February 27th, they beat Wales 2-0. They went on to beat Scotland 2-1 but were held to a 2-2 draw by England – undefeated for the 1948 season but no fifth Triple Crown in a row.
The Ireland v Scotland rugby match went as planned: 6-0 to Ireland. But it was Hugh’s last game for his country. There was surprise – according to reports at the time – when he was dropped for the Triple Crown and Grand Slam match against Wales in Ravenhill on March 13th. The more robust Strathdee was seen as the better scrumhalf to take on the much feared Welsh.
Hugh must surely have been disappointed to miss out on the crucial match but nonetheless not many men could say they played for their country in two of the four games that gave Ireland that first, and for 61 years, only Grand Slam victory.
Stanley went on to become the most capped Irish international hockey player of his generation, a record he held for many years until he was knocked off his perch by, I think, Ken Blackmore.
Hugh and Stanley were my uncles. Olive, who became a club and provincial tennis champion, was my mother. The boys’ international sporting achievements were a source of great family pride. My mother in particular adored them and when Hugh fell ill, she placed a photograph of him, dashing in his Royal Navy uniform, on our mantelpiece to keep him high in her thoughts. He died in 1979, aged just 59, and his picture was never far from her sight until her own death in 2003.
Hugh didn’t talk much about his role in Ireland’s first Grand Slam victory. His 1948 cap is with Moseley and the ball from the England game, signed by all the players, the names long faded now, is with another son, Charles.
Hugh was a self-contained, quiet man who spoke softly. After work he liked a cheroot and a glass of whiskey. I think we would have celebrated Saturday’s win with a good cigar and a ball of malt, happy to see the glory pass to a new generation.