Band of brothers

The Wallaces:Richard, Paul and now, for the second time, David - the Wallace brothers will have featured in four of the last five Lions tours.

David heard his name announced on television as he rested after a training session. Richard’s call came when he as working in Moscow for a financial services company. In an age when mobile phones and emails were in their infancy, the older brother walked to a street off Red Square and phoned home.

Paul, the middle brother of the three, was in an Irish training camp preparing for a tour to New Zealand. A call from IRFU chief executive, Phillip Browne sent him packing his bags for London. And so an Irish dynasty of sorts was born in the Lions camp as the three brothers earned their call ups as replacements with David now picked for his second tour this summer. Different ages. Different teams. Different Wallace brothers. All Lions.

Prop Paul is so far the only to have experienced tour success, when he travelled to the den of world champions, South Africa, in 1997. The Springboks hungrily eyed the Lions’ arrival that year, impatiently wanting to make a point to the world about the superiority of their game. It was the first tour to take place in the country since Apartheid ended. As professionalism and all of its new demands kicked in, thoughts at the time centred round the possibility of it being the last Lions tour. How wrong.

“Certainly talk was that this was the last. But we the players didn’t think that,” says Paul. “I think it definitely galvanised us. They were the World Champions and South Africa was always stronger than New Zealand so they would have been very confident of giving us a roasting that year. But we were fairly confident too.

“It was a well managed tour, the sort of tour where you would not feel that at meal times you’d have to sit beside one of your own team mates. You’d just come in and sit wherever you wanted and that’s the way it was. Players supported each other and that was crucial and everyone was playing for a place. Guscott and Gibbs…Bateman and Greenwood.”

Every player knows that it’s easier when you’re winning and the Martin Johnson led team of ‘97 went on the take the series 2-1. But Richard’s venture to New Zealand was less certain. The winger had been in New Zealand the year before with Ireland and suffered a broken jaw in a match against Canterbury in Christchurch. Denis McBride also suffered from a bizarre accident when he was jumping in a line-out and someone standing on his lace, broke his foot as he jumped. The two travelled home together only for Wallace to return the following year as a Lion.

“Yeah, it was ironic,” says Richard. “Going home he (McBride) couldn’t walk and I couldn’t talk. But then my first match for the Lions was on the pitch where I had smashed my jaw. My eyes had been opened in the two matches I’d played. The fitness and explosive power of these New Zealand guys was alien to us. We were as talented but we found ourselves way down on power and strength.

“I straddled both amateur and professional eras and was three years as a pro. Even that pales to insignificance to the professional set up now. It’s very hard to compare with a modern tour. But it really was important to have Irish guys there. If it hadn’t have been for Mick Galwey, I wouldn’t have known what to do when I got there.

“The management left a lot to be desired. They got it wrong in how they managed the midweek tour and it spiralled out of control from there. If Mick hadn’t called to my door in the morning, I just would not have gotten to training. It was as bad as that. I totally relied on him.

“It can make a big difference if it’s managed badly. You can get cliques and social groups and players deciding how the team will play. There should be a balance and this year the Scots should get as much say as the others in the squad.”

Both Paul and David will share the South African experience this year. Paul will travel as a Sky analyst and hopes to see his younger brother be selected for the Test team as he was. Richard, now a commercial pilot, was married just a few weeks ago. Also travelling for the first time with the Lions are the Wallace parents, Michael and Gretta.

“It’s been going now since ’91 or ’92. I remember going to Richie’s first game with my parents up in Dublin,” says David. “There they are now 20 years later, still on the road and heading to South Africa. They have gotten huge pleasure out of following rugby.”

Proud of the pride so to speak.

“Yeah, of course it is (an honour),” admits Paul. “It’s an honour for the parents especially. They are very proud of David and Richie. I remember watching Richie playing when I was younger and saying, wow, imagine playing at that standard. David is shaping up nicely now and hopefully he’ll have a good tour.”

There is just over four years between each of them, from 41-year-old Richard down to David. They don’t often sit down and talk rugby. It drifts lightly in and out of their conversations but they all agree on the challenge of South Africa.

“Yeah, rugby is definitely as big in South Africa as it is in New Zealand. A lot of pride and strength and depth,” says David. “From their point of view it’s a huge event and they’ll be out for blood. It will be a physical tour. I’ve been there twice. They are big, physical athletic guys. Physically very, very good. Guys like Burger (Schalk). Huge talent in the back row. In a way you just have to front up to it.”

Coming from the modern Munster philosophy of selfless devotion to the team goal, the current Munster and Ireland flanker sees no issue with players forming social or national cliques. And it won’t be the management that determines that aspect but the players themselves.

“When it comes down to it, the players will police it and not allow cliques,” he says. “Management can only do so much. Once the players gel that’s when they become a team and management have to go someway towards keeping morale high. But in normal tours there are not as many numbers and it’s easier to keep people happy. That’s a challenge.”

David the winger, Paul the prop and David the back row will have had different views of their tour games. David and Paul, however, share the pack experience from the vantage point of the engine rooms.

“The South African mentality is bigger than someone, better than someone,” says Paul. “Afrikaners at 15 or 16 years old are bigger. It’s route one. Might is right. But technically we scrummage a lot better.

“The one thing I would say about the tour is the tracks are harder and in altitude the ball travels further. I didn’t find it an issue and after a scrum or two we were okay. But you have to change the way you play the game and how you think about giving away penalties at the half way line or even further out.”

The best part of the tour rarely changes from player to player. A common goal means a common desire. Many will be disappointed. Few forget the magical feeling of the first time in the dressing room, the time they step up and into that rare place.

“Putting on that Lions jersey the first time with the rest of the team,” says Richard. “It takes your breath away. Arriving and not enjoying it half way through, that was the biggest disappointment but would I love to put on a Lions shirt again….Oh yes.”