THE SCOTSMAN WRITES

Interview: 'Dead' match is sore reminder of 1983 Lions tour for Roger Baird



Published Date: 04 July 2009
By David Ferguson
WITH THE whole point of your existence as a British and Irish Lion in South Africa seemingly rendered obsolete by two Test defeats, the squad will this afternoon have to 'dig deep', in common sporting parlance, if they are to avoid the ignominy of a first-ever whitewash in the Republic.
They have characters to inspire for today's game, with Andy Irvine, the current Lions chairman, having played in the 1980 final Test win, and scored, against the Springboks in 1980 when the series was already lost 3-0. Ian McGeechan never experienced the 'dead rubber' as a Lions player, but it was not much better in 1977 when both he and Irvine faced the All Blacks 2-1 down in the series and lost the fourth Test.

Roger Baird, now 49, is one of many former Scotland internationalists to have returned from South Africa in the past week – there have been far more ex-caps there than current, sadly – and the winger could be forgiven for having forgotten his role in the fourth and final Test of the 1983 Test series in New Zealand.

Of the backs, only he and Ollie Campbell, the Ireland fly-half, started all four Tests on that tour, but Baird became the envy of many teammates when he was taken off early as a series which had been extremely tightly-fought through the first three Tests ended in a humbling defeat and 4-0 whitewash .

Baird said: "It's incredibly difficult playing when it's all over and there's nothing but pride to play for. What sums it up probably was that fourth Test, when I was knocked unconscious – Stu Wilson's knee connected with my forehead and I was flat out for five minutes – and apparently as I was carted off, flanker Peter Winterbottom turned to Roy Laidlaw and said 'lucky bastard'.

"Some players remain pretty focused and determined to win no matter the score, but after a tour where all the hype is centred on the first two or three Tests, and it all seems to evaporate when that series is gone, some stray a bit and lose direction. And, in a Test match, if you lose sight of what you're there for you are done for."

Baird shone on the 1983 Lions tour, scoring six tries in 11 games, including one in the third Test, lost 15-8. John Rutherford also scored in that match, and both he and Baird have been part of the loyal Lions following on the current South Africa tour.

Baird has much sympathy for McGeechan's pride this time around and believes a combination of bad luck and poor selection has cost them the opportunity to be in the hunt in this final weekend.

He said: "They have been so close and will feel hard done to not to have come away with a win or at least a draw before now. Nothing has gone for them really, going back to all the scrums in the first Test, and two tries disallowed – it was fair enough, but on another day, one or both might have been given.

"Stephen Jones missed a couple of kicks early on, and could have been kicking for a draw or a win at the finish, but we lost two front rows, so the second Test went to uncontested scrums, then our two centres, all to injury, and I agree with what Gavin Hastings said in The Scotsman about it being the most intense match he has witnessed – I felt similar at full-time in Pretoria.

"Both Tests so far have been incredibly hard, attritional matches; very big South African men … some of those collisions … I think we're at a stage now where it's something for rugby to address to be honest; the players are still getting bigger and stronger and the collisions harder, yet human bone doesn't get stronger or bigger.

"But, for me, that underlines why it was a mistake to play Euan Murray in the Tuesday match before the first Test. It was unfortunate he got injured, but he shouldn't have been there, he should have been our starting tighthead on the Saturday."

Baird was the second player from Kelso to become a British and Irish Lion, with the first, Ken Smith, also in South Africa for the 2009 series. Baird was followed by John Jeffrey on the 1986 aborted tour to South Africa and 1989 tour to Australia and then Alan Tait in 1997, and if hooker Ross Ford, the only Scot in today's squad, comes off the bench in Ellis Park the band of Test Lions from the small Borders town of 6,000 people will grow again. Baird is clearly hoping for that, and a Lions win.

"It is never easy to win a Lions Test match, at any stage of a tour, but this one probably foundered in the same way as mine in 1983 - on the first Test.

"I was really disappointed in Durban last month because the first Test really is your golden opportunity. You've been training for a while together and played a few games and decision-making is more acute than a team that has only been training.

"In our first Test in 1983, we had chances to win – we had a two-on-one at the end and Bob Ackerman dummied and went himself, when all he had to do was draw the man and pass. But that's life.

"Then like now, the Lions were not the better side, but we ended up going into the last week with nothing but pride to play for, and it's the same for the guys this weekend. They simply have to be up for it. In Test rugby you are there as a team and to win, and if you show any sign of weakness you'll get mottled.

"There are boys who haven't had a run-out yet and they'll be hugely determined to make their mark and to win; guys like Ross (Ford], and it would be great for him and his confidence, and Scottish rugby, if he got on, and played a part in a first win."

Preparing now to watch this game more relaxed at home on TV, Baird insisted that a Lions victory would not be meaningless. "Victory this weekend would make a huge amount of difference," he added. "There are a few mounting detractors of the whole Lions ethos and a 3-0 defeat would fuel their causes, but if you ask any of the players this is still as much a highlight of their careers as it was when I played and 50 years before.

"And you only had to look around out there at the army of Lions supporters to see how much it means to rugby people from Britain and Ireland."

This article was originally posted on 4-Jul-2009, 07:23 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 4-Jul-2009, 07:30.