I'm a Hawkeye Guy
There's Something About a Magpie
McLean Park, Napier. Wednesday, June 4th, 1975
HAWKE'S BAY 0, SCOTLAND 30 (half-time; 0-7)
For Scotland: Ian McGeechan 2, Lewis Dick, Alistair McHarg and Andy Irvine tries. Irvine C, P. Doug Morgan 2C, P.
HAWKE'S BAY: Jim Francis, Vince Costello, Roger Bremner, Jock Eddy, Robbie Hunter, Ricky Gallagher, Mark Donaldson, Zukov Marinkovich (captain/), Pat Ryan, Paul McGarva, Robbie Stuart, Tim Carter, Bruce Dunstan, Richard Hunt, John O'Connor.
SCOTLAND: Bruce Hay (Boroughmuir), Andy Irvine (Heriot's FP), John Frame (Gala), Graham Birkett (Harlequins), Lewis Dick (Jordanhill), Ian McGeechan (Headingly), Doug Morgan (Stewart's-Melville FP), David Leslie (Dundee HSFP), Bill Watson (Boroughmuir). Ian Barnes (Harwick), Alistair McHarg (London Scottish), Wilson Lauder (Neath), Ian McLachlan (Jordanhill), Colin Fisher (Waterloo), Sandy Carmichael (West of Scotland).
Crowd: 17,000. Weather: Fine. Ground: Firm. Referee: Tom Doocey (Canterbury)
Throw in the all-conquering 1974 Lions who marched unbeaten through South Africa, Andy Irvine, Billy Steele, Ian McGeechan...this was a side not to be taken lightly. Unfortunately for the Magpies, the Scots chose what would be their exact test line-up. In the matter of scrummaging in the first instance, the home side just wasn't in the same game. The Scottish forward effort, based around the pillars of the scrum, McLachlan and Carmichael, contemptuously waltzed their counterparts around McLean Park, seemingly at will.
Almost the best that can be said regarding this match, from a Hawkes Bay fan point of view, was that they were treated to a master class exhibition of all round forward play by the 6' 5" Scotsman from the London Scottish club, Alistair McHarg. Most considered his to be a man of the match performance, which did appear to be a realistic judgement.
Hawke's Bay entered the match with hopes high, given that in the past seven days, both Otago and Canterbury had beaten the tourist's, whose sole victory had been a solid 51-6 victory over Nelson Bays in the tour opener at Trafalgar Park in Nelson on May 24th. Out of Canterbury - as was usual - came tales of 'soft Brit's, possibly a concept that the Hawkes Bay forwards bought into. Not to be.
Ironically, the NAC pilot who flew the Scots from Christchurch to Napier, informed the team that North Island forwards were softer than their Southern counterparts. Does that make South Island forwards the hardest?
The 1975 New Zealand rugby season was a fairly unique affair, when juxtaposed with most which had preceded it. Firstly, there would be three overseas visitors touring Aotearoa and - with all respect to Tonga and Romania - the hottest ticket belonged to that of the first official visit from a Scottish national side.
It was a short seven match tour, modelled largely on a recent first from Wales (1969) and just the second from an England side (1963, 1973). These were short duration, off-season tours for the Northern Hemisphere representatives, but all attracted huge interest and attention down under. I guess they were the T20 equivalent of a full British & Irish Lions tour of the time, yet eagerly anticipated by the rugby fraternity of the Shaky Isles and accordingly well supported. The Irish would undergo a similar venture the following season.
The strangest anomaly for New Zealander's to ponder, was that there would be just the solitary test against the Scots, set for June ... in Auckland on their tour and - heaven forbid, again set against modern times - the ONLY rugby union test match on the All Black calendar for that entire year. How could this be?
Therefore, the tour by Scotland was contemplated with natural parochial excitement, but mixed with some mild trepidation. The Scots had finished second in the most recent Five Nations Championship, but had been the only side to take down the eventual and inevitable winners during this period, the Welsh.
They had at their helm, right up front where it mattered, two of the very, very best in the business; Ian "Mighty Mouse" McLachlan and Alexander 'Sandy' Carmichael. A duo of fierce and under-rated props, in this country at least. Both technically brilliant, both members of the successful 1971 British & Irish Lions tourists (as was Gordon Brown), who had created their own history four years prior.
The first spell wasn't to bad for the home side. Jim Francis and John O'Connor missed four reasonable penalty goal attempts between them and several phases of goal line scrambles, where the Bay may have scored tries, all came to nothing in the end.
Future All Black scrumhalf, Mark Donaldson, was having a nightmare of a time behind a pack continually going in reverse, but equally, he attributed to his own misfortune by delaying his scrum feeds, when a quick heal may have negated much of the tourists advantage in this area of the game.
Flanker, Wilson Lauder, begins a marauding run by looking to brush aside the tackle of Hawke's Bay halfback, Mark Donaldson. Robbie Stuart and Pat Ryan are other Magpies in attendance.
