I'm a Hawkeye Guy

Colin Marshall Le Quesne

 

 

 

The proud rugby province of Hawkes Bay’s climb out of near rugby oblivion had begun in earnest in 1957 with the appointment of Colin Le Quesne as the head selector and coach. Father, Robert (1887 – 1893), Colin and brothers Ron (1917-1918) and Jack (1923-1926, 1934), all played representative rugby for Hawkes Bay before they were nineteen years of age. It is said that Colin’s ‘hawk- eye’ for spotting the young, up and coming player possibly had its origins from his own family experience.

 

‘The Fuhrer’, as he was affectionately known by the Hawkes Bay team and officials, was born and educated in Hastings (Hastings Central Public School) and was a member of the Hastings Ross Shield team for three years. It was during this time, while a primary schoolboy, that Hawkes Bay won the Ranfurly Shield for the first time, defeating Wellington in the first challenge of 1922 by 19 – 9. That game aside, the young Colin saw every defence of the Bay’s first great and legendary tenure.

 

After spending the 1929 and 1930 seasons in the Napier Boys High School 1st XV, he attended Massey College in Palmerston North and in 1931, played for Manawatu against Horowhenua. He was in the black and white of Hawkes Bay the following year and until 1936, Colin Le Quesne played 40 games for the Magpies. He played his club rugby for the Hastings club. 

 

Standing 5ft 10in and weighing 12st 5lb, he played mainly as a second five-eighths and was in that position when the side captained by Dick Steere won the Ranfurly Shield from Canterbury during the first defence of 1934 in Christchurch. Lancaster Park was heavy and churned up. About 14,000 people watched the Hawkes Bay forwards repeatedly smash through their opposition, winning by 9 to nil.

 

In addition to weight, it was written, they possessed ‘agility and gave the ‘red and blacks’ no quarter’. This, allied to the conditions, nullified attempts by the holders to get their back line moving and the Bay’s great forward play triumphed on the day.

 

Hawkes Bay repelled challenges from Wanganui (39-16) and Taranaki (23-8) before surrendering the trophy to the little fancied Aucklander’s, losing by 18-14. 

 

The following season he was appointed the Hawkes Bay captaincy, played for the North Island (and was a reserve again in 1936 and 1937) and was given an All Black trial, to pick the side that would tour the United Kingdom. Named as one of the five players of the year in 1935, the Rugby Almanack said of Colin Le Quesne: “A fast moving, straight running, second five eighths, he is best on a dry ground, but nevertheless he showed in the Napier trial that he can also produce good football under adverse conditions.”

 

“In the Inter Island match he played an outstanding game, flashing past the opposition on several occasions and revealing a very deceptive swerve. As a drop kick expert too, Le Quesne has proved a very dangerous scoring man and he can also be a useful goal kicker.”

 

He was more than somewhat of a dropped goal expert and as such, had few rivals in New Zealand during the 1930’s. He was as inspirational in general play as he was a leader, captaining Hawkes Bay to a 20-14 victory over the 1936 Australians. After a year in the capital, he returned to Waipukurau and was again in the Bay side of 1938, but was prematurely forced into retirement - at the early age of 25 - through a re-occurring knee injury. 

 

Almost twenty years later when he took over the coaching of the Hawkes Bay side, the province had spent all of that time and then some, hopelessly flailing in the wilderness. Throughout these less notable days, Hawkes Bay players had lived and played in the shadow of the great deeds of the 1920’s. They were never allowed to forget the golden era and were at times, chivvied and snarled at callously by their own supporters.

 

The climax was reached in 1959 when Hawkes Bay received a fearful whipping from the touring British Lions in their tour opener, New Zealand section, by 52 points to 12. The Lions were coming off a 24-3 win over Australia in Sydney, in the second test match the Saturday prior and when the Bay captain, Tom Johnson scored a try in the opening minutes, it was hoped that the home side may be able to foot-it with the best the combined home unions of the United Kingdom could muster.

 

Thirteen tries later in reply (three of them to winger Ken Scotland of Cambridge University and Scotland), the on field effort by the Bay for the remaining 78 minutes was scorned by an apathetic hometown public and by a disheartened, fractioned Union, living a little too romantically, as mentioned, in all the faded glories of the distant past.

 

Ranfurly Shield matches and other games of significance were few and far between for the Bay during these relatively uneventful years and Le Quesne knew full well the importance of such an opportunity as a match for his new team against such formidable opposition as a touring side form Great Britain. Only a year before his Hawkes Bay team had defeated the Australians in their tour opener by 8-6. Here was another opportunity to measure his side’s progress. Unfortunately, not enough had been made.

 

 

         “It was a beautiful game of rugby. I think I’ve only seen one better and that was when Hawkes Bay beat                       Wellington 58 – 8 in the Ranfurly Shield challenge of 1926. The loss to the Lions was one of the most                            important games we had. We learnt a tremendous amount from it. We learnt that (to play winning                                                                                  rugby) you need brains as well as brawn.”                                                                Colin Le Quesne (Shield ’69)

 

 

Enough was enough. The barometer of disappointment was full, even overflowing! The Lions match was a cornerstone, a line in the sand, the definitive turning point. Plus Le Quesne, there were four players who took part in the game for the Bay, for which the manner of defeat would remain with them, at least somewhere in the back of their minds for evermore. And yet for the quartet, the unsavoury taste of that hiding - that lingered on the tongue for far too long - would prove the catalyst for the unheralded success that would follow, albeit the best part of a decade later. The four players were:

 

 

Lou William Cooper

 

Lou Cooper made his senior rugby debut in Hastings for the M.A.C club in 1957, having previously attended Northland College in Kaikohe. Colin Le Quesne brought Cooper into his squad as a loose forward in 1958 and by the following season he had not only cemented his place in the Bay side, but had received an All Black trial and been selected for New Zealand Maori.

 

He played twice against the British Lions of 1959; at No. 8 for Hawkes Bay in the 12-52 rout of a tour opener in Napier and as blindside flanker for the Maori, the Lions winning that match on Eden Park by 12-6, where he marked Irishman, Noel Murphy. He was to retain his NZ Maori birth the following season and also held onto his Hawkes Bay jersey.

    

 

Thomas William Johnson

 

Johnson made his Hawkes Bay debut earlier in 1959 (his father had also represented the province before WWII). A former captain of the Hamilton Boys High School 1st XV and captain of both the Hamilton and Waikato Primary School sides in the early 1950’s (and also a Waikato representative in swimming during the 1950’s), Johnson made his senior debut in 1956 for Ardmore Teachers College. His first class debut followed for Counties in 1957 (as an 18 year old), he then played five matches for Waikato the following season.

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"By 1958 I was teaching at Rangiriri School and playing for Hamilton Old Boys in the Hamilton competition - -a most enjoyable year. I made the Waikato team, which was a real thrill as the team had the great ‘DB Clarke , his brother Ian, Wilson Whineray and very good players from the team that had beaten the Springboks in 1956 - Rex Pickering, Bryce Cowley and Malcolm McDonald. It was a wonderful learning curve for me going on a South Island tour with such experienced players, who taught me much about the game. My first game was against Wellington at Athletic Park, where I experienced the oratory of Waikato selector-coach Bill Corby at a team talk for the first time. It was rousing stuff, in the Billy Graham mould and something new to me.

Tom Johnson (Legends in Black: NZ Rugby Greats on why we win)

 

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Arriving in the Bay in 1959, he joined the Tech Old Boys club, and was soon drafted into the provincial outfit as a No. 8 and made captain by Le Quesne during his first season. An All Black trialist the same year (and again in 1961, ‘62 and ‘63), Tom Johnson would also play for the North Island in 1961 and 1962."

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In 1961 he left the Tech OB club and joined the struggling Marist side. Marist spectacularly improved in the second round that year and won the Napier-Hastings senior championship in 1962. For the remainder of the decade, their battles with the powerhouse Napier High School Old Boys side would become legendary, drawing provincial sized crowds to watch their epic club battles for Napier supremecy.

 

Their rivalry had always been intense, so much so that in June 1958, a Mr. J.P.Flood had presented a trophy for competition between the two clubs. The Brother Virgilius Cup, was named after a co-founder of the Napier Marist Rugby Club.

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Under Johnson’s leadership, Marist won the Maddison Trophy in 1962 and ‘63 and shared the title with NHSOB in 1969. The Kel Tremain led Napier Old Boys side won the trophy seven times between 1964-71. The two clubs supplied near two thirds of the Hawkes Bay shield squad during the 1966-‘69 era. 

 

Tom Johnson’s greatest contribution to the Hawkes Bay game though, came through his indelible fetish for fitness. Johnson would pound the streets of Napier over the summer months, following the Arthur Lydiard theory and schedule for athletes of running up to one hundred miles a week. Slowly – and it was slowly - his approach caught on with the other players.

 

When Tremain arrived in the province in 1962, the limelight fell from Johnson somewhat and often unreasonable comparisons were drawn between the two players. Big and mobile, Tremain could equally go the other way and lend the tight forwards a hand, looking every inch the hard-working All Black. Tom Johnson could do the work in the engine room, but then link up with the vanguard and sidestep and swerve, sell a dummy, knife through gaps with all the finesse of a midfield back, in many ways the perfect foil for ‘Bunny’ Tremain.

 

He left the Bay for Auckland early in the 1964 season, playing 14 times for that province, but was back in black and white a year later and would play out his career for the Magpies of Hawkes Bay.

 

 

Neil William Thimbleby

 

Born in Lower Hutt in 1939, Neil Thimbleby would go on to become the most capped player for Hawkes Bay of all time, with 158 appearances between 1959 and 1971 (Still the case at time of writing in 2017). In fact, by mid way through the 1968 season, Thimbleby had amassed the impressive record of 114 consecutive games for the province.

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Two years were spent in the 1st XV at Marton District High School, before making his senior debut for the Taupo club in 1955. Le Quesne discovered the talented youngster - while playing in the relative obscurity of the Taupo sub union - early in 1959.

 

Neil Thimbleby made his first class debut as a twenty year old and a chastening early experience in top flight rugby it was, the opening match of the aforementioned Lions tour, where he marked Hugh McLeod of Hawick, capped 40 times for Scotland, between 1954 and 1962. McLeod – who played all four tests in New Zealand - was also on the 1955 Lions tour to South Africa.

 

After his personal ‘baptism of fire’ in 1959, Neil Thimbleby indicated that the thrashing the Magpies handed out to the English in Napier in 1963 (20-5), was one of the highlights of his lengthy Hawkes Bay career. He received three All Black trials during the early 60’s and by 1965 was the true cornerstone of the Hawkes Bay pack.

 

 

Bryan Wilson

 

Wilson, a former Counties representative, played as a wing three-quarter. He was also an All Black trialist and a national sprint champion. He and Tom Johnson had first made each other’s acquaintance while at Teachers Training College in 1956. They were later team-mates at the Napier Technical Old Boys Rugby Club, for the Napier sub-union and for Hawke's Bay.

 

Real progress regarding the resurrection of Hawkes Bay rugby was made during the pre-season of 1960, when Le Quesne co-opted Bryan Wilson as physical fitness trainer. A rigorous training schedule and conditioning programme was undertaken with the result being that the young team chosen were fitter than any had ever been to represent Hawkes Bay.

 

Wilson always maintained that the best tactics, the best skills, the best natural ability is of little lasting value unless it is backed by an effective training programme. He said in 1969; “At first class level, players usually have these qualities or they would not be in the team for a start, but I have seen skills, tactics, experience, confidence and most important, team spirit, improve through such physical approach.”

 

His programme, based on modern and personal principles at athletic training, was adapted specifically for the requirements of rugby union. He was a pioneer in establishing a more scientific approach to fitness and instigated what would be termed ‘scientific methodology and analysis’.

 

He did all manner of ‘motion study’ and ‘analysis of time and movement’ and personally designed rest periods in rugby, specific to each position on the field. A series of psychological tests were carried out on many of the players and this assisted considerably in gaining further knowledge in preparing the team and understanding the effect of training. 

 

Films were taken of individual players kicking, line-out jumping, swerving and side stepping, to analyse and evaluate these skills more fully. His unique approach and methods of training also extended to getting doctors in to conduct blood tests on the player’s, as every aspect of their fitness regime was measured.

 

The basic aim of Wilson’s ‘trial by error’ scheme was to equip the players to give their best for the full 80 minutes. This was done by attempting to cut down the recovery time required of each player after a piece of play, enabling him to move to any given point on the field at full pace, when called on to do so.

 

To achieve this, the length of the field (110 yards) became the basic unit of distance to condition over and sprint work was balanced by runs of three to ten miles, depending on the individual’s position in the team. Twenty seven rugby union matches (from club rugby to tests) were analysed and it was announced (astoundingly) that the average play actually achieved in a game was 26 minutes and 54 seconds. The recovery time between each play, on average, was 20.5 seconds.

 

It was common to still have a ‘cinder track’ at athletics or speedway venues throughout New Zealand at the time, of which Meeanee in Napier was one. ‘Cinder’s’, or ‘lava rock’ is a pyroclastic rock. A volcanic material, like pumice, it is low density and therefore able to float. The track was used for much of the sprint work associated with Wilson’s methods.

 

A former Hawkes Bay/Poverty Bay sprinter, Diane Gibson, recalls athletics representative training with Bryan at Meeanee as hard and a thorough work-out; “You’d come home from training at Meeanee and those damn cinders would be all through your hair and your face would be black with soot.” 

 

 

“I was a big fan of Bryan. It didn't take him long to realise if I wasn't running at full puff. And if I wasn't he would                      take me out to Meeanee Speedway, correct my style and then send me running across the                                                                                                 cinders to make sure I was.”                                                                           

Bill Davis, Hawkes Bay Today 2006 (Shane Hurndell)

 

 

The proof in the cinder pudding, so to speak, came when Hawkes Bay challenged Auckland for the Ranfurly Shield in 1961. The Auckland side was chocked full of All Blacks and in the midst of a record breaking tenure with the shield. But they struggled against the Bays complicated defensive pattern setup by Le Quesne and superior fitness, the initiative of Bryan Wilson.

 

The small margin of victory to Auckland (5-3) was somewhat of a shock to the boys from the big smoke and more a victory for Le Quesne, Wilson and Captain, Tom Johnson. Later in the decade, many of the sides challenging Hawkes Bay for the Shield had players who, were not calisthenically fit and their effectiveness in the game was lessened. Hawkes Bay would defeat many sides by ‘outlasting’ them over the closing stages of a match.

 

The 1961 Hawkes Bay team had pace and mobility, but now also this greater level of fitness and stamina. There was still a degree, common more in the provinces, of inherent player weaknesses, but the new found levels of fitness meant that Le Quesne was able to plan tactics with greater success.

 

And off the field, Wilson was now further developing his scheme for Le Quesne to take maximum advantage of. Over the next few years a prescribed running programme of hill training, flat running, interval, speed play and repetition running was implemented along with supplementary conditioners such as calisthenics, weight and circuit training. Much of this was done at Redclyffe, a training area in the hills behind Taradale and on various parks where players had gathered to train individually or as a team.

 

 

"There was this old dog trial shed as well, where he set up weight training, and there was also this clapped out old bike that just about gave you a hernia every time you rode it. There were ergometer tests to measure the guys' fitness, which I think was even before the rowing guys were using that stuff. Bryan would take us out there over the hills and we'd do a whole lot of interval work and come in on a Monday night and do so many sprints up a certain           gradient and back. There was no doubt we were a lot fitter than any other rugby team in New Zealand."                  Tom Johnson, Hawkes Bay Today (Hamish Bidwell)

 

 

“Some of the training methods under Bryan Wilson, Tom Johnson and Colin Le Quesne were very, very        innovative and we seemed to benefit from it because we were always fit and able to outlast the opposition.”                  Ian MacRae, HB Today online, 2010​

 

 

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