Will the Springboks take the Lions on?

I hope the Saw Doctors will forgive me for playing on their catchy song about Mayo football great, Willie Joe Padden. With the 2009 Lions firmly ensconced on South African soil, perhaps it is an appropriate time to recall the heroics - and heroics they were - of their predecessors from 35 years ago, who like the current crop, were captained by an Irish rugby legend.Comparisons between Willie John McBride"s 1974 touring squad and Paul O"Connell"s men of 2009 really bring into focus the massive changes in Rugby Union in the intervening three and a half decades. This Lions tour will last six weeks and ten matches, but in pre-professional times tours were marathons. The Syd Millar-coached squad in 1974 played 22 matches and were away from home (and their "proper" jobs) for three and a half months. While the competition was as fierce as nowadays, there was a social side to rugby (ie 'dhrink, dhrink, dhrink', as former All Hallows full back, Fr Jack Hackett might describe it), even at the highest level, which would simply not be tolerated nowadays.Substitutions were only permitted for injuries certified by a doctor.Referees from the country being toured officiated at the Tests. Videos, as we know them, did not exist, never mind "video referees". There was no Sky Sports or George Hook - it"s impossible not to link the two given Hookie"s self-confessed love affair with Sky gadgets. Damn it - and excuse the unfortunate pun - almost all of us still had black and white televisions, rather than colour.To compound the problems for the 1974 Lions, they left to tour a then-ostracised South Africa to the horror of anti-apartheid demonstrators and government condemnation in Britain and Ireland. Ironically, they were to return to wide acclaim. When they arrived back in Heathrow, they would be heroes, acclaimed by the same British government who disowned them at the beginning. Apart from the dual honour of an Irish captain and coach (Wales" Alun Thomas was the manager), our status as Five Nations champions (ahead of the truly brilliant Welsh side of the time) ensured a very decent squad representation of eight. Backs Mike Gibson, Dick Milliken, John Moloney and Tom Grace were joined by forwards McBride, Stewart McKinney, Fergus Slattery and Ken Kennedy.Gibson and Slattery were rightly regarded as being among the best, if not the best, in the world at the time in their positions of centre and flanker respectively. There was no doubting the inspirational McBride"s credentials as skipper, with Milliken stating at the time regarding his fellow Ulsterman: 'When Willie John speaks, you realise you are listening to a legend.' The Ballymena second row was also well able to handle the media, avoiding the growing controversy of apartheid by stating that as an Irishman, he had enough political problems of his own at home. (The Northern "Troubles" were at their worst, even causing the abandonment of the Five Nations championship in 1972, when Ireland were very much in pole position.)The Test results make for pleasant reading in this part of the world. Three Lions" wins and a draw - June 8, Cape Town 12-3; June 22, Pretoria 28-9; July 13, Port Elizabeth, 26-9; July 27, Johannesburg, 13-13. The Lions well and truly cemented their place in history and, to this day, many observers feel that they were denied a 100 per cent tour record (both in Tests and all matches) by referee Max Baise. In the dying moments, JPR Williams made a break and just short of the line he passed to Fergus Slattery who dived over. However, Baise decided the ball had not been grounded and blew the final whistle for a 13-13 draw. (To be fair, Baise had awarded Roger Uttley a try in an earlier Test which would not have got the nod from a fourth official nowadays).Despite my sweet tooth, I can"t be specific as to whether flakes had made their way into ice cream cones in 1974, thereby creating a "99", which many of us enjoyed over the glorious June Bank Holiday weekend.However, Willie John"s cry of "99" in South Africa had an entirely different connotation.There were no video cameras and sideline officials to keep the punching, kicking and head butting to a minimum. (Ironically, Alan Quinlan misses the current tour because of a serious misdemeanour picked up on video and, frankly, he can have no complaints about his suspension). If the South Africans resorted to foul play then the Lions decided 'to get their retaliation in first'. The signal for this was Willie John"s call of '99' (a shortened version of the emergency phone number 999). This was a call for the Lions to basically clobber their nearest rival players - the recent 'rough'Derry v. Monaghan game, how are ya!At the "Battle of Boet Erasmus Stadium" in Port Elizabeth, one of the most violent matches in rugby history, there is famous video footage of JPR Williams running over half of the pitch and launching himself at Moaner van Heerden after such a call.A very different slant on the phrase "what the doctor ordered"!Willie John McBride commences his 70th year on June 6. It would be a fitting 69th birthday tribute to the giant lock if a similar Irish man-mountain can replicate his deeds of 1974.There is sure to be massive aggression in the Test matches, but as Frenchman Pierre Berbizier once famously said, 'if you can"t take a punch, you should play table tennis'. He would be a very foolish (and very sore) Springbok who decided to hit Paul O"Connell, a worthy successor to the great Willie John. Or as the Saw Doctors might sing: 'If you want to get the ball, you"ll have to take a slap from Paul.'