Rugby legend Willie John McBride

Willie played 63 Tests for Ireland including eleven as captain, and toured with the Lions five times a record 17 Lions Test caps.

He was born on 6 June, 1940 in Toomebridge, in a small village in County Antrim, and went on to become and still regarded by all rugby critics to be one of the greatest players to have ever pulled on a British and Irish Lions shirt.

In this podcast interview with Gary Cooke - Willie tells us his life story in his own words from when he says he took up rugby relatively late at the age of 17 but once he began playing his talent was obvious and he quickly rose through the ranks after playing in the Ballymena Academy school’s XV

In 1971, as the British and Irish Lions defeated the All Blacks in a series for the first time, McBride cemented himself as a great of the game. The Ireland international started all four Tests as they came away from New Zealand with a remarkable 2-1 triumph.

It seemed impossible that the tourists – and McBride himself – could surpass that incredible achievement, but he and his team-mates did just that three years later in South Africa.

He said ,There weren’t the camera angles or television match officials to keep a check on some of the off-the-ball violence which sometimes took place during the amateur era. South Africa were well known for it at the time and the Lions duly decided to confront it head on. The result was an utterly ferocious series with the tour marred by a number of fights.

It was ultimately successful for the tourists, though, with the skipper coming up with the policy of ‘one in, all in’, believing that if they were all involved, the officials could not send everybody off. It was called ’99

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