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Great moments in Lions tour history: The All Blacks captain who scored with a broken collarbone

Ron Elvidge

The story of Ron Elvidge is so good it should be made into a movie.

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Chasing Great. The Kick. Old Scores. There have been a few attempts to make the great New Zealand rugby film.

Probably the most well-known motion picture involving the All Blacks is the Clint Eastwood-directed Invictus. However, it left a sour taste in the mouth of many Kiwi fans as it completely overlooked the ‘Suzie the Waitress’ food poisoning scandal that clearly cost the team the 1995 World Cup Final. (Fun fact: Matt Damon, who played Francois Pienaar in the film, also briefly played a flanker in The Departed).

But what about this tale for the Hollywood treatment: the 1950 All Blacks captain leads the team against the best of the British, gets his face gashed open in a ruck and later in the game breaks his collarbone. His team needs him – there’s no subs in these days – so he returns to the field and scores the winning try despite being in agonising pain. He never plays again, finishing his career with one of the most glorious and courageous plays in All Blacks history.

That’s all true: Ron Elvidge was the All Black midfielder and skipper that day against the Lions at Athletic Park some 67 years ago.

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Elvidge had already captained the Otago side to a 23-9 win over the Lions earlier in the tour, but the blustery Wellington weather meant that the aggregate of points in the second test was never going to be as high as that. In fact, it was the staunch defensive nature of the game that gave Elvidge the injury that forced him from the field.

Rugby was different back in the years following the Second World War, but you can tell it was starting to take shape into the highly physical contest we see today. Tackles were a bit meaner, and the All Black captain found himself with a fractured collarbone after one fierce collision.

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While he was getting treatment for that and a deep gash on his face, team mate Johnny Simpson had to leave the field injured. Substitutions were still another 18 years away, so the All Blacks were down to 13. Elvidge returned to the field despite one arm hanging limply by his side.

With one good arm he held onto a pass and dove over, despite the try being probably one of the most painful acts imaginable in his condition. But, as they say, they bred them tough in the old days. Final score: All Blacks 6, Lions 3.

His injury meant he missed the final test in a series won 3-1 by the All Blacks. He was never picked again, but today has the honour of being the oldest living All Black at the grand old age of 94.

His story has everything a decent movie needs: triumph over adversity, an interesting period setting, and plenty of opportunities for montage and slow motion sequences. The character of Elvidge as a good, honest Kiwi bloke could be filled by any number of Hollywood leading men – although the New Zealand accent is notoriously difficult to pull of, so they might want to get someone local.

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One thing is for sure though, and I’m well aware I’m breaking my self-imposed ban on the subject. Someone has to invite Brian O’Driscoll to the premiere, so he can see the proper way you deal with a collarbone injury.

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Flankly 1 hour ago
Irish provinces in danger of being left further behind, in their own country

Sometimes the explanations lie within, sometimes without. And we don’t always look the right way.


The story of top flight rugby is that what won yesterday is not what wins today. The standards are improving and the margins are narrowing.


I don’t think the Irish provinces have regressed in quality, so much as the bar has been raised, and it keeps getting higher. A team needs to be really good in every department and to play to their potential in order not to be beaten by a mid-table team. Nobody takes Benetton lightly anymore. The Scottish teams are serious contenders. We're two games from the end of the regular season and there are 14 teams vying for the 8 playoff slots. And if it weren’t for the implosion in Welsh rugby administration in recent years, you’d have to believe that things would be even more competitive.


Also, independent of general trends, SA rugby is going from strength to strength. The Ireland teams lost all of their games this last weekend, but the SA teams won all of their games. That’s not going to happen every time, but its consistent with the overall reality that SA has been succeeding at national level, is supplying dozens of top players (and some coaches) to non-SA clubs, and has a rising tide of nextgen players that are increasingly in evidence. There could easily be 3 SA teams in the URC playoffs, and while none of them would be favorites against Leinster in a final, any of them would be legit contenders.


There is work to do in the non-Dublin Irish teams, but I would characterise it as needing to get ahead and stay ahead of the league, rather than a loss of quality per se.

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