The heroes of your youth are the best heroes and this is why I was thrilled that Des Connor will be inducted into the Wallaby Hall of Fame at the weekend of the 2008 Bledisloe Cup Test final between Australia and New Zealand.
Connor is one of that rare and now impossible bred who played for the Wallabies and the All Blacks.
To my mind, he ranks as an equal with the best halfbacks in the history of rugby.
Welsh supporters will claim Gareth Edwards as the greatest. Australians will claim Ken Catchpole and John Hipwell. New Zealanders will advocate Chris Laidlaw and David Loveridge. And South Africans are insistent about Danie Craven, later known as Mr Rugby.
Edwards and Catchpole were brilliant runners, with Catchpole having a fast, snappy pass – all wrists flick, with a minimal wind-up from his arms.
Peter Crittle, former Wallaby and long-serving rugby official and, incidentally, the owner of a wonderful rugby library, always insists that Catchpole was the best ever.
Anyone who has seen clips of his lightning breaks will be impressed.
Laidlaw was a superb passing halfback. He was ambidextrous, so could fire his bullet passes from either side.
He passed from the crouch position – no dive – and he was the first player in rugby union, or rugby league for that matter, to put a spin on the ball as he hurtled it metres away to his halfback. You could almost hear Laidlaw’s passes as they buzzed through the air, like Wally Lewis specials.
He did not have to swizzle on his left-hand side like Loveridge.
Loveridge had a better kicking and sniping game, but Laidlaw, as befitting a Rhodes Scholar, was very smart in the way he read a game with his cover defence and huge passes.
Craven brought the dive pass to Australia and New Zealand with the 1937 Springboks, a side that won its Test series in both countries and was deemed “the best side ever to leave New Zealand.”
Against Australia, Craven played number 8 and first-five. In the era of the tiny, quick-silver halfback, Craven had a sturdy build and lots of speed.
In New Zealand he played at halfback, and his prodigious passing opened up gaps for his backs to race through, which the All Black could not cover.
And Des Connor?
He was built like Craven, and when he broke from a scrum or a ruck, he clumped through gaps running faster than it seemed he was travelling.
His dive pass was as long as Laidlaw’s. His defence was as strong as that of Edwards. His kicking was massive.
Towering high balls from the base of the scrum or the ruck were designed, and intended, to put fear into the heart of the waiting fullback.
Like all the other great halfbacks, Connor had that a special ability to rise to the occasion.
The first time he touched a ball in an All Blacks jersey, against France at Eden Park, he broke away on the blindside from a tight-head win and set up his backs to score a stunning try.
Like Laidlaw, too, Connor was a profound and stimulating thinker about rugby tactics and strategies.
He came back from New Zealand to Brisbane and in 1969 coached the Wallabies to a close but losing series against Fred Allen’s All Blacks, arguably one of the best All Blacks side ever.
At Brisbane, where in a nice touch he will receive his Hall of Fame induction, the 1968 All Blacks were awarded a controversial penalty try (by an Australian referee, Kevin Crowe) to snatch a victory against the run of play.
For the first time in Test rugby, the Wallabies, under Connor’s shrewd coaching, had run short line-outs and the All Blacks were confused over the unusual tactics.
I remember Connor’s debut for the All Blacks because I flew up from Wellington to Auckland, a first flight, to spend a weekend with a new girlfriend and to see Connor play his first Test for New Zealand.
He had thrilled me earlier in the rugby season with his play for Auckland.
Years later I met up with him at Brisbane, with his mate and fellow Wallaby great Terry Curley.
Both of them were as impressive and as manly off the field as they were on the field.
Life doesn’t get much better when your hero matches every aspect of the admiration you had for him when you meet up with him after the days of his playing glory.
Des Connor is truly a rugby immortal.
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