Stack had his own way of playing the game
STACK Stevens – a Cornish legend who helped England to Test wins in South Africa and New Zealand and toured with the 1971 Lions – died earlier this week at 77.
He is fondly remembered by all, not least his old front row partner in crime for years, Roger Harris, who acted as minder when the great man ventured forth from his beloved Penzance to the big smoke on England duty.
The first came at the swish Lensbury club the day before Stevens’ England debut when Harris, perennially England’s reserve hooker behind John Pullin, was trying to show him the ropes:
“I ran out onto the pitch and immediately saw this apparition in a dirty old torn rugby shirt and a pair of fulllength and badly ripped jeans trotting about the field. I did a double take and realised it was Stack. Sure enough within five minutes some poor mug had taken pity on him and provided him with some pristine England training kit. He just gave me a knowing wink and promptly took it all back home with him.”
Another time the Cornish duo were taking the air and strolling around Richmond when they passed a scruffy middle aged man in working clothes furiously polishing yet another gleaming Rolls Royce.
Harris takes up the yarn: “‘Hope they’re paying you alright for all that boy,’ said Stack. “The man looked up and we were slightly taken back. It was star of stage and screen Sir John Mills.” Happily Mills was a rugby fan.