Sir Nick had a way of stopping Scots pulses

SIR Nicholas (call me Nick) Shehadie had a chuckle to himself once every four years whenever Scotland turned up for the event he created more than anyone by the sheer force of his personality, the World Cup.

In the company of former All Black manager Richard Littlejohn, the former Wallaby captain made a barnstorming tour of the British Isles during which he gave the four home countries a stark warning: agree to a World Cup now to preempt it being hijacked by an outside promoter.

Scotland joined Ireland in refusing to support a World Cup. When Shehadie pressed the SRU committee for a decision, Gordon Masson, an Aberdonian who ascended to the presidency a few years later, told him: “Over my dead body…’’

And Shehadie is understood to have told him: “Well don’t bother coming…’’

Thankfully, England and Wales took a more enlightened view, their backing enabling the International Rugby Board, as they were then, to decide in March 1985 that the first World Cup would take place two years later.

By then an Australian journalist-cum-entrepreneur, David Lord, had collected signed contracts from most of the world’s leading players for a professional operation along the lines of Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket. Lord’s one problem was raising the £20m to run it.

Rather than wait for that to happen, the Australian and New Zealand Unions sent Shehadie and Littlejohn off on their British and Irish mission. A larger than life character whose ancestors had emigrated to Sydney from Lebanon, Shehadie, who dies last week, had a bit of fun at Masson’s expense on the day of the 1991 World Cup final at Twickenham.

Spotting the ‘over-my-dead-body’ Scot in the committee box, he reached across and grabbed Masson by the wrist. When Masson asked what he was doing, Shehadie said: “Just checking your pulse to make sure you’re still alive…’’