Rugby was just part of the plot for these super heroes
Brendan Gallagher continues his enthralling series by looking at the best rugby all-rounders
1. Heather Moyse
One of the greatest full-backs in the women’s game, Moyse is the only elite rugby player to win two Olympic gold medals in a sport other than rugby. And the astonishing thing about her rugby career and her other existence as a bobsleigh champion is that they ran concurrently. Somehow she managed to combine them both. Indeed, at one stage she was also representing Canada as a track cyclist in the 500m at the 2012 Pan American Games where she recorded a respectable 36.207 seconds before she decided, for a short while, to retire from competitive sport.
Moyse, the rugby player, was an all action counter-attacker and player of the tournament when Canada hosted the Women’s World Cup in 2006. Four years later in 2010, despite Canada finishing sixth, she was the tournament’s joint top try scorer and three years later at the age of 35 she contributed massively to Canada’s bronze medal at the 2013 Women’s Sevens World Cup in Moscow.
As part of Canada’s two-woman bobsleigh team she took gold in her home Olympics in Vancouver in 2006 with Kaillie Humphries and they repeated the feat four year later at Sochi. After a half-hearted attempt to retire she got the bobsleigh bug again in 2014 and, with Humphries committed to another pairing, she formed a hurried partnership with Alysia Rissling. They won the World Cup event at St Moritz on the eve of the 2014 Olympics but come the big day in Pyeongchang a mistake on the final run of four saw them slip out of medal contention into sixth place.
2. Eric Liddell
A phenomenal all-round rugby and athletic talent who gave it all up at the end of 1924 at the age of 22. Captained the Eltham College cricket XI and rugby XVs at the age of 15 and, after enrolling at Edinburgh University, initially made his way as a rugby player, being dubbed the ‘Flying Scotsman’ as he steamed in for four tries in his seven Five Nations games in 1922 and 1923. During the summer of 1923 it became apparent that he was equally as talented a runner when he set a British 100 yards record of 9.7 seconds, a time that was not equalled until 1946 when McDonald Bailey record- ed the same time.
Liddell intended to devote his life to missionary work in China once he graduated so he set his sights on the 1924 Olympic 100m but as the Games came nearer it became obvious that the final was scheduled for a Sunday and his religious beliefs would not let him run on that day. So quite late on he switched his focus to the 200m which he had always intended to run and the 400m at which he was a novice. In the former he claimed a highly satisfactory bronze medal but then, running way beyond anything he dreamed possible, he progressed to the 400m final which he won in a world record of 47.6 seconds.
3. Arturo Rodriguez
A formidable figure from the dawn of Argentina rugby, Rodriguez was also the 1928 Olympic heavyweight champion but resisted all attempts to turn professional and fight for the world title. His main love was rugby and he captained Argentina in all four ‘Tests’ against the 1927 Lions, starting the first game at centre before switching to flanker for the remaining three. He was fighting a lone battle in an outclassed side but the Lions noted his belligerent, battling, qualities.
At the Olympics a year later it was a small ten-man field but it was quality all the way with all three medallists from the previous year’s European Championships present. Rodriguez, who had fought as a light heavyweight at the Paris Olympics four year earlier, had bulked up and improved his footwork immeasurably from his rugby playing. He went through the tournament in impressive style winning three bouts on route to the final where he put on something of a master class against Sweden’s Nils Ram.
Rodriguez retired from boxing after that but still played rugby and was again the captain when the Pumas played their first Test in five years when they entertained the Junior Springboks. They lost that series 2-0 but Rodriguez finally tasted victory when they next played, in 1936, when he led them to a 2-0 series victory on tour in Chile.
4. James Cecil Parke
Often touted as Ireland’s greatest allround sportsman, the solicitor from Clunes in County Monaghan was a key man at centre for Ireland between 1903 and 1907 winning 20 caps, a huge number back in those days. Like Basil Maclear he occasionally wore white gloves when playing. It was as a tennis player, though, that he achieved even greater fame when, in those pre-independence days, he competed for Great Britain at the 1908 Olympics and won a silver medal in the men’s doubles. Four years later he won both the singles title and men’s doubles at the Australian Open. In 1914 he was ranked four in the world and in 1920 he was still ranked six. Also represented Ireland at golf in 1906.
5. Noel Purcell
A very singular Irishman from Limerick who is the only Irish rugby international to win an Olympic gold medal. Purcell was a member of Great Britain’s gold medal water polo team at the Antwerp Olympics in 1920 – when Ireland was still constitutionally part of Great Britain – before being an ever-present for Ireland in the 1921 Five Nations. Meanwhile, by 1924 the Republic of Ireland had come into existence and he captained their water polo team at the Paris Olympics where they lost 4-2 to Czechoslovakia in the quarter-finals. Purcell refereed the Five Nations game between England and Scotland in 1927 but after rather pointed comments in the Times that he had put on weight and refereed from ‘afar’, he stopped reffing.
6. Andrew Stoddart
Not only captained England at rugby and cricket but was a star performer in both sports, a dazzling back and a dangerous attacking batsman whose 173 in the second innings at Melbourne on the 1884 tour was one of the great captain’s knocks after England had been bowled out for 73 in the first innings. Another feather in Stoddart’s cap was captaining the 1888 Lions for much of their tour of Australia and New Zealand following the death of the appointed captain Robert Seddon who died midway through the tour in a sculling accident on the River Hunter in New South Wales. Stoddart led two separate England cricket tours to Australia, while he led England in four of his ten internationals. He was also the inaugural captain of the Barbarian RFC. He came to an untimely end in 1915 when, beset by illness and debt, he took his own life.
7. Ken Jones
One of the great Wales wings with 17 Test tries and another two for the Lions but also a considerable speed merchant on the track. At one stage it looked like he had won an Olympic gold medal with the GB 4x100m relay squad at the 1948 Games – they were presented with their medals on the podium at Wembley– but for the first time TV technology was used to review the race and the USA, the first team across the line, were reinstated after they had originally been disqualified for a baton change outside the designated box. Won a bronze medal for Wales in the 220 yards at the 1954 Commonwealth Games and a silver with GB in the 4x100m relay at the European Championships in Berne.
8. Brian Black
Rugged South African-born Rhodes scholar, Black lived life in the fast lane and made quite an impact with Blackheath, England and then the 1930 Lions as a rumbustious goal-kicking forward, but winter sports was arguably his first love, notably the bobsleigh, so much so that he won two gold medals at the 1937 World Championships at Cortina d’Ampezzo. In the two-man bob he partnered another colonial Brit, Australian Freddie McEvoy, acting as pusher and brakeman, the same role he had undertaken in the four-man bob a few days earlier. Black, who served in the RAF during the war, was to be killed in action flying over Wiltshire in July 1940.
9. Tuppy Owen Smith
One of five cricketers of the year in 1930 after touring here with the Boks in 1929, when he scored a century before lunch in the Headingley Test, before returning the following year to study medicine at Magdalen college Oxford and St Mary’s Hospital. At which point he concentrated mainly on rugby although he also found time to win boxing and athletics Blues. A superb attacking full-back, Owen Smith captained England in the 1937 Four Nations – France had been temporarily suspended.
Wisden’s 10. Eric Tindall
The only New Zealander to play Test rugby for the All Blacks and cricket for New Zealand while he was also a Test referee, and umpired Test cricket. Toured Britain with the 1935-36 All Blacks playing 14 matches, including the showpiece game at Twickenham, his one Test appearance. He also toured Australia in 1938 although he couldn’t break into the Test team but was confidently expected to be the starting fly-half on the 1940 tour of South Africa which was cancelled. In total he played 17 games for the All
Blacks and remarkably all 24 points he scored came from dropped goals.
As a wicketkeeper-batsman he represented Wellington from 1933-50, toured with the New Zealand team to England 1937 and Australia 1937-38 – when he snaffled Bradman – as well as representing New Zealand again after the war. Having switched to reffing he took control of the All Blacks first two Tests against the touring Lions in 1950 and then the second Test against the Wallabies in 1955. In the summer of 1958-59 he returned to Lancaster Park and umpired New Zealand’s cricket Test against England.
11. Allan Lewis
Former Ireland cricket captain, Lewis was one of the leading lights in Irish cricket for many years as they strove to qualify for World Cups and to achieve full Test status. Lewis also emerged as one of the top rugby referees in the world officiating at RWC2003 and RWC2007 when he ran the line in the final. In total he took charge of 45 Tests and 89 Heineken Cup games. In all cricket matches for Ireland between 1984 and 1997, Lewis scored 3,579 runs at an average of 28.63 with a top score of 136 against Wales in July 1990, one of four centuries he scored for his country. He also took 51 wickets at an average of 43.88.
12. Kevin O’Flanagan
A prodigious all-round talent and medic who in 1946 played rugby for Ireland against France and then soccer for the IFA XI against Scotland seven days later. An outstanding junior athlete he also won that all-Ireland title in the 60 yard sprint, 100 yard sprint and triple jump. In 1948 he was an official team doctor for GB at the London Olympics. He served for 18 years as an IOC member for Ireland and was an influential member of many medical committees. His brother,
Mick Flanagan, was also a notable sportsman and also represented Ireland at both soccer and Rugby Union and on September 1946 both brothers played together for the FAI XI against England.
13. Brian McKechnie
Not only a double international (Test rugby, ODI cricket) but involved in two of the biggest sporting scandals of the 20th century. In 1978 it was he who kicked New Zealand’s winning penalty at Cardiff Arms Park after Andy Haden and Frank Oliver had conned referee Roger Quittenden while in 1981, this time on the cricket pitch, he was involved in the notorious underarm bowling incident at the MCG. Australia were playing New Zealand in a one-day international and New Zealand needed six to win off the final ball when the Australian skipper Greg Chappell ordered his brother Trevor to bowl the last ball of the game underarm along the ground to McKechnie who was the strike. The disgusted Kiwi played an exaggerated forward defensive shot before throwing his bat to the ground in anger and marching off.
14. Henry Renny-Tailyour
Indian-born son of Empire who remains the only Scotsman to represent his country at both football and rugby while he also played first class cricket for Kent. As a footballer he played twice for Scotland, the first on November 17, 1871 in a game that is not now recognised as an international as Scotland comprised entirely of London-based Scots. A second international, though, in 1873, again at the Oval, was a proper representative international and Renny-Tailyour scored Scotland’s first ever goal in their 4-2 defeat. He also played in three FA Cup finals for the Royal Engineers. As a rugby player he played for Scotland against England at the Oval in 1872 while, as a cricketer, as well as playing for Kent, he represented the Gentleman against Players, the MCC and the South of England.
15. Andy Ripley
A gloriously maverick sporting talent who was the leading light in the BBC Superstars competition in the early 80s, winning the international event in 1981 the year he came second in the British Championship and finishing third in the World Championships. Invariably led the competitions going into the final gym tests which were not suited to his 17 stone frame. Untouchable in the canoeing – he was a qualified canoe instructor – the basketball challenge, swimming and most running events. Ripley was a terrific No.8, a good enough 400m hurdler to contest the AAA championships most years and in his latter years held various indoor rowing world records.
16. Alastair Hignell
For many decades it’s been virtually impossible to be a proper dual international rugby and cricket Test player in England but Higgie came closer than most. A former captain and scrum-half with England Schools he was a properly good Test full-back who won 14 England caps between 1975-79. At Cambridge he captained the rugby and cricket teams while he played his country cricket for Gloucestershire where he amassed 11 centuries and 41 half centuries in 170 first class games. His batting was invariably described as pugnacious and hard hitting. After retiring became a distinguished BBC rugby reporter despite battling MS.
17. Albert Hornby
Not only captained England at rugby and cricket, Hornby has the further distinction of achieving that in the same year – 1882 – although it did all go a bit pearshaped. Captained the England XV to defeat against Scotland in Manchester and England Xl to a calamitous loss against Australia at the Oval. That was the occasion that inspired the famous
Sporting Times obituary the following day. “In Affectionate Remembrance of English Cricket, which died at the Oval on 29th August, 1882, Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances R.I.P. N.B. – The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia.” A full-back in rugby, he played nine Tests and tasted defeat only twice.
18. John Young
Young starred for Harlequins, England and the Lions on the wing but his biggest impact on the sporting scene was to win the AAA 100 yards championship at the White City as an 18 year old schoolboy from Bishop’s Vasey. The time of 9.9 secs wasn’t that impressive but after weeks of rain the cinder track was like a ploughed field and he beat a high quality field to take the title. The media also loved his sulky good looks and branded him the Marlon Brando of the track.
19. David Bishop
The controversial Pontypool scrum-half, who was restricted to just one Wales cap, was a talented all-round who also represented Wales at boxing and baseball. When he switched codes he played Rugby League for Wales and Great Britain. Also received a Royal Humane Society Bravery award for rescuing a woman and her child from the River Taff.
20. Sonny Bill Williams
Double World Cup winner with the All Blacks, Sonny Bill has switched effortlessly between League and Union while also being one of the most accomplished Sevens players on the scene. To add to his considerable CV, he can boast an unbeaten professional boxing career – seven bouts, seven wins – which includes winning the New Zealand heavyweight title.