EDDIE TOOK THE HIT, AUSTIN GOT THE REWARDS

EDDIE BUTLER, fine rugby player, equally fine journalist and commentator, died last week. In 2001, he ghosted Austin Healey’s column during the Lions tour of Australia. On the eve of the deciding third Test it caused a bit of a stir.

‘Up yours, Australia’ would be the quick capsule version. ‘They call me one of the trouble-makers,’ it began. ‘Matt Dawson and me, the lip machines. Matt says this, I say that; what’s going on? Anything we say comes back to this backend of the world with a whole lot of spin. Well, spin this, you Aussies: up yours. Is that enough to get into the Sydney Morning Sun Telegraph Herald Load of S****? If ever I wanted to do something, it was beat you lot…’

A balloon went up. Not least when Healey missed the match injured and the player he described as a ‘plank’, Justin Harrison, won the game and the series for Australia. Then, later, as often happens, with the storm raging around him, Healey denied saying it. And because he was a loyal ally, Eddie took the rap. ‘Look, it wasn’t Austin,’ he wrote in The Observer. ‘It was I. Each and every word in the Austin Healey columns over six weeks in The Guardian and Observer was written by me.’ And yes, that’s sort of true. The subject talks, the ghost writes. But Eddie wouldn’t have created an opinion, a stance, that wasn’t Healey’s. I have never for one second believed that it wasn’t Healey’s voice and a fair reflection of what he thought, but it was decent of Eddie (left) to protect his friend and pretend he’d gone rogue.

And he did him another favour. Above all, columns should be interesting. Healey’s was. Outspoken, compelling and not entirely wrong. Every newspaper would have killed for it. So Healey remains a columnist on rugby, some 21 years later. Great man, Eddie Butler.