Farewell to Gary, the No.8 with a golden big boot

THEY are all retired by now or close to it and the old yarns will be given another spin in Christchurch on Monday when they pay their last respects to one of their own, Gary Seear.

No.8 in New Zealand’s 1978 Grand Slam touring team, Seear died this week within a fortnight of what would have been his 66th birthday.

That Seear fought the good fight for so long will be considered a greater feat than his 22 matches for the All Blacks. The initial prognosis gave him four years and that was 13 years ago.

His passing will evoke memories for Welsh supporters of a certain vintage who will perhaps recall his presence at Cardiff Arms Park on Armistice Day 1978, not that Seear played any part in the amateur theatrics resorted to by Andy Haden in his desperation to cheat Wales out of a famous win.

The penalty, which the English referee, the late Roger Quittenton, insisted for the rest of his days had nothing to do with Haden’s antics, allowed the Kiwis to sneak the sneakiest of wins, 13-12. And the man who kicked the goal, full-back Brian McKechnie, will be giving the eulogy at Seear’s funeral.

The point will no doubt be made that had McKechnie been stricken by a dose of the jitters, Seear would have taken the kick as he had done at the Parc des Princes the previous year. The penalty he landed from more than 40 yards was the last by a New Zealand forward.

Australia’s World Cup-winning captain John Eales, the last of the goal kicking tight forwards, kept the tradition going until the start of the century, landing the last of his 65 Test goals for the Wallabies in 2000, against New Zealand.