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Johannes de Bruyn had lost his glass eye and the warring packs ceased fire to find it in the mud, whereupon De Bruyn popped it back in its socket. During the brutal Third Test in 1974, in between the fighting and McBride's all-in "99" call, there was a shriek from one of the Springbok forwards. "Who'd have thought it? Six million sheep in this bloody country, and not one rasher of bacon." Not a dry eye The former Scotland lock Gordon Brown passed away from cancer in 2001, much mourned by those who hung on every word of his richly-told anecdotes. Peter Wheeler sent a postcard home saying: "It only rained twice last week - once for three days, the other time for four." Gallows humour abounded throughout the trip, and various Lions have been fingered with the tale of one of them at breakfast annoyed there was no bacon to go with his eggs. "Mr McBride," the manager screamed, "your players are wrecking my hotel." The great man sat cross-legged on his bed in his underpants, puffing on his pipe "Are there many dead?" he enquired "I've called the police," the manager replied "And tell me, these police of yours," McBride said. "Will there be many of them?" In their elements In New Zealand in 1977 the heavens opened and stayed open.
In Port Elizabeth the sound of splintering furniture, exploding fire extinguishers and the lapping of water in the lobby brought an apoplectic hotel manager to the room of the Lions' captain. No Smoke Willie John McBride confessed to trashing a few hotel rooms around New Zealand in 1971, but the South African expedition three years later was the most notorious. He convinced David too and the pair gripped each other in terror at the sound of roaring and banging on the walls of their hut - until Mike Burton, Chris Ralston and Ian McLauchlan piled in laughing. One night on the 1974 tour to South Africa in the Kruger Park he climbed into bed with Tommy David, convinced that lions of the flesh-eating variety were out to get him.
After the six-week round journey, and four months of matches in New Zealand and Australia, Black disembarked the boat to find his wife bulging out all over "We had to persuade Gus it was his," said a team-mate. Boyo Bobby The tack-sharp steelworker Bobby Windsor was either the instigator or the butt of more pranks than any Lion. Substitutes: Saxton, Carvell, Brough, McNicholas.Bradford: Withers; Reardon, B Harris, L Pryce, K Pryce; I Harris, Deacon; Lynch, Pratt, Fielden, Peacock, Meyers, Radford. Substitutes: Paul, Vagana, Cook, Ferres,Referee: A Klein (London).. Surprise appearance Surprise appearance The 1950 Lions set sail with the wife of the Scotland scrum-half, Gus Black, deciding to keep mum over the news she had just fallen pregnant, for fear of spoiling his trip. Hull had another try disallowed when Paul McNicholas' pass to Whiting was ruled forward.Deacon's penalty kept Bradford well in control and then his precise cross-field kick set up Reardon for the try that took the game beyond Hull's reach.Leon Pryce laid on a try for his younger brother, Karl, as the Bulls disappeared over the horizon, making two Gareth Raynor tries, both set up by the persevering Cooke, irrelevant.It summed up Hull's night when Leon Pryce seized upon an interception for Bradford's sixth try with Blacklock getting a late consolation for Hull.Hull: Briscoe; Blacklock, Whiting, Yeaman, Raynor; Cooke, Horne; Dowse, King, Thackray, Chester, Kearney, McMenemy.
