St Kevin's team of '64 wins on numbers

Five members of the St Kevin's College First XV from 50 years ago  (from left) John O'Brien (66),...
Five members of the St Kevin's College First XV from 50 years ago (from left) John O'Brien (66), of Christchurch, Danny Boyle (65), of Auckland, Gavan Herlihy (67), of Wanaka, Oliver Ryan (68), of Rangiora, and Errol Wilkinson (67), of Blenheim, were...

The 1964 St Kevin's College and Waitaki Boys' High School rugby teams had a 50-year-old argument to settle during a hoped-for reunion at the annual interschool clash in Oamaru yesterday.

While St Kevin's could muster six players from that team 50 years ago, Waitaki Boys' pulled out because only two could attend.

While one of the St Kevin's players pulled out at the last minute yesterday, that still left St Kevin's on a score of 5, and Waitaki Boys' on nil, according to the somewhat irregular rules.

''Guess we won this fixture,'' one of the '64 St Kevin's team members, former centre Gavin Herlihy, of Wanaka, quipped yesterday.

However, he was reticent about the original match - he recalls Waitaki Boys' scored 30 points, from six tries and six conversions, but had to be pressured on St Kevin's score, which he thought was eight points - in the days when a try or penalty was worth three points and a conversion two.

However, while with age people tend to adopt a rosier view of the past, in Mr Herlihy's case it was the opposite and the actual score was much closer than he rememberedSt Kevin's scored five tries and finished up on 17 points and the score would have been much closer had their kicker landed more than one conversion.

There was one consolation for Mr Herlihy - he scored the first try under the posts about five minutes into the match, the conversion giving St Kevin's an early 5-nil lead.

But, from there, it was downhill.

''The rest of the game is a blur.''

All he remembers is his opposite number, Alan Millar, running through, over and around him to score ''a number of tries''.

Then there was the argument to settle - the one of who won up front.

The St Kevin's tight three maintained they dominated; the opposition disputed that.

Yesterday, that front row was back together again, and had planned to take on their old Waitaki Boys' opponents, but the contest fell through.

Instead, the team of '64 met up, some for the first time since that year, at Northstar before going to the interschool match. They also met St Kevin's First XV coach Justin Fowler.

The reunion between the teams was first raised about 12 months ago, but forgotten. Two months ago the idea was resurrected, Mr Herlihy said.

Four of the '64 St Kevin's team had died, while the rest had other commitments or were overseas, he said.

- david.bruce@odt.co.nz

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