Maclear, Gallaher would serve on the Western Front during the Great War. He had natural leadership qualities and often put himself in dangerous situations without thinking of his own safety. During an assault with the Auckland Regiment he was seriously injured on 4 October 1917. A shell exploded close to him, and he was taken to a makeshift hospital at a clearing station. He was given the last rites and died shortly afterwards.
Gallaher was one of the finest players ever to represent the All Blacks, and his death was felt keenly in New Zealand. After he stopped playing he became a coach and wrote a successful rugby book. He was forty-three when he died.
One of his former teammates, Ernest Booth, summed up Gallaher’s philosophy:‘To us All Blacks his words would often be, “Give nothing away; take no chance.” ’
Booth played with Gallaher back in 1905, when an exhausting thirty-two games were lined up for the New Zealanders in the British Isles, with other matches against France and British Columbia also pencilled in at the end. No one knew much about them or the kind of rugby they played, but the assumption in the press was that British teams would easily beat them. After they sailed into Plymouth, the tour began in Devon in mid September against the county side. When the final score filtered through to newspaper offices around the country, no one could believe the result. The visitors had thumped their hosts by 55 points to 4. In fact, a number of publications credited Devon with the win, thinking the original score was a mistake. Their triumphant opening match was followed by games in Cornwall, Bristol, Northampton, Leicester and Middlesex. In those early games the tourists amassed a points tally of 176 without reply.
By now, the press started to take the New Zealanders seriously. They got respect, and because of the colour of their shirts the name of ‘The All Blacks’ entered the rugby vocabulary. In November, Basil Maclear got his first chance to try his luck against the men in black when his old team, Blackheath, welcomed the tourists to their London ground.
Understandably, the touchlines were packed with spectators for the biggest day in the club’s history. If the locals had come to watch an upset, they would be disappointed. The New Zealanders’ fine form continued, and despite the best efforts of Maclear and the other seven internationals on the Blackheath team they were no match for their dashing opponents, who scored 32 points without reply. The general consensus in the press was that the skilful men from the southern hemisphere were invincible. One correspondent reported that those who represented Blackheath had ‘probably never had such a gruelling before and certainly would not like to go through such an experience again’. The reporter had obviously not met Basil Maclear, who could not get enough of playing against the visitors.
Eleven days later he turned out for his home club, Bedford, as they tried to stop the all-conquering tourists. Schools, factories and offices in the county town closed early to allow people to attend. By the kick-off, a crowd of around 8,000 gathered in the shadow of the new stand to see if Bedford could succeed where other clubs across England had failed. Any thoughts of a home win proved to be in vain as the visitors won by an even greater margin than in the Blackheath game, finishing the match as winners by 41 points to nil.
Even though Maclear had now been on the losing side twice in recent games, the press reports for his play were favourable.
Ten days later it was Ireland’s chance to do battle.
After travelling through England and Scotland, the All Blacks had played twenty-one games and won every one. Their free running and dazzling forward play had resulted in 646 points, and they had conceded a mere 22. They were the sporting wonders of their age, and no one in the press now doubted their ability. In the run-up to the match in Dublin, there was an insatiable demand for tickets. Irish Rugby Football Union officials had issued 10,000 tickets well before the game. It was the first ever all-ticket rugby international, and officials decided not to take any money at the gate. That led to tickets changing hands well above their face value, and there were reports that five pounds had been offered for a couple of five shilling stand tickets. Many hundreds turned up at the ground and could not get in. Some enterprising souls took positions on nearby buildings to get a free view of the game, and others stood outside the ground and listened to the crowd. Such was the desire to see the All Blacks that it was estimated that match organisers could have sold 20,000 tickets. In the end it would still prove to be a commercial success, with ticket sales generating around £950, which was huge amount of money at the time
In fine weather, with a perfect playing surface and a packed house, Lansdowne Road was set for a historic encounter. Dublin had never seen anything like it, and the Irish players and spectators had certainly never witnessed the pre-match Haka. As the All Blacks stood on the turf, dancing and singing Maori verses, the ground looked on in wonder. The Cork Examiner’s reporter declared:
The Irish team looked most foolish while this was going on, as they appeared to think they ought to do something, but they did not know exactly what. In spite of this warlike demonstration the match was played in a friendly spirit.
The Irish selectors had picked a strong team, and had chosen players who had turned out earlier in the year for the Five Nations Championship. Basil Maclear knew more about the visitors than any of his teammates. This was his third match against the All Blacks in as many weeks, so he probably knew the entire New Zealand team by name.
The game started well for Ireland, with the backs making some early runs and the forwards tackling hard. Maclear had the chance to give Ireland the lead, but his penalty fell short, much to the disappointment of the crowd.
After half an hour there was still no score, but the deadlock was finally broken by New Zealand, who went into the half-time interval leading by 5 points to nil. In the second half the New Zealanders added to their lead, and held on for a 15–0 victory. Ireland had tried hard to contain the visitors, but in the end the power of the tourists’ forwards and the pace of the backs had proved too much. The All Blacks were magnanimous in victory and praised the Irish ‘spirit’. Maclear, and fellow back Mossy Landers, who split his finger during the game, were picked out by the press as being two of Ireland’s best performers. Maclear had little time to dwell on the defeat because the following Tuesday he was in Limerick to play his fourth and final game against the tourists.
He was chosen to captain Munster at Markets Field on a pitch that was ‘rough and uneven’ and very different from the manicured surface of Lansdowne Road. The press gave the Irish province little chance of beating the tourists, but such reporting did not deter nearly 4,000 spectators from making the journey to Limerick. Munster put out their strongest team possible, but there was no place for Landers, whose split finger from the game in Dublin had not healed. The match started at a fast pace, but it was clear very quickly how the game would develop as the home forwards ‘went down like a house of cards before their opponents and the Munster backs were altogether outclassed’.
The game was won in the first half, the visitors running in five tries.After the break the tourists appeared to relax a little, but they still managed three more tries, and by full-time they had scored 33 points without reply.The Munster crowd were sporting, and cheered the All Blacks off the pitch, later giving them a good reception when they boarded a train at Limerick Railway Station. Maclear was picked out by the press as one of the few Munster players who had made an impact on the game.
The Cork Examiner’s reporter wrote:
Maclear stood by himself amongst the backs, and the way he tackled two and sometimes three men in succession, over and over again, saved many scores. None of the others were class enough for their opponents and certainly never to get green caps.
The watching journalists were not alone in appreciating Maclear’s skill and work rate. The New Zealanders knew that without the Cork soldier in their ranks Munster would have been a much poorer side. George Smith, one of the All Blacks’ three-quarters, summed
