‘It is a treat to play against such men.’ The New Zealand party left the platform at Limerick Railway Station to the sound of cheers, and their officials received £50 as their share of the gate money.
It was clear that the All Blacks had enjoyed their time in Ireland. Full back Billy Wallace said, ‘The best time I had personally on the whole tour was in Ireland. The Dublin people gave us a great reception’.
From Ireland, the tourists travelled onto England, and would remain unbeaten until the middle of December. They lost to Wales in Cardiff by 3 points to nil in disputed circumstances after the All Blacks had a try disallowed.
The tour changed the way rugby was viewed, and the team made a profound impact on the watching public. With the trip nearly complete, the British press started to change its opinion, and the accomplished tourists were being talked about as rugby greats. A report in the Edinburgh Evening News was typical:
Had the New Zealanders dropped from the clouds they could scarcely have created a greater sensation in the world of sport, and yet many indications of their prowess might have prepared us for their coming.
In 1906, after the excitement of the All Blacks’ tour, Basil Maclear settled down to play club rugby and concentrate on the forthcoming Four Nations Championship. In February he was selected for a match against England at Welford Road in Leicester. In recent years Ireland had maintained the upper hand over the ‘old rivals’, and in the last nine matches had won on six occasions. Maclear’s fine game in Cork the year before was still fresh in the memory, and he wanted to repeat that performance. Ireland’s line-up included familiar faces, and once again Maclear was joined by the likes of Harry Thrift, J.C. Parke, Tommy Caddell and Bill Brooke Purdon.
Copying tactics they had observed from the All Blacks, Ireland played with only seven forwards instead of the traditional eight. The new technique worked against a weakened English team. The Irish backs saw a lot of the ball, and made the most of the first half on a pitch that was cutting up due to the rain. After eighteen minutes Purdon broke the deadlock, scoring a try under the posts. Then, on the half-hour mark, Tommy Caddell got the ball and passed to Maclear, who scored in the corner. He failed to convert, and at halftime Ireland were 8–0 up. In the second half the conditions had deteriorated, and the pitch was now in a ‘wretched state’.3 England fought back with a couple of tries, but two Irish goals gave them the advantage, and for the second year running Ireland triumphed. Basil Maclear had contributed 7 points which meant that Ireland won by 16 points to 6.
The new technique of playing with just seven forwards was tried again by Ireland in their next match with Scotland in Dublin two weeks later. It proved to be a disaster, the Scots winning well by 13 points to 6.
The result led to much discussion amongst the players about the tactic of only playing with seven forwards. As a result, by the time the Ireland team assembled in Belfast’s Balmoral Showgrounds for the Wales game, the old method of playing with eight forwards had been reinstated. Wales had already beaten England and Scotland, so they travelled across the Irish Sea in the knowledge that a win would once again seal the Triple Crown. In the first half the Irish forwards, back in their traditional eight-man formation, were superb. In the back line, J. C. Parke and Harry Thrift were also in top form. Disaster struck just before half-time when Irish back Bill Brooke Purdon had to be taken off with a broken leg. Ireland were leading by 8 points to 3.
In the second half things got worse when Tommy Caddell left the field with a broken ankle, so Ireland played the final ten minutes with thirteen men. If anything, the loss of another player galvanised the home team. Basil Maclear, wearing his customary white gloves, grabbed the ball, and with pace charged over the Welsh line. At full-time Ireland had beaten Wales by 11 points to 6. The result was all the more impressive because Ireland had played large parts of the game missing two key players. Those watching at the show grounds certainly believed that they had witnessed one of the finest Irish performances of all time. The Rugby writer E.H. D. Sewell described it as ‘the greatest of all wins in international or any rugby’.
Eight months later, in November, Basil Maclear, playing some of the finest rugby of his career, would return to Belfast for the infamous South Africa match. The game would once again excite and enthral in equal measure, and was the occasion when he would produce his, and arguably Ireland’s, finest ever try, demonstrating how essential he was to the Irish team.
1907 marked Maclear’s final season in an Irish jersey, and he was once again on the winning side when England visited Dublin for the start of the international championship. A 17 points to 4 victory set Ireland on their way, but an away defeat in Scotland put paid to any talk of Triple Crown success.
Maclear joined the Irish team in Cardiff in March for his final game. It seems that his participation in the match was in doubt, as some newspaper reports suggested that he may have been injured. Despite such fears he played in the game, but it was not one of his better performances. He did have two exciting runs in the game, but they didn’t lead to tries. In the first half he picked up pace and used his trademark handoffs to keep several Welsh players at bay. He was eventually brought down inside the home team’s 25-yard line. In the second half he had another sprint, but this time it ended after he passed forwards. Wales made much of their chances, and in the second half took a commanding lead with a number of tries. One reporter summed up Maclear’s final contribution:
Basil Maclear, who has won games for his country before today, was for once in a way faulty and it was in vain that he tried to get in some of his telling runs.
With Wales leading by 29 points to nil, the game came to a close, and so did Basil Maclear’s eleven-game international career.
He continued to play club rugby, and the next month was selected for the Barbarians as part of their Easter tour. In early April he played for the invitation side at Exeter, and his old form returned as they beat the home side by 18 points to 3.
Family matters took precedence in August when one of his four brothers, Ronald, got married back in the family’s home town of Bedford. Like Basil, he was a keen rugby player and played for a number of clubs, although he never made it to international level. Just like his younger brother, he too had joined the army and was a lieutenant with the 5th Middlesex Regiment.
A knee injury ultimately ended Basil’s rugby career, but he continued to play hockey and cricket, and two years after he finished playing international rugby he was still playing county cricket for Bedfordshire.
Away from sport, he had much to occupy his time. He was very busy with army life in Ireland, and continued to serve with the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. In 1912 he returned to England and the familiar surroundings of Sandhurst as a member of staff at the Royal Military College. He was appointed an Inspector of Physical Training, an ideal job for a man with his interests and background.
For the next two years, until 1914, he kept an eye on the recruits. When war was declared in August, Basil Maclear must have known that it was only a matter of time before everything would change, and he would find himself in front-line action. Within days, the horrors of war hit home when news arrived that his older brother, Percy, who was attached to the West African Frontier Force, had been killed in the Cameroons. He was the first of three Maclear brothers to die in the Great War. In October 1914, from his room at the Royal Military College in Camberley, Basil wrote to his brother Arthur about Percy’s death.Like the other Maclear brothers, Arthur was also in service, and was a member of the Royal Guernsey Light Infantry.Basil had received some information about Percy’s death from the Colonial Office, and asked Arthur to keep the details confidential.It seems that the family was originally hoping that Percy had survived a gun battle, but the statement from the Colonial Office ended those thoughts. Basil wrote to Arthur, after receiving official confirmation, that ‘I am afraid we can hope no more’. Basil described Percy as ‘one of the best fellows
