By Peter Owen
Rugby royalty came to Noosa Springs last week when former British Lions captain Gavin Hastings caught up with old adversaries Rod McCall and Michael O’Connor for a friendly game of golf and a whole lot of reminiscing.
Hastings, a member of the World Rugby Hall of Fame and the most capped Scottish player of all time, is no stranger to Noosa Springs. He played here a decade ago when he was part of the British Lions squad that made Noosa its base during the team’s Australian campaign.
And he’s a lifelong mate of Donald McKill, a former Royal Marine who relocated from Scotland to Noosa in 2005 and became president of Noosa Rugby Union.
Noosa’s Michael O’Connor, the dual international who first crossed paths with Hastings when he toured the UK with the Wallabies in 1981, quickly assembled a band of golfers when he heard Hastings was on the Sunshine Coast and looking for a game at Noosa Springs.
The 13 of them included rugby players, fans of the game, expatriate Scots and a couple of Noosa Springs members.
Hastings, a fighting fit 61-year-old, is one of the legends of world rugby.
A brilliant fullback, he played 53 internationals for Scotland between 1986 and 1995, captained his country 20 times, scored 667 points, was a central figure in Scotland’s famous 1990 Five Nations Grand Slam win, and captained the British Lions on their 1993 tour of New Zealand.
He was in Australia as part of a spur-of-the-moment visit in honour of a friend he made 35 years ago.
“We were in a training camp in the US in 1988 when we met two Kiwi girls,” he said. “One of them, Robyn Murray, became a lifelong friend and when I found out she was about to celebrate her 60th birthday, I thought it would be nice to fly over to Auckland and surprise her,” he said.
“I haven’t made a lot of money during my life, but I’ve made some great friends,” he said. “Too many people are dying and life’s too precious not to do nice things when you can.”
During his trip he and his wife Diane, a long-term sufferer of Parkinson’s disease, visited Hong Kong, Auckland, Melbourne where his brother Graeme lives, and Queensland.
He says he’s been playing golf since he was six and loves the game. He’s a two-handicapper and a member of both Gullane and Muirfield clubs, where he often joins up with another Scottish rugby legend Andy Irvine in the members’ comp.
Hastings modestly says his golfing successes have been moderate, highlighted by losing the Gullane club championship on the 37th hole, and by last year winning a Gold Medal at Muirfield – an event held twice a year and awarded for the best gross score of the day.
Playing in his foursome at Noosa Springs was Rod McCall, 59, a towering former lock who played 40 games for Australia, 107 for the Queensland Reds and who went on to become chairman of the Reds.
While golf was the backdrop of the day, the talk rarely departed from rugby, and the legends were still swapping stories on the terrace long after the sky had darkened.
