Working class hero
It is fair to say that as kick-off to today’s first Test between Australia and the British and Irish Lions approaches, John Langford will be dusting off his Wallabies scarf, settling down in front of his television and looking forward to a belter of a series.
The former Test second row, who went on to become one of Irish rugby’s greatest overseas signings during his three-season spell with Munster between 1999 and 2002, does not get to watch too much rugby these days. However, he is making an exception for this first Lions tour to his homeland in a dozen years and has been working furiously at his engineering management job to clear his desk in time to take in the events as they unfold in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney over the next 15 days. He also expects to be celebrating a victory for the home team.
“Before the Lions got here I said the Wallabies would win 2-1, but from what I’ve seen of them on tour so far the Lions are looking very formidable. Allied to that the Wallabies haven’t had a game this year and I think they’ll be undercooked, so I think you guys will run away with that one,” Langford muses.
He is, though, banking on the Wallabies fighting back in the second Test next Saturday, to set up a series decider on July 6.
“I bloody hope it is, that’s the one I’m going to! Seriously, I’m going no matter what but I’m standing by my prediction of 2-1, the first one to the Lions and the next two to the Wallabies. So Sydney will be the decider.”
It is not just watching the rugby that is exciting Langford right now. The tour represents a chance for him to reunite with some old comrades from his Munster days, not just for a beer or two but to lock horns with the likes of Alan Quinlan, Jeremy Staunton, Frankie Sheahan, Anthony Foley and John O’Neill when he represents a Classic Wallabies team due to play the British and Irish Rugby Legends at the North Sydney Oval on the Thursday before the final Test.
In a game which will benefit junior and grassroots rugby in his native New South Wales, Langford will feature alongside former Brumbies team-mates David Campese, Stephen Larkham, Joe Roff and Bill Young and he is excited at the chance to get together with old friends ahead of the final Test.
“I’m an engineer, project managing a site in Sydney, where I live, and we’re wrapping up by the end of June so I can take some holiday for the Tests,” he said.
“Campo’s playing, Joe Roff. Bill Young is playing, but I’d only be guessing the rest now. I know there’s a few younger guys there as well so I’d expect them to do all the running. I think they’re putting me on the bench!”
Langford did not take up rugby until he got to Sydney University, but took to the union code sufficiently quickly to represent Australia Universities and begin the pathway to life as a pro player.
He was a member of the inaugural ACT Brumbies squad when the franchise was created in 1996, playing more than 60 games for the Canberra outfit under original coach Rod McQueen and then Eddie Jones, including 46 consecutive Super 12 matches.
The Brumbies finished fifth in their inaugural season with a side also boasting the likes of Roff, Young, Larkham and David Giffin and his Super Rugby form brought him to the attention of the Wallabies, with whom he toured to Britain in 1996 and 1997, the year he was promoted to the Test line-up and won four caps; against New Zealand, South Africa, England and Scotland.
“I was one of the foundation players at the Brumbies and they were exciting times. Looking back it’s pretty special, what happened back there and what we achieved. Obviously they went on to win the tournament but I was very lucky. I had a great time and I thought I’d never see that again but I walked out of the Brumbies and straight into Munster and there were a lot of parallels there. I had a great time in Munster.”
How Langford came to join Munster is one of those stories of happenstance that never grows old and it is well worth repeating one more time, from the man himself.
“I was looking to cash in, in France or the UK, but I threw my hat into the ring a bit too late and everybody had filled their quotas of two foreign players per club, I think it was. So Jake Howard, who was the assistant coach down at the Brumbies, said why don’t you give Leinster a call. So I got in touch with them and had just about packed my bags and was heading over and it all went quiet. I rang them up and said, ‘what’s going on? I’m ready to go’.
“They said ‘sorry, Malcolm O’Kelly’s coming back from London Irish for the World Cup’. I asked them what I was going to do and they said, ‘well, we don’t want you, why don’t you give Munster a call?’.
“So Munster was my last option and I took it and, as I said, I had a great time.”
Langford joined Munster for three seasons, played 30 times for the province between 1999 and the start of the 2001-02 campaign and, in the process, made his mark on the homegrown squad from the very outset with his professional approach and attitude as well as his willingness to pass on his experience to younger players.
Langford’s playing ability did not go unnoticed either, his athleticism in the second row and around the park making him an ever-present in Munster’s Heineken Cup side for the province’s first two successful campaigns, with the run to the 2000 final against Northampton at Twickenham and the following term’s progress to a controversial semi-final defeat by Stade Francais in Lille.
“Gut-wrenching,” says the Australian of those two disappointing conclusions, although the game that stands out most for him came earlier in the 1999-2000 campaign when the province travelled to Vicarage Road in Watford. Munster took on the might of Saracens, who boasted Thierry Lacroix, Francois Pienaar and Richard Hill in their ranks, the Irish visitors coming away with a famous 35-34 victory.
“The game against Saracens is one I always remember. They had a team full of internationals but we just about won and as I recall it was a criminal offence to run on the pitch but that didn’t stop 100-odd Munster followers from running on when we won. Those are fond memories.”
Langford is also grateful to have witnessed the rise to Test prominence with Ireland of several of his Munster team-mates at the time.
“The success of all the Munster players was special, from Peter Stringer, Ronan [O’Gara] and all those young players who got into the Ireland team. I remember John Hayes getting his first cap and of course he went on to win more than 100 Test caps and then there was Gaillimh [Mick Galwey] getting his call-up again, back into the Irish squad. Seeing all those guys achieve that was very special and then seeing a lot of those boys going on to play for the Lions was fantastic.
“I was there for three seasons but they had Jim Williams and I think Dutchie [Jason Holland] was still considered a foreign player back then, so I didn’t get much of a run in 2001-02 but I still had a great time.”
Remarkably for Langford, who celebrates his 45th birthday on Wednesday, there is still a link from his time at Munster with the current Lions squad back in Australia this summer, none other than his second row successor Paul O’Connell, a player whose career he has watched with interest from afar.
“Paulie came on to the scene as I was stepping out. We played against each other when he was playing for the Cookies, Young Munster, and I was with Shannon and then Garryowen.
“He was an extremely talented young player then and clearly destined for greater things.”
O’Connell’s remarkable comeback from back surgery on December 31 to making the Lions’ starting 15 for today’s first Test in Brisbane has not been lost on Langford, although he views his fellow lock’s current well-being with the typically jaundiced view of a former team-mate.
“Well, he’s had a lot of rest, the bugger,” he said of O’Connell’s sharpness on tour thus far.
And those former Munster team-mates he expects to bump into in Sydney ahead of the third Test can expect more of the same.
“I’ve been in touch with Foley and the boys who are playing in the legends team. Gaillimh and Claw are coming out with tour parties, so I’m trying to line up a day when they can all come over to my place and have a barbecue.
“Although Quinny says he’s going to come to my place, wreck it and then box the head off me at the match! There’s no respect.
“But I’m very much looking forward to it, I’ve my holidays booked for it.
“When the Irish boys came out for the World Cup in 2003 I was the unofficial liaison officer for them so we had a great time then. Now they’re not playing anymore they could be dangerous.
“They were dangerous enough when they were playing.”
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