SteveBoyle

Steve Boyle’s love affair with the game started in his teenage years, after a football game for his Gloucester City was called off and a friend introduced him to a rugby club called Old Richians.

The lock did not look back from there and became an immovable unit for Gloucester – playing 312 games in total – in a career that also saw him pull on a Lions jersey.

In 1983 Willie John McBride, at that time a Lions selector and team manager, put his case forward even though Boyle had only just started playing Test rugby that year at the age of 29.

In New Zealand he did not make a Test appearance after Maurice Colclough – also a Lion in 1980 – was preferred, but Boyle made his presence known all the same after being selected for six midweek games.