The voice of rugby dies

[Lachlan09]

Some fondly remembered comments by Bill McLaren:-

*It’s high enough, it’s long enough AND IT’S STRAIGHT ENOUGH.

*He’s like a demented ferret up a wee drainpipe.

*He plays like a runaway bullet (description of New Zealand wing Grant Batty).

*He’s like a raging bull with a bad head.

*That one was a bit inebriated – just like one of my golf shots (description of a missed goal kick).

*He kicked that ball like it were 3 pounds o’ haggis.

*Would ye like a Hawick ball, son ? (McLaren offering a friend a mint).

*They’ll be dancing in the streets of Hawick/Selkirk/ tonight???

*His sidestep was marvellous – like a shaft of lightning (description of Welsh wing Gerald Davies).

*The All Blacks that day looked like great prophets of doom.

*I was there (at Twickenham) in 1938 when Scotland won 28-16.

*‘Tweet, tweet, tweet’ – commentary on Scottish full-back Peter Dods’ strange run up to a penalty kick.

*My goodness, that wee ball’s gone so high there’ll be snow on it when it comes down.

*He’s as quick as a trout up a burn.

*Those props are as cunning as a bag o’ weasels.

*A day out of Hawick is a day wasted.

*And it’s a try by Hika the hooker from Ngongotaha (Wales v New Zealand 1980).

*I’m no hod carrier but I’d be laying bricks if he was running at me (description of Jonah Lomu).

*They’ll be simply chuffed to bits down at??.

*I look at Colin Meads and see a great big sheep farmer who carried the ball in his hands as though it was an orange pip.

*I’ve hardly ever had to pay to get in (the best thing in his view about 50 years of commentary at rugby matches).

"Oh! Mercy me! What a tackle! That could've put him in Ward 4!"
"I hope not Bill, that's a maternity ward!"

“He's a big lad, this one.
I wouldnae like to be makin' his porridge of a mornin' I can tell you !”

String on his Irish 6 Nations debut: "They have a saying about him down in Constitution, if you catch him you can make a wish"

'he grappled that ruck like a demented octopus'

About Scott Gibbs “and I tell you when he hits you, you think the roof's just fallen in !”

“Big Vleis Visagie - born when meat was cheap!”