Kevin Laidlaw - great servant of Southland

One of the great men of Southland rugby, Kevin Laidlaw, died in Invercargill on July 30, just over a week short of his 90th birthday.

Laidlaw, an All Black to South Africa in 1960, played in three Tests. His kick to the corner bounced for wing Frank McMullen to take the ball and score, allowing fullback Don Clarke to kick one of the great conversions for the All Blacks to claim a last-minute draw.

Debuting in the second Test, Laidlaw recounted in Behind the Silver Fern that towards the end of the game, he picked up an errant pass from halfback Kevin Briscoe, made a break and threw a forward pass, but the referee didn't pick that up, for lock Colin Meads to score.

"It was great to come off knowing I had contributed to his try."

In the third Test, a similar sort of Briscoe pass was tapped on to Laidlaw by second five-eighths Terry Lineen, a player Laidlaw enjoyed playing alongside. Laidlaw then lobbed a kick to McMullen's corner for his try.

"I enjoyed playing with Terry Lineen inside me, he was a hell of a good tackler and the fact he wasn't playing cost us the fourth Test." [Lineen suffered a career-ending shoulder injury against Boland].

Laidlaw played 59 times for Southland between 1956 and 1962.

He played for the South Island in 1959 [his son Paul, also a midfield back, replicated the feat in 1985] and in New Zealand trials between 1959-62.

He was a member of the Southland team that lifted the Ranfurly Shield from Taranaki in 1959.

A product of Nightcaps and the Western rugby sub-union, Laidlaw turned to coaching after retiring, coaching Southland between 1982 and 1986. He later served on the Rugby Southland executive.

His was a full life in rugby, and to a young journalist, he was an engaging coach.

His wit could be as testing as his responses to match performance-related issues. Typical of his dryness was his description of a pool shot played by the writer as 'a bit of a Jill Gascoine.' It was a while before the realisation dawned that he meant a gentle touch, the television programme the said person starred in.

He stood firmly on the side of his players, no matter what he might have felt privately, but he also believed in fair play by all, and the game was always the thing.

As a coach, he took on the Southland team when the game was at a low ebb after the 1981 fiasco that saw Southland relegated to the NPC second division for the first time when beaten by Brian Lochore's Wairarapa Bush side in Invercargill.

The side lost to Bob Dwyer's 1982 Australian side and suffered a heavy loss to the 1983 British & Irish Lions, but along the way, he was not afraid to give emerging players a chance. The pick of whom was flanker and future All Black Paul Henderson.

It was a significant move, given that Henderson was on the same team as Leicester Rutledge and All Black trialist Denis Kelly.

But he saw the benefits when Southland regained first-division status for the 1985 season.

Vale Kevin Laidlaw.