In fine weather, with a perfect playing surface and a packed house, Lansdowne Road was set for a historic encounter. Dublin had never seen anything like it, and the Irish players and spectators had certainly never witnessed the pre-match Haka. As the All Blacks stood on the turf, dancing and singing Maori verses, the ground looked on in wonder. The Cork Examiner’s reporter declared:
The Irish team looked most foolish while this was going on, as they appeared to think they ought to do something, but they did not know exactly what. In spite of this warlike demonstration the match was played in a friendly spirit.
The Irish selectors had picked a strong team, and had chosen players who had turned out earlier in the year for the Five Nations Championship. Basil Maclear knew more about the visitors than any of his teammates. This was his third match against the All Blacks in as many weeks, so he probably knew the entire New Zealand team by name.
The game started well for Ireland, with the backs making some early runs and the forwards tackling hard. Maclear had the chance to give Ireland the lead, but his penalty fell short, much to the disappointment of the crowd.
After half an hour there was still no score, but the deadlock was finally broken by New Zealand, who went into the half-time interval leading by 5 points to nil. In the second half the New Zealanders added to their lead, and held on for a 15–0 victory. Ireland had tried hard to contain the visitors, but in the end the power of the tourists’ forwards and the pace of the backs had proved too much. The All Blacks were magnanimous in victory and praised the Irish ‘spirit’. Maclear, and fellow back Mossy Landers, who split his finger during the game, were picked out by the press as being two of Ireland’s best performers. Maclear had little time to dwell on the defeat because the following Tuesday he was in Limerick to play his fourth and final game against the tourists.
He was chosen to captain Munster at Markets Field on a pitch that was ‘rough and uneven’ and very different from the manicured surface of Lansdowne Road. The press gave the Irish province little chance of beating the tourists, but such reporting did not deter nearly 4,000 spectators from making the journey to Limerick. Munster put out their strongest team possible, but there was no place for Landers, whose split finger from the game in Dublin had not healed. The match started at a fast pace, but it was clear very quickly how the game would develop as the home forwards ‘went down like a house of cards before their opponents and the Munster backs were altogether outclassed’.
The game was won in the first half, the visitors running in five tries.After the break the tourists appeared to relax a little, but they still managed three more tries, and by full-time they had scored 33 points without reply.The Munster crowd were sporting, and cheered the All Blacks off the pitch, later giving them a good reception when they boarded a train at Limerick Railway Station. Maclear was picked out by the press as one of the few Munster players who had made an impact on the game.
The Cork Examiner’s reporter wrote:
Maclear stood by himself amongst the backs, and the way he tackled two and sometimes three men in succession, over and over again, saved many scores. None of the others were class enough for their opponents and certainly never to get green caps.
The watching journalists were not alone in appreciating Maclear’s skill and work rate. The New Zealanders knew that without the Cork soldier in their ranks Munster would have been a much poorer side. George Smith, one of the All Blacks’ three-quarters, summed up how the visitors viewed his ability when he told reporters, ‘It is a treat to play against such men.’ The New Zealand party left the platform at Limerick Railway Station to the sound of cheers, and their officials received £50 as their share of the gate money.
It was clear that the All Blacks had enjoyed their time in Ireland. Full back Billy Wallace said, ‘The best time I had personally on the whole tour was in Ireland. The Dublin people gave us a great reception’.
From Ireland, the tourists travelled onto England, and would remain unbeaten until the middle of December. They lost to Wales in Cardiff by 3 points to nil in disputed circumstances after the All Blacks had a try disallowed.
The tour changed the way rugby was viewed, and the team made a profound impact on the watching public. With the trip nearly complete, the British press started to change its opinion, and the accomplished tourists were being talked about as rugby greats. A report in the Edinburgh Evening News was typical:
Had the New Zealanders dropped from the clouds they could scarcely have created a greater sensation in the world of sport, and yet many indications of their prowess might have prepared us for their coming.
In 1906, after the excitement of the All Blacks’ tour, Basil Maclear settled down to play club rugby and concentrate on the forthcoming Four Nations Championship. In February he was selected for a match against England at Welford Road in Leicester. In recent years Ireland had maintained the upper hand over the ‘old rivals’, and in the last nine matches had won on six occasions. Maclear’s fine game in Cork the year before was still fresh in the memory, and he wanted to repeat that performance. Ireland’s line-up included familiar faces, and once again Maclear was joined by the likes of Harry Thrift, J.C. Parke, Tommy Caddell and Bill Brooke Purdon.
Copying tactics they had observed from the All Blacks, Ireland played with only seven forwards instead of the traditional eight. The new technique worked against a weakened English team. The Irish backs saw a lot of the ball, and made the most of the first half on a pitch that was cutting up due to the rain. After eighteen minutes Purdon broke the deadlock, scoring a try under the posts. Then, on the half-hour mark, Tommy Caddell got the ball and passed to Maclear, who scored in the corner. He failed to convert, and at halftime Ireland were 8–0 up. In the second half the conditions had deteriorated, and the pitch was now in a ‘wretched state’.3 England fought back with a couple of tries, but two Irish goals gave them the advantage, and for the second year running Ireland triumphed. Basil Maclear had contributed 7 points which meant that Ireland won by 16 points to 6.
The new technique of playing with just seven forwards was tried again by Ireland in their next match with Scotland in Dublin two weeks later. It proved to be a disaster, the Scots winning well by 13 points to 6.
The result led to much discussion amongst the players about the tactic of only playing with seven forwards. As a result, by the time the Ireland team assembled in Belfast’s Balmoral Showgrounds for the Wales game, the old method of playing with eight forwards had been reinstated. Wales had already beaten England and Scotland, so they travelled across the Irish Sea in the knowledge that a win would once again seal the Triple Crown. In the first half the Irish forwards, back in their traditional eight-man formation, were superb. In the back line, J. C. Parke and Harry Thrift were also in top form. Disaster struck just before half-time when Irish back Bill Brooke Purdon had to be taken off with a broken leg. Ireland were leading by 8 points to 3.
In the second half things got worse when Tommy Caddell left the field with a broken ankle, so Ireland played the final ten minutes with thirteen men. If anything, the loss of another player galvanised the home team. Basil Maclear, wearing his customary white gloves, grabbed the ball, and with pace charged over the Welsh line. At full-time Ireland had beaten Wales by 11 points to 6. The result was all the more impressive because Ireland had played large parts of the game missing two key players.