Willie Duggan’s sudden death, aged 67, at his home in Dunmore, outside Kilkenny, marks the passing of not only one of Ireland’s greatest ever rugby players but a man of character, teak-tough and uncompromising on the pitch while a champion of the amateur game’s post-match traditions.
Stories of what the late Moss Keane, an international and Lions team-mate, described as Duggan’s “pathological dislike of training” were legion but it didn’t compromise his ability to function to the highest level in matches. He was recognised as one of the outstanding number eights
Duggan possessed a sharp sense of humour. Once when asked why he wasn’t training, he replied: “I don’t want to take the edge off my enthusiasm. The quickest way to take the edge off your game is by training”.
On another occasion he made the following observation: “I always had the philosophy that if you took 30 players out for a night and made sure they were well pissed before they went to bed at 3.0am, then got them up at 8.0am, trained the bejaysus out of them, then you would know who was up to lasting 80-minutes in an international”.
Playing his club rugby with Kilkenny RFC, Blackrock College and Leinster, he won 41 caps for Ireland, making his debut on January 18th, 1975 against England at Lansdowne Road before finishing his international career at the same venue against Scotland in 1984. He won 39 caps at number eight and two as a flanker, all of them in the starting team.
He was an integral part of Ireland’s Triple Crown winning team in 1982 under the captaincy of Ciarán Fitzgerald and Duggan also led the national side, playing alongside his good friend Fergus Slattery for club, province and country for the majority of the Kilkenny man’s career.
Duggan and Wales secondrow Geoff Wheel became the first players to be sent off in a Five Nations match (1977) for fighting at a lineout by referee Norman Sanson.
Wheel would later recall in an interview with the London Independent that "I wasn't involved with Willie Duggan at all. I didn't even see what he was supposed to have done. We even had a bit of a laugh about it on the sideline.
“We [Wales] definitely got the best of it. He was having a really good game at the back of the lineout. Willie was a great character and an exceptionally good player. I don’t know what he got sent off for but they ended up losing their best player and we won the game easily enough.”
Duggan liked a cigarette claiming in the book Behind the Lions: "I always smoked before I went out because I was of a nervous disposition. I had to try to relax."
Team-mates would laugh that they knew which cubicle he was in because of the plumes of smoke.
Lit cigarette
On one occasion running out for an international against England at Twickenham he handed a lit cigarette to Scottish referee Allan Hosie saying, “hold that for me”. It is alleged that the television cameras caught the Scottish official putting it out as he emerged from the tunnel.
Duggan also toured with the 1977 Lions to New Zealand, playing in all four Tests and scoring a try in the third, one of two he managed in Test rugby. The tourists lost the series 3-1 but the Lions pack completely outplayed the All Blacks in three of those four matches and he was an integral contributor.
He retained a keen interest in the sport after his retirement, taking over as managing director of the family firm, Willie Duggan Lighting. Many former team-mates have paid tribute, among them South Africa-based former Ireland scrumhalf John Robbie.
“He was a hell of a player and a hard man. Under professionalism he’d have been even greater,” said Robbie.
IRFU president Phil Orr with whom Duggan played for Leinster, Ireland the Lions said: “He was a phenomenal rugby ‘man’ and one of the greatest number eights ever to grace a rugby pitch.
“In all jerseys he was a warrior in the finest sense of the word. Always true to his colours, Willie gave 110 per cent on the field, but it was not just in terms of his physical presence, Willie had an extraordinary rugby ‘brain’ and had an uncanny ability to see problems and opportunities on the field well ahead of team-mates and opposition alike. “Off the field Willie was truly a character, lighting up dressing rooms and after match gatherings with his own colourful, absolutely unique and vibrant wit.”
To his wife Ellen, his children, Willie Jnr, Helena and Monica, family and friends we extend our deepest sympathy. Ar Dheis De go raibh a anam dílis.
