Michael Patrick Thomas Lynagh, He retired from international rugby after the 1995 Rugby World Cup. He was the world points scoring record holder when he retired, with 911 points.

The World XV won the match 15–7, in which all its points were scored by Australian players – Lynagh converting tries scored by Nick Farr-Jones and Simon Poidevin, and also contributing a penalty goal himself.

During the 1986 France tour, the Wallabies beat France 27–14, with Lynagh kicking a record 23 points.

1986 Bledisloe Cup

Following Australia's domestic test in 1986 against Italy, France and Argentina, Lynagh toured with the Wallabies on the 1986 tour of New Zealand. The 1986 Wallabies became the second Australian rugby team to beat the All Blacks in New Zealand in a test series. They are one of six sides to win a test series in New Zealand, along with the 1937 South African Springboks, the 1949 Australian Wallabies, the 1971 British Lions,the 1994 French touring side and the 2022 Ireland tour to New Zealand.

Lynagh was rested for Australia's first game on tour – a 21–21 draw against Waikato in Hamilton. However, he returned to the Australian side for the second match against Manawatu in Palmerston North, in which he kicked three successful goals from eight attempts, including the match-winning penalty in the final minute to give the Wallabies a 9–6 victory. He was then rested for the Wallabies' third game on tour, a 18–6 victory against Wairarapa-Bush, before returning for Australia's fourth provincial game, a 21–3 victory against Counties, in which he scored a try, three conversions and a penalty goal. Terry Smith in Path to Victory (1987) reported that: "Midfield backs Michael Lynagh, Brett Papworth and Andrew Slack contributed no less than twenty-four first-up tackles. It was a reassuring showing with so many of the test players on deck." He was rested for the final game before the first test, with Australia defeating Wanganui 24–17.

Lynagh played in the Wallabies' first test on tour against the All Blacks in Wellington. Terry Smith in Path to Victory (1987) reported that: When the Wallabies went to Athletic Park on the Friday morning before the test to get a feel of the ground, the goalposts rocked back and forth in the freezing wind gusts. Wearing mittens to keep his hands warm in the Antarctic-like conditions, the goal-kicker Michael Lynagh said: 'With the big stands on each side, it's like a big wind tunnel.' The Wallabies won the first test 13–12, in which Lynagh kicked a conversion and a penalty, contributing five points to the win. Lynagh converted a try scored by David Campese in the 22nd minute, and kicked a penalty goal from 47 metres to give Australia a half-time lead of 9–0. The Wallabies held off a second-half comeback from the All Blacks to win the first test 13–12.

Following the first test, Australia coach Alan Jones decided that Lynagh would play in no matches until the second test against the All Blacks in Dunedin. Lynagh was then rested for the Wallabies next three provincial games – a 62–0 victory over Buller at Westport, a 30–10 loss to Canterbury in Christchurch, and a 33–11 win over South Canterbury in Timaru.

Lynagh returned to the Australia side for their second test against the All Blacks, which was lost 13–12 in controversial circumstances. Lynagh contributed three penalty goals and a drop goal; however, Australia were denied a chance of winning the test when number eight Steve Tuynman had a try ruled out, that if converted by Lynagh, would have won the Wallabies the test and the series. Following the second test loss to the All Blacks, Lynagh was quoted by Terry Smith in Path to Victory (1987) as saying, "I'm mad at myself for not taking the chances to do things in the test at Dunedin." He further said that: "I missed an easy kick at goal; a few bombs were a bit astray and I failed with that second field goal attempt. It was difficult, but I probably should have put the ball up a bit more."

After the Wallabies' second test defeat to the All Blacks, Jones selected Lynagh at full-back for Australia's next provincial match against Southland at Invercargill, and assigned him the Australian captaincy for the first time in his rugby career. The Wallabies defeated Southland 55–0, with Lynagh contributing eight conversions and one penalty goal. He was then rested for the Wallabies' next provincial match against Canterbury, lost 10–30.

In the lead-up to the Wallabies' third, final, and series-deciding test against the All Blacks at Eden Park in Auckland, Jones told the press that, "Michael Lynagh is facing his most formidable test ever." The Wallabies led the All Blacks 12–6 at half-time. In the 16th minute of the second half, New Zealand full-back Kieran Crowley kicked a penalty goal to make the score 12–9. Terry Smith in Path to Victory (1987) reported that: 'Then came the penalty goal by Lynagh which Jones later described as his most memorable moment of that tour. It was then he knew the Bledisloe Cup was on its way back to Australia.

"It was midway through the second half. A penalty to Australia and Jones presumed the Wallabies would kick for touch.

'But Slacky [Andrew Slack] looked at Michael and the little bloke says, "Oh give me a go at this". It wobbled around, terrible bloody kick, but it went over the bar and, to me, the All Blacks were gone.' If there was any doubt, Lynagh removed it with another penalty to bring up his 200th test point."

1987 Rugby World Cup

Lynagh played in Australia's quarter-final match against Ireland, which the Wallabies won 33–15 after leading Ireland 24–0 at half-time. Lynagh received acclaim from Peter Jenkins, who wrote in Wallaby Gold that: 'But the best of the backs were Lynagh, his tactical kicking a weapon of control and his shooting for goal even more destructive to the Irish cause, and winger Matt Burke, who played one of his finest games in the gold jumper. Irishman Trevor Ringland had no answer and Burke finished with two tries. In The Winning Way (1992), Bob Dwyer praised Lynagh's tactical kicking in this game:

:Jones employed a tactic of trying to force opposing teams under pressure into the corners of the field, from which they would often have trouble escaping. I thought this was one of his best strategies. It was not Jones' invention, of course, but it was a strategy he operated very successfully by making use of Michael Lynagh's kicking skills in particular. It proved to be of great advantage in Australia's match against Ireland in the 1987 World Cup. It was the key to a tremendous Australian onslaught in the first thirty minutes of that match. Previously, I had not chosen to use this tactic myself. It was not that I disagreed with it in principle; I have already made the point that there is nothing wrong with kicking to move defences around. I was simply preoccupied with other methods of attack. Since Jones' departure in 1988, however, it has remained part of the Australian armoury. When I see a need for it I simply have to say to Lynagh, 'Noddy, just put a few kicks down there like you did against Ireland in '87.'

However, Lynagh would go on to play in the semi-final which Australia lost 30–24 to France. Lynagh has described the 1987 semi-final, in which Australia faced France, as one of the greatest games of rugby union he ever played. In Noddy: The Authorised Biography of Michael Lynagh, Andrew Slack wrote that: "Lynagh rates the match one of the finest in which he has played and it was without doubt the highlight of the tournament". In Blindsided, Michael Lynagh wrote that: "Many people have described it as one of the greatest test matches ever played. Me? Even thought we lost, I would probably agree. It was such a great game of rugby. It was close, the lead changed constantly; you just never quite knew what was going to happen until that [[Serge Blanco|[Serge] Blanco]] try at the end."

Lynagh opened the scoring of the match in the fifth minute with a drop goal from outside France's quarter. In For Love Not Money (1992), Simon Poidevin wrote that: 'It was no coincidence that the improved performances coincided with the late arrival as a replacement of Michael Lynagh, who gave the inside backs far more experience and composure.'

Lynagh played his first tour game in Australia's fifth provincial match against a Midlands side in Leicester – a 25–18 win, in which he contributed 13 points. However, Australia would go on to lose their first test on tour against England 28–19, in which Lynagh converted two of the Wallabies' three tries, and added a penalty goal.

Australia won their second test on tour against Scotland 32–13, in which Lynagh kicked five goals from 11 attempts, which included three conversions from five attempts, and two penalty goals from four attempts. He also set-up Campese for two tries with chip-kicks. Following the test, Scotland's coach Sir Ian McGeechan highlighted one moment involving Michael Lynagh as being among the highpoints of the match. In Noddy (1995) Andrew Slack documented that: "Midway through the second half, Lynagh gathered a ball from the kick-off, executed a little jink and ran right through the Scottish pack, setting in chain a seventy-metre movement. No try resulted but an ensuing penalty, which he kicked, put Australia 28–7 ahead. 'When he took that kick-off,' said Ian McGeechan, 'I thought to myself: there he is. Welcome back to international rugby Michael Lynagh – unfortunately!'"

The Wallabies finished the United Kingdom-leg of their tour with a 40–22 victory over the Barbarians, in which Lynagh scored 20 points. Lynagh concluded the tour playing for the Wallabies in a 55–6 victory over Italy, in which he equaled his own Australian individual points scoring record in a test match of 23 points, scoring a try, eight conversions and a penalty. This equaled his record previously set on three occasions – against Canada in the first test of 1985, France in the single test of 1986, and Argentina in the first test of 1986. Following the test match Australian coach Bob Dwyer said, "This is the best I've seen Michael Lynagh play in international rugby."

1989 British Lions series

Prior to the commencement of Australia's three-test series against the British Lions, Lynagh played for Queensland in the Lions' third tour game of the 1989 British Lions tour to Australia, which Australia lost 19–15.

Lynagh commenced the Wallabies' 1989 international test season in their 1989 three-test series against the British and Irish Lions. Australia defeated the Lions 30–12 in the first test, in which the Wallabies scored four tries to the Lions' zero, with Lynagh contributing 14 points to the final score with his kicking.

Australia's half-back combination of Lynagh and Farr-Jones received many plaudits for their first test performance. In Behind the Lions, Jones et al. described Farr-Jones and Lynagh as "arguably one of the greatest combinations the world game has ever seen." They further praised the Wallaby half-backs by documenting that: "The pair were superb in the first test in Sydney, against a Lions team which lacked focus, accuracy and tempo." Sir Ian McGeechan, coach of the 1989 British Lions, praised Australia's halves, later writing: "Farr-Jones and Michael Lynagh, their half-backs, were dominant.' Peter Jenkins in Wallaby Gold reported that: 'There were four tries and could have been four more. Five-eighth Michael Lynagh was unerring with both his on-field decision-making and his right boot, frequently turning around the Lions' forwards with pinpoint accuracy.' In Perfect Union (1995) former England captain Will Carling called Farr-Jones and Lynagh 'at the time quite easily the best half-back partnership in world rugby.' Following the first test, Lynagh's half-back partner Nick Farr-Jones offer him the following complement: "Noddy can run, he can set up players, he can step and he can kick. I'm not saying he is the best player I've ever seen, but the most complete. I put him up there with Mark Ella." In Beware the Dog former Lions hooker Brian Moore praised the Wallaby duo, writing that they played "near-perfect games". He further stated:

:If anybody wants to study the effective use of ball and decision-making, they should watch the performances of Nick Farr-Jones and Michael Lynagh, the Aussie scrum half and fly half respectively, for that eighty minutes. No one has ever played a perfect game, but they made so few errors that realistically it was pretty close to ideal. Farr-Jones' distribution was swift, he knew when to take on the back row and especially when not to throw out rubbish. Lynagh released his outside backs in space, but it was his kicking out of hand that stays with me. Time and again I got up from scrums or rucks to see the ball rifling past me, bouncing a foot inside the touchline, leaving us to trudge sixty metres back. We were pinned in our own territory for so long that scores were inevitable and we were trounced 30–12.

However, the British Lions defeated Australia 19–12 in the second test. In Beware the Dog, Brian Moore wrote: "we knew that Australia was unlikely to play any better and that Farr-Jones and Lynagh would struggle to repeat the near-perfect games they had played." Lynagh converted the single Australian try of the test and also kicked two penalties to achieve the milestone of scoring 400 career test points. Lynagh kicked three goals from six attempts and set up a try for full-back Greg Martin – the first try of the test – in the first quarter of the match. Dan Crowley in Undercover Prop (2007) documented that Australia's only try came when "Gavin Hastings fumbled a Michael Lynagh bomb." The ball came back to Nick Farr-Jones. Farr-Jones passed the ball to Lynagh, Lynagh threw a long pass to Greg Martin, standing unmarked on the wing, and Martin scored a try unmarked. However, with Australia leading the Lions 12–9, and with less than 15 minutes remaining in the game, one of Lynagh's penalty kicks hit the upright of a goal-post and bounced back into the field of play. The Lions scored two tries in the final five minutes of the test to win the test 19–12.

1989 Australia rugby union tour

Following the single Bledisloe Cup test of 1989, Lynagh toured with the Wallabies for their 1989 Australia rugby union tour, which contained two test against France.

Lynagh played in Australia's first test against France in Strasbourg, won 32–15, in what was France's biggest loss since South Africa defeated them 25–3 in 1952. France opened the scoring in the first half of the test after Lynagh was penalised for rushing up on his opposite fly-half Didier Camberabero. Camberabero kicked a penalty goal to give France a 3–0 lead. However, Lynagh responded with the next score in the game, kicking a penalty goal, after French flanker Éric Champ was penalised for hands in the ruck. With the score tied at 3–3, Camberabero kicked a long-range drop goal, 10 metres inside Australian territory and on a slight angle, to give France a 6–3 lead. Lynagh responded with another penalty goal after France were penalised for barging in the line-out.

Late in the first half, with Australia trailing France 6–12, Lynagh executed what Michael Blucher described as "a magnificent front-on tackle on Éric Champ." Moments later, the Wallabies had an attacking scrum 10 metres inside French territory. The ball came to Lynagh at stand-off, who hoisted it high to test French full-back Serge Blanco. Australia full-back Greg Martin contested Blanco for the ball, caught it, and offloaded the ball to Jason Little. Just before Little was tackled by Patrice Lagisquet, he passed the ball to Tim Horan in support, who scored a try. Lynagh failed to convert Horan's try, and at halftime the Wallabies trailed France 10–12.

Five minutes into the second half, Lynagh called a move named "Froggy" that began with an offload to winger Ian Williams that resulted in a converted try to give Australia a 16–12 lead. "Froggy" required inside centre Horan to run a decoy, as if he were taking a 'switch pass'. Outside centre Jason Little would continue to slide across at a 45-degree angle, which would drag his opposite number across field, opening the channel between the opposing inside and outside centres. Meanwhile, winger Ian Williams was supposed to run a straight angle, allowing him to run through this channel. However, instead Lynagh made a tiny line-break and offloaded the ball to Williams in a tackle for a try. Lynagh converted Campese's try to give Australia a 28–15 lead. However, he failed to convert the final try of the game, scored by Horan near the corner flag, making the final score of the game 32–15 to the victorious Australians. However, Lynagh would play in Australia's second test on tour, which France won 25–19.

1990s

In 1991, Lynagh joined Italian club Benetton Treviso. He played for five years with the club and won the Italian championship at 1991–92 season.

In 1996, Lynagh joined Saracens of England at the advent of professionalism, after retiring from a glittering 12-year international career with Australia as the world record points scorer with 911 and a Rugby World Cup winner (1991).

Lynagh's arrival at the club was the first major signing after Nigel Wray took control of the club and he acted as a beacon to attract other players and fans alike. Lynagh helped Saracens to have their most successful season to date.

In the 1997–98 season, Saracens battled it out with Newcastle Falcons for almost the whole season for top spot in the league and when the two sides met in front of a crowd of nearly 20,000 Lynagh slotted a match winning drop goal in the dying minutes to send Vicarage Road into raptures. A month later he was on hand to steer Saracens to their famous Tetley's Bitter Cup 48–18 victory over Wasps at Twickenham, bringing the curtain down on a season to remember.

Personal life

He married his Italian wife Isabella in 1996, when he first moved to England to play club rugby. After rugby retirement, he has since worked as a managing director for Dow Jones & Company. In 2012, after playing a game of golf, he suffered from a stroke after which he was required to undergo brain surgery in Singapore.

He has three sons all of who play professional rugby - Louis for Benetton Rugby, Tom for Reds and Nick for Harlequins Senior Academy. In the case of Louis and Tom they have also played international rugby for Italy and Australia respectively.

Retirement

On 18 April 2012 Lynagh was admitted to the Royal Brisbane Hospital after experiencing sudden onset of headache, dizziness and visual disturbance after a coughing fit. There it was diagnosed that he had suffered a life-threatening stroke due to vertebral artery dissection. Lynagh was released from hospital on 2 May 2012, having largely recovered apart from a left hemianopsia (loss of the left half of the vision in both eyes).

Lynagh was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1996, and received an Australian Sports Medal in 2000. He was inducted into the International Rugby Hall of Fame in 2001 and the Wallaby Hall of Fame in 2013.

Accolades

Former Australian rugby coach Bob Dwyer, in his first autobiography The Winning Way, claimed Lynagh to be one of the five most accomplished Australian rugby union players he had ever seen. Dwyer ranked Lynagh number one "for his range of point-scoring skills".

In 2007, former England captain Will Carling listed Lynagh as one of the 50 greatest rugby union players of all time. Carling ranked Lynagh at number 41, writing that he was a "great tactician, great kicker, very underrated runner, [and] pivot of 1991 World Cup-winning side."

In 2003, News Limited Newspapers The Daily Telegraph in Sydney and The Courier-Mail in Brisbane ranked the top 100 Australian rugby players of all time. Michael Lynagh was ranked among the top 10 greatest Australian rugby union players of all time.

References

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  • [https://www.theroar.com.au/2016/10/07/michael-lynaghs-greatest-running-performance/] Frank O'Keeffe, The Roar, 6 October 2016