Exceptional Kyle leaves behind a treasure of memories

Jack Kyle: ‘an exceptional person.’ David Conachy
A few years ago at the annual dinner of the Guinness Rugby Writers of Ireland, I sidled over to Jack Kyle and asked him would he be kind enough to sign his autograph. I told him it was for my son, which was true, but added that even if the boy was more into Morris dancing than rugby I’d still have wanted it for myself.

Hooking up with your heroes can be tricky. For example, I remember more than 20 years ago getting all excited about meeting a journalist new to the newspaper, whose work was compelling and different, and whose desk I had been forced to use while he was away.

Thinking we would be across the road on a high stool in a matter of minutes, and him regaling us with stories from the road, it didn’t quite work out. Oh well.

Kyle was at the other end of the spectrum, an utterly charming and mild-mannered man. In the way that Munster’s win over the All Blacks in 1978 benefited from the shortage of images depicting the event, so too did the legend of a Grand Slam outhalf develop.

His heyday was the late 1940s and 1950s: a golden age of Irish rugby with a Grand Slam, a Triple Crown and a Championship, but not great timing if you wanted your exploits to be visually recorded for posterity. Instead we have only the odd fleeting image of him in action, and the testimony of those who played with and against him……………. see more at :- http://www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/other-rugby/exceptional-kyle-leaves-behind-a-treasure-of-memories-30785129.html