Past great Noel Henderson made an unforgettable mark for Ireland in famous win over Australia

January 18, 1958 is a significant date for Irish rugby as Henderson’s side, which contained a back line including Jack Kyle, Cecil Pedlow, Tony O’Reilly and a debutant in the centre – David Hewitt – beat Australia 9-6 at Lansdowne Road.

Like Henderson, Hewitt had played his rugby at Queen’s and was just 18 years and 131 days when he faced the Wallabies, making him the seventh youngest player to play for his country.

It was at Foyle College where Henderson’s leadership qualities first came to the fore as an extract from an article in the 1947 school magazine demonstrates.

It read: ‘Of Noel Henderson the captain and right centre, I find it difficult to speak with sufficient restraint. He has everything that a centre needs: weight, great strength, almost incredible stamina, determination, speed, safe hands, a powerful kick, unselfish.

‘A sportsman to his last inch and ounce, and the best schoolboy captain I have yet seen. I have never said anything like those last three sentences of any boy before. I could better have imagined myself writing anything of the sort for an obituary notice rather than for a report like this and it may be years before I do so again.

‘But let the doubter speak to any member of Henderson’s team and he will find that I do not exaggerate,” the article continued.

‘His magnificent covering of the whole back line, his wise captaincy, his quiet, modest personality, added 50 per-cent to the efficiency of every one of his teammates. I have known no other such player in 11 years of Foyle teams.’

It was when he went to Queen’s to study geography that Henderson met Kyle. The two would become life-long friends and eventually brothers-in-law when Noel married Jack’s sister Betty.

Henderson was travelling with Jack to an Ireland trail in Dublin while Betty was on the same train going to an Irish hockey session; they met in the restaurant.

As luck would have it, they were on the same train on the way back and when they arrived in Belfast, Noel gave his kitbag to Jack and took Betty to the cinema. The couple married in 1953.

Queen’s dominated Ulster Rugby in the late 1940s and early ’50s, winning the Senior League on four consecutive occasions between 1947-1950 and adding Senior Cups in 1947 and 1951.

Equally comfortable at centre, full-back and occasionally on the wing, Henderson forged a reputation as strong runner and fearless hard-hitting tackler which earned him the moniker ‘thy shall not pass.’

Henderson made his Ireland debut against Scotland at Murrayfield on February 26, 1949 in a 13-3 win.

With Henderson, Ireland beat Wales in St Helen’s to win the Triple Crown and retain the Five Nations.

Along with Kyle and Queen’s backrow Bill McKay, Henderson was selected for the British and Irish Lions tour of New Zealand and Australia in 1950.

He played 15 times for the Lions including the third test against the All Blacks and scored eight tries.

Henderson also helped Ireland to the 1951 Five Nations title.

He was handed the Ireland captaincy for the first time against Scotland in the 1956 Five Nations, scoring a try in a 14-10 victory.

The centre kept the skipper’s armband against Wales and retained the captaincy for the 1957 championship.

Ten times before Australia arrived during the third week of the new year of 1958 in Dublin, Ireland had hosted one of the Southern Hemisphere’s big three rugby superpowers and had lost every time.

New Zealand visited Lansdowne four times and won all four, Australia won in Dublin in 1927 and 1947 while South Africa had won on all four of their visits to the Emerald Isle.

Henderson captained his country in a bid to rewrite the history books.

The Wallabies winger Rod Phelps opened the scoring with an unconverted try (a try was worth three points), and a penalty from Cecil Pedlow levelled the half-time scores at 3-3.

Pedlow was also a Queen’s graduated and had toured South Africa in 1955 beside his wing partner O’Reilly.

Australia regained the lead after the restart with a try from fly half Arthur Summons.

Hooker Ronnie Dawson – one of six Irish players making their debut – restored parity with a try.

Dawson would captain the Lions a year later in Australia and New Zealand.

Henderson missed the conversion but was to redeem himself later in the game with the winning try.

The centre picked the ball up around halfway and galloped all the way, evading two Wallaby tacklers to cross the whitewash and give Ireland a first ever victory over a major touring side.

The try has gone down in Irish sporting folklore and the commentator on the British Pathe news footage eulogised it perfectly, saying ‘Watch this run, it will be talked about as long as Irishmen play rugger.’

The try was also immortalised in a photo as Noel’s daughter Jan Gough explains.

“Dad gets the ball on the half-way line, he had a very loped run but he was fast even though it looked slow,” she said.

"The photographer set up to take a picture of dad (on the halfway line) and by the time he put the ball down over the try line the photographer had gotten round to get a photo of that. Cecil Pedlow always said dad should have passed to him!”