McBride, inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame in 2009, is regarded as one of the most influential figures ever to play the game.
Owing to his father's death when he was four years old,[2] he spent most of his spare time helping out on his family farm.
[4] McBride's leadership qualities led to his appointment as captain of the British and Irish Lions in their 1974 tour to South Africa.
[6] At that time there were only substitutions if a doctor agreed that a player was physically unable to continue and there were no video cameras and sideline officials to keep the punching, kicking and head butting to a minimum.
The signal for this was to call "99" (a shortened version of the emergency number in Ireland and in the United Kingdom: 999).
[7] After retiring from playing the game, McBride coached the Irish team and was manager of the 1983 Lions tour to New Zealand.
Despite the test results being mainly poor, team camaraderie was high and some good wins were recorded in other games.
He has been asked to present Test jerseys and give motivational speeches to Lions players prior to matches.
[8] McBride was awarded a CBE in the 2019 New Year Honours list for services to Rugby Union.
Note 9: Michael Owen captained the Lions in the first tour game, the test vs. Argentina in Cardiff.