A couple of years ago a television personality named John Clarke, who had adopted the comic character of Fred Dagg to establish himself as one of New Zealand’s most popular entertainers in the seventies, wrote an article reminiscing about his lifelong passion for rugby.

“In Palmerston North in the winter of 1959, I sat down and wrote to an All Black. I was ten years old and the letter was in my best handwriting. The letter was to Terry Lineen, the All Black second five eight who could float through gaps which he identified using radar,” it began.

“He was elegant and gifted and, as Red Smith once said of a pitcher in American baseball ‘he could throw a lamb-chop past a wolf’. The next player who combined strength and subtlety in this same way was Bruce Robertson, who drifted upright past opponents who seemed to accompany him and offer whatever assistance they could. It was ridiculous and it looked easy and no-one else could do it.

“In those days there were four Tests a year rather than one a week and they actually mattered.”

He went on to write at length about that era but returned to his fan letter at the end of the piece.

“Terry Lineen wrote back to me,” he recounted.

“John Clarke,

18 Milverton Ave.,

Palmerston North.

“The letter thanked me, encouraged me and thought perhaps I might be interested in the signatures of the All Blacks who played in the third Test against the Lions (which we won 22-8). These were all on a separate sheet. Each player was named and each had signed next to his name.

“I still feel good about this letter.

“When Fred Dagg first appeared on television in the 1970s, he got letters from kids all over New Zealand. Every kid who wrote to Fred Dagg received a reply. The reason Fred wrote back to all these kids is that Terry Lineen wrote back to me.”

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As one of the finest ever All Blacks, selected by the peerless Colin Meads in an all-time New Zealand XV that Dan Carter was among many greats of the game to miss out on, most of Terry Lineen’s colleagues from that epic 1959 Test series against the Lions which was clinched with that 22—8 victory in Christchurch, have now passed on.

Two weeks ago, on the territory of those opponents which he never graced in his playing days, he came perilously close to joining them. However in the context of John Clarke’s memories there was more than a hint of rugby karma about the social media reaction to the news earlier that Lineen had gone missing immediately after arriving in the UK as the global rugby community registered urgent concern.

Having taken a turn following the 40 hour flight from Auckland to London, on his way to Edinburgh to join his son Sean - the former Scotland international player and Glasgow Warriors head coach - and his family in Edinburgh for the Rugby World Cup, Lineen somehow managed to find his way out of Heathrow Airport and into London.

Seventeen excruciating hours would elapse before a young man found him lying in some undergrowth in, ironically, the district of Twickenham, several miles from Heathrow.

“I’m looking for Sean,” the scratched and bruised ex-All Black said to the youngster standing over him.

“I’m Sean,” came the reply. He was not simply trying to offer reassurance. By an odd coincidence this particular guardian angel turned out to be a 25-year-old named Sean Eckett whose mother had read about the missing All Black as a result of the media campaign.

Terry’s memory of their encounter is as vague as that of the rest of his walkabout, but less than six months short of his 80th birthday he knows he is a lucky man.

“I can remember that I was so tired through walking that I’d come to this little road and there were a lot of trees and shrubs around and I made myself a little bed in the shrubs,” he says.

“It was in the morning. I’d been there all night. I clearly remember breaking the branches and spreading them out, but that’s about all I remember.

“I only had shorts and a tee-shirt on and I woke up and I had scratches all over me and blood all over me. I reckon that guy who found me saved my life.”

Once he was known to be safe there were inevitable jokes at his expense, including the wonderful suggestion that his actions that night had been typical of a New Zealander, heading directly to the venue for the World Cup final even before the pool stages were underway.

“People have been absolutely marvellous,” says Lineen, the doorbell having rung as we chatted when Interflora arrived with a large bouquet of flowers from his club Marist Brothers Old Boys in Auckland and a lovely message wishing him a full recovery.

“The letters that have been in the paper and things like that, I just can’t believe it. It’s amazing how people got together to do what they could. It seems like a big fairytale… a dream to me.”

He would spend most of the next two weeks in hospital, getting out just three days ahead of the World Cup.

“To tell you the truth I was getting a bit worried about even being able to go to the games,” he says, indicating that he still had his priorities in their proper context during his recovery.

“It was at the back of my mind all the time when I was very crook, but now I’ve got it sorted and I’m quite confident I’ll be able to go.”

He will now be fit to attend the double header that will see family history properly recognised when they visit Newcastle on October 9 and 10 to watch first, his All Blacks do battle with their Pacific neighbours Tonga before Scotland do take another of the island teams in what is expected to be a decisive Pool B meeting with Samoa next day.

Having reached the heights he did as a player and as the father of another great rugby man his views on how their respective teams will do in the weeks ahead were always likely to be fascinating.

All the moreso because the answer regarding the All Blacks is far from expected and, tempting as it is in the context of what we have become used to from New Zealand commentators to wonder whether he is still suffering side effects of his ordeal, it is probably more accurate to suggest that he is of a generation that is less inclined to hubris than their descendants.

“It’s just my opinion but I think they’ve got a few too many older guys,” Lineen says in explaining his view that he is less confident that the current generation will match him in finding their way to Twickenham (a curious quirk of the schedule is that while England are set to play all their important matches at their home ground, 1966-style, the earliest the All Blacks can play there is the semi-final).

“A lot of the New Zealand players are getting too old for the game with the big hits they’ve taken and just can’t do the job they used to do maybe even a year ago.

“Even Kieran Reid who a year ago would possibly be the best rugby forward I’ve seen for a long, long time isn’t playing as well as he used to because he’s had too many knocks. He’s had concussions four or five times and you can’t go on playing with injuries like that because it takes its toll on you and when you get older it gets worse.

“You can’t go on taking hits like that forever. The tackles in rugby are really vicious at times with these great big forwards charging at you and hitting you. It must take its toll on your body.

“It’s a lot more brutal than when we played and when we played it was brutal enough. It was a different kind of brutal, though. You didn’t go in to tackle someone to try to hurt them, you just went in to try to stop them from going any further.”

If those comments are likely to generate disquiet among his compatriots his tip for the title may cause even greater concern.

“I think Australia,” Lineen reckons.

“They’ve got a coach who doesn’t take any nonsense and does what he wants to do and the thing I think will work in his favour is that when Australia beat the All Blacks our team didn’t have a lot of changes and he made a lot of changes in his team and they still did pretty well, so I think he’s playing a few mind games with the New Zealand team.”

As for his son’s adopted country, Lineen is making more encouraging noises.

“I think Scotland will do all right,” is his assessment.

“I’ve seen them a couple of times and been very impressed with the way they’ve played. The only thing they do is they lose their focus at times during the games and do some absolutely stupid things when they’re on top. The other team takes advantage of it and it’s more or less over because the momentum changes.

“They’ve got some good players. It’s only got to be brought out of them and they’ve got a New Zealand coach now who’s doing a pretty good job.”

Time will tell whether he is right about that, but it is of rather less importance in the scheme of things than that this grand old man of the game seems in good fettle and ready to enjoy the hostilities and the festivities in equal measure.