Controversy over SAS founder Mayne

Hero: Blair Mayne

BLAIR Mayne could famously start a fight in a phone box and kicked up a storm all over North Africa and Europe but Britain’s most decorated soldier from WWII is now causing a row 62 years after his death.

Ards and North Down Borough Council have voted to name their splendid new sports centre in Newtownards after the rampaging former Ireland and Lions flanker, one of the most feared forwards in the game before World War II.

The Social Democratic and Labour Party, however, are not happy with the choice of Mayne who was a founding father of the SAS, a regiment that was, long after his involvement and then death, involved in many controversial shootings during the Troubles.

After their lobbying the proposal will now undergo a Quality Impact assessment.

Rugby has always been a massive rallying point for North and South, Protestant and Catholic and it will be interesting to see if that old tradtion still holds true and which way the decision falls.