Biography
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George Hook (born 19 May 1941) is an Irish broadcaster, journalist and rugby union pundit. He had a career as a rugby union coach and businessman, before becoming a rugby pundit with Irish television station RTÉ. He hosts The Right Hook on the Irish nationwide radio station Newstalk and appeared as a coach on RTÉ's reality TV show, Celebrity Bainisteoir.
Hook grew up in Cork and attended Presentation Brothers College, a fee-paying school and rugby union stronghold. Subsequently he attended Rathmines College of Commerce.
Hook has had a number of jobs, beginning as a temporary clerk for CIÉ, and later becoming a travelling salesman for the Burroughs Corporation (now Unisys). He also ran a catering business for over twenty years. He coached London Irish, Connacht, and St. Benildus College, as well as the American National Team in the 1987 Rugby World Cup.
Hook's radio show on Newstalk 106 'The Right Hook' is a popular[1] evening drive-time programme. Hook appears as a rugby pundit on RTÉ on a regular basis and appeared as a judge on RTE celebrity dancing show 'Jigs & Reels'. He has also been parodied in The State of Us.
In 2005, he published an autobiography, "Time Added On".
In 2009, he visited the impoverished Caribbean island nation of Haiti where he was moved to tears by the plight of the poor people who lived there so much that he organised a recruitment drive to get volunteers to go there on a house building week.[2][3][4] The next day a vicious earthquake struck Haiti. After the earthquake Hook was heard to say: "It is a godforsaken place. God has literally forsaken it."[5] Following the January 2010 earthquake. Hook urged his radio listeners to donate money.[6]
ALSO APPEARING -
John Young Rutherford (born 4 October 1955), nicknamed Rud or Ruddie, is a former Scottish rugby union footballer who gained 42 caps at fly-half between 1979 and 1987.[1] He played for Selkirk RFC[1] and The South, and was chosen to tour with the British Lions in 1983, being picked to play in the test team at inside centre.[1]
Richard Bath writes of him that:
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"Outside Wales, perhaps only the Irish pair of Tony Ward and Ollie Campbell were able to hold a candle to fly-half John Rutherford, the man who dominated Scottish back play for most of the 1980s... Deceptively quick and a natural athlete, he was able to boot the ball prodigious distances or beat a man one-on-one, seemingly at will. Allied to a keen rugby intellect, Rutherford was Scotland's star turn throughout the 1980s."[1]
He was a major figure in Scotland's 1984 Grand Slam.[1]
His final game for Scotland was their first match in the 1987 World Cup against France, when he sustained a knee injury in the early minutes.[1] He partnered scrum-half Roy Laidlaw in 35 tests, at the time the record for any international half-back pairing.
Richard Bath writes of this partnership that:
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"every country has, at some stage, a double-act which sees two players through sheer longevity, become mentioned in the same breath... One of the most enduring partnerships was that of Jed-Forest's Roy Laidlaw and Selkirk's John Rutherford. For nigh on a decade, the two were immovable at half-back for Scotland. Unlike most of the other famous pairings, however, it was Laidlaw and Rutherford's differences rather than their similarities, that melded them into an oustanding partnership. On the one hand, there was the peerless Rutherford, all grace and poise, who could glide through tackles and drill a ball onto a sixpence in the opposition's 22. On the other, there was Laidlaw, a gutsy fighter in the classic Borders mould. The pair played together on 35 occasions, a world record for a half-back partnership."[2]
Rutherford also played for the Rest of the World XV.
After his exit from Scottish Rugby, John Rutherford went on to work in the financial sector, and direct a financial consultancy[1]
John Rutherford is a Director of The Bill McLaren Foundation alongside Andy Irvine.
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Following up on last year’s inaugural lunch & the strong reception Eddie O'Sullivan & Nigel Melville received from Houston, the second annual Lost Afternoon will take place with George Hook & Johnny Rutherford as speakers.
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