DUBLIN (AP) Jack Kyle, the dashing flyhalf for Ireland in the 1940s and `50s and one of rugby's greatest players, has died. He was 88.
The Irish Rugby Football Union said Friday he died Thursday after a prolonged but unspecified illness.
Kyle played 46 times for Ireland during an 11-year international career, scoring seven tries. He helped the country win a grand slam in the Five Nations in 1948 - a feat not achieved again by the Irish until 2009 in the Six Nations. He was a pivotal figure in Five Nations title wins in 1949 and `51.
In 2002, in a poll by the country's union, he was voted Ireland's best ever rugby player. He was inducted into the world governing body's Hall of Fame in 1999.
After retiring in 1963, Kyle worked on humanitarian projects in Sumatra and Indonesia. He was a surgeon in Zambia from 1966-2000.
