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 NZ Rugby World column, August 2003 I'm in Geneva counting down the hours to the Wallaby test. The much-maligned Sky deal has once again come to the aid of expatriate Kiwis throughout the world. The game is being screened here at 11.30am at the Pickwick pub on rue de Lausanne... for someone with my schedule, Murdoch deserves deification.
I saw the England game in New York City, the Wales annihilation in Antibes, the Springbok slice of heaven in South Beach Miami - all live, all courtesy of Mr Murdoch. Believe it or not, there's almost one million New Zealanders living outside the country nowadays, all being brought together every time the All Blacks play, courtesy of Sky and its US$550 million 10-year deal (without which we could never have resisted the defection of our players to the world rugby circus). Being in Geneva for a big rugby game brings back great memories. I lived here for seven years from 1975 to 1982 and played in the Swiss Championship for Geneva Internationals at Hermance. The family of rugby being what it is, I'll be hooking up with a couple of the team I havenıt seen for 21 years later this morning. The Pickwick was our team pub and the venue of large Saturday nights! Geneva Internationals was a great side full of expats Poms, Kiwis, Aussies, Africans. As soon as an Anglo rugby player hit Geneva he made a beeline for us. We played hard, drank hard, trained less hard - but our combined experience in having grown up with rugby was usually enough to carry the day. Instincts and ingrained responses dug us out of many holes although it was extremely disconcerting to see Eric, a battle-scarred 24 year-old Frank Bunce-type centre, once jump up from a crash tackle, get to his feet, play the ball and act as dummy half. This St Helens league pedigree was a shock to the ref and the opposition (and scary for us). In those unenlightened times you could get suspended for playing with leaguies! (Nowadays England and Australia wouldnıt be able to put a team out if that were still the case!). So Iım feeling nostalgic. Helped by two other events. One that happened in 1905 and one in 1913. Let's start with 1913. One of my childhood heroes was born here in New
Zealand. My favourite writer of all time. The man reponsible for starting
my love affair with the All Blacks ... which was then ignited by Waka
Nathan, Mac Herewini, Earle Kirton, Brian Lochore, John Kirwan, Sean
Fitzpatrick and Jonah Lomu. |
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T.P. McLean was 90 last month. I was stuck in the US and couldn't get back for his birthday, but my wife Ro and youngest son, Dan, went along. T.P. was his normal feisty, opinionated irascible self. He introduced me to the All Blacks through that now defunct genre, the tour book. I bought 39 of them. Reading these great books took you on tour with the team, took me to places Iıd never heard of, introduced me to heroes (wearing black) and villains (wearing green, gold, red and white). A few years back T.P. came along to our place for dinner. Along with Bob Howitt, Peter Kean, a keen member of the New Zealand bowls fraternity, Peter Scott, then Lion Nathan's Sponsorship Manager and a couple of others. After a long dinner of anecdotes, stories, opinions (mainly T.P.'s) coupled with some of Bordeaux and Sauternes' best, we retired, at midnight, to the petanque court with a bottle (or two) of 40 year-old Taylor's tawny. There Peter Kean cleaned us all out as T.P. delivered a radio commentary which cracked us all up. Happy Birthday T.P. - and many more of 'em! The second memory is driven from a wonderful book I read last year. The Book of Fame by Lloyd Jones. Riveting. A brilliant rugby book. A brilliant New Zealand book. I read it again just before giving a speech at the Knowledge Wave Conference in Auckland earlier this year. It inspired me to call for a move away from just focusing on Pure New Zealand our beautiful body, to focusing on Our Beautiful Mind's and then Oxford University stole John Hood from us - one of our most beautiful minds. They must have been eavesdropping! The 1905 Originals were pre-Jean Batten, pre-Gallipoli. A point of
genesis. They were who we are, and what we are about. |
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They were the pioneers the first New Zealanders to create international waves. Rugby from then went on to become the unique expression of New Zealandıs relationship with the global community. Nowadays, though, that isn't enough. To prosper we have to take on the world and win. We have to use our Edges, the one million overseas Kiwis watching the ABs on Sky and turn them into a productive, integrated, networked and loved part of New Zealand life. We need to incentivise them to share our dream, open doors for us internationally and inspire us all back home. As Lloyd Jones says in his book: We introduced new ideas to Europe. The 2, 3, 2 scrum formation; the wing forward, controversial but effective; a fullback who played with a sun hat on, and ran outside the wing. In themselves, perhaps theyıre not much but the thought the thought is what counts Back yourself |
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