KeithQuinnRugby
Thinking and talking about rugby every day for 50+ years
You are here: Home » All Blacks year by year » 2014 » 2014 All Black tour Diary
In November 2014 for Williment's Sports Tours, along with my wife Anne, I traveled to the UK leading a rugby supporters tour group on the the All Blacks tour. Here is a tour diary.
4 November 2014
Watch this space; the All Black tour to UK diary is coming..... Read more »
Comments 0
'Not Worthless but Priceless' just some of the volunteers who worked in their thousands to make the Youth Games work.
28 August 2014
A bit of a sad day today; The 2nd Summer Youth Olympic Games will end tonight with another fantastic show at the main stadium. Around the time the show begins most of the commentators from the past fortnight will either be on board their flights home or about to get on board, like myself. So I find myself in a reflective mood as I write this. Read more »
Comments 0
26 August 2014
I got myself a new gig at the Nanjing Youth Summer Games these last few days. And, ah hem, if you don't mind from now on, call me one of the Daily Officers in Charge of ACQC for the World Feed of OBS. That puts me up among the big time operators. Well maybe not that high. For more on what makes a top ACQC Operator tune in right here... Read more »
Comments 0
24 August 2014
Play goes on here in Nanjing at the Second Summer Youth Olympic Games and I am still enjoying it hugely. We are now in the second week and heading for the finish line. In watching young people with a maximum age of 18 go about their competition I must say my eyes now have become attuned to seeing them as full adult competitors and not as younger versions of the 'main' Summer Olympic Games. The kids here to me look the same and play with as much commitment. It's been great to see them evolve and 'grow up' as it were... Read more »
Comments 0
Yes, its a very nice hotel that the Olympic Broadcasting Services have booked us into. This is me standing in the foyer of the Hilton Nanjing in my Stephen Donald shirt!!
23 August 2014
There are two nights of events covered in this report from the Nanjing Youth Olympic Games 2014. My commentary stints ended last night when I worked the weightlifting with a fair-dinkum Aussie broadcaster John Harker. I had listened to John and Jim Watt from the Glasgow Commonwealth Games a couple of weeks back when they did the boxing together - and I had been mightily impressed. They were a great combination. (I actually thought John was commentating the boxing with Bill Connolly for a while so similar were there Glaswegian accents!) Read more »
Comments 0
21 August 2014
Today a complete change of roles for me in Nanjing at the 2nd Summer Youth Olympic Games. The Rugby Sevens has finished so today my commentary roster had me heading out to the tennis complex for some broadcasts there. I worked with Auckland Glen Larmer (he's a great bloke - though he calls himself a 'former - Wellingtonian' which is interesting as he went to Naenae College) Read more »
Comments 0
This was the breakthrough day - NZ beat Wales 19-16 in Cardiff. There's been live TV coverage of every All Black test since.
After an unauthorised tour to South Africa in 1986 by senior All Blacks (the ‘Cavaliers’), players who toured were banned for two test matches. The New Zealand selectors therefore had to cast further afield for a team to play a test against France in Christchurch and in a following game against Australia at Wellington. They opted in choosing from younger or second-string players who were active around New Zealand.
The relative youth and inexperience of the new team soon earned it the affectionate nickname ‘Baby All Blacks’. The team’s popularity was ensured when it beat France, 18–9 and lost narrowly, 12–13, to Australia.
The Baby Blacks included a number of players who were to become seasoned All Blacks: David Kirk was their captain, while Joe Stanley, Sean Fitzpatrick, John Kirwan, Frano Botica, Terry Wright, Mike Brewer and Andy Earl all represented New Zealand for years.
What was different about the British Columbian winger Denny Veitch who played against the British and Irish Lions in Vancouver in 1966?
What do you think?
Click here to show the answer.