RIP

TV commentator John McBeth was touched to be asked to go to a New Zealand-Springbok test with Peter Henderson in 2009.

RIP Peter Henderson 1949-50 All Black

28 November 2014

It is always very sad when a man who once thrilled New Zealand with his youthful rugby zeal and became an All Black, then reaches his senior years - and then passes away. This week we say RIP to Peter 'Sammy' Henderson. Read more »

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RIP Kevin Skinner 1927-2014

Let's face it; Kevin Skinner was a very vital All Black

22 July 2014

I felt really sad when I heard of the death of Kevin Skinner. He was such a genial man in his later years until his health started to fade. At the Barbarians Club at Eden Park in Auckland he was always a friendly face, chatting away. And invariably gently chiding anyone who tried to push onto him the reputation many New Zealand rugby followers had that he was forever and only a rugby thug. He was not that at all. I prefer to call him a vital man who was very much needed by his country in some most critical rugby years. Read more »

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Every day there is Rugby History 11 March 1994

Click to show A great coach begins a fantastic reign!

Bay of Plenty sevens expert Gordon Tietjens takes his first NZ team to Fiji. They didn't win the tournament there but Tietjens stayed coach for 20-plus years

A-Z of Rugby

Click to show BAIRD, ROGER

BAIRD, ROGER
Kelso and Scotland
27 internationals for Scotland 1981–88
4 internationals for British Isles 1983

A winger who might be best remembered by statisticians as the man who played for Scotland in 27 tests but never managed to score a try.
The baby-faced Baird, a former schools scrumhalf and an expert in the sevens game, was blessed with many talents. He was fast and elusive, and although slightly built, he had courage beyond his size. His speed was real: he once cleaned up three Scottish Borders track and field titles in one afternoon.
As a try-scorer, Baird had impressive credentials at every level other than for Scotland in test matches. His total of tries for the South of Scotland was a record, and he scored many in sevens rugby, including at the Melrose Sevens and on trips to the Hong Kong tournament.
Baird did have one test try-scoring moment but it was for the British Isles in New Zealand in 1983 in the third test in Dunedin.