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MY TAKE ON SOME OF THE RUGBY NEWS STORIES WHICH COME INTO MY WORLD.
Gabriel David's interview with Gary Sobers
Did a young New Zealand radio presenter once influence the outcome of a Blackcaps cricket test? He thinks he did! Find out how he did it...
8 January 2019
*By Keith Quinn (from his book Quinn's Quips)* Early in my broadcasting career by 1969 I was deemed sound enough by the bosses of the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation to be the regular studio host of the Sports Roundup radio show. It was quite simple broadcasting work and therefore very good for a young bloke to be involved with. But one day I think I played a major role in New Zealand winning a cricket test match! Read on... Read more »
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The moment in 1925 referee Albert Freethy sent Cyril Brownlie on his 'long march' into rugby history.
Nearly 100 years after one of rugby’s greatest scandals, an old scrapbook is dusted off and opened.
20 December 2018
By Keith Quinn Read more »
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The grave of Keith Murdoch in Carnarvon, Western Australia.
Keith Murdoch - One More Story on the Mysterious Life and Lonely Death of the Banished All Black.
9 June 2018
*This Story by Keith Quinn for keithquinnrugby.com:* The discussion of the end of All Black Keith Murdoch's life has recently become been a cheerless one to absorb. The beginnings of the demise of the tough prop forward's playing career is very well known. Read more »
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Colin Meads - At his last public outing.
20 August 2017
The small New Zealand town of Te Kuiti, in the aptly-named King Country turned out in June 2017 for what was to be the last public outing for the districts legendary rugby star, the great Sir Colin Meads. I was honoured to be MC for the day and later wrote this story for 'NZTODAY.' Read more »
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I loved this picture of Meads, aged 34, leading out the All Blacks at the start of the 1970 tour of South Africa. The main team leader Brian Lochore was injured.
Colin Meads - Where does he sit among the All-Time All Blacks? One Man's View.
20 August 2017
I watched a lot of Colin Meads playing on the rugby field. I am of the age that can say that. Shamelessly I can say I loved the way Colin Meads changed the game for previously lumbering second row forwards, which I was myself, albeit at a club level only. Meads showed us all another way to play. Read more »
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Big burly Gordon Wood in his heavy woollen pullover, who became a regular & much-loved touch-judge in 1959. This picture taken in Auckland.
RIP to an Old Lion - A true or tall story?
22 June 2017
This story first appeared in the excellent *NZToday* Magazine's June-July edition. The author knows it is true as he remembers it. Some family members doubt his recall. Read more »
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Every day there is Rugby History 28 July 2014
Click to show South Africa ends great NZ sevens reign
New Zealand's sevens team had won four gold medals in a row from 1998-2010 but on this day at Glasgow in the final New Zealand fell to Kyle Brown's South Africam by 19-12. A great rugby era had ended.
A-Z of Rugby
Click to show APIA PARK
APIA PARK
Headquarters for the game of rugby in Samoa. Apia Park is a ground with a colourful past. Just as Twickenham in London was once a market garden, and cabbages were grown at Lancaster Park in Christchurch during World War I, Apia Park in the capital city of Samoa was once a horse racing track and a golf course.
Situated close to the city, the ground was originally owned by the occupying German Government. The first horse racing was held on Kaiser Wilhelm II’s birthday in 1910. Later, Chinese, Melanesian and Samoan labourers ploughed the swampy land, aided by oxen-drawn carts. They levelled an inner field and plans for rugby were drawn up. The locals did not worry that a large, shady tree was left intact on what was to be inside the field of play.
Horse racing died out in 1939. The first rugby game on the park was in 1924 when an Apia Selection played a Pago Pago Naval XV. Apia won 33-0. During the same year a Fijian team on its way to play Tonga stopped in Apia. Its two games against the locals were split one win each. It is not recorded how the teams coped with playing around the tree!
These days the rebuilt ground, with its superb backdrop of palm trees and other native flora and fauna, must be one of the prettiest in the world.
Apia Park has always been a highly significant place for sport in Samoa. In 1991 before the advent of a home TV network, crowds used to come to the ground and sit for hours overnight waiting to watch on an imported giant TV screen the matches of (Western) Samoa at the World Cup in Britain.
For years the field was also used as a golf course, but in 1975 the inherent dangers of people walking near such a course led them to shift to a new venue, at the Royal Samoan Golf Club. Only then for the first time could rugby truly claim the grounds.
In 2007, Apia Park was one of the main venues for the 2007 Pacific Games. In 2015 it will play host many events at the Youth Commonwealth Games, the opening and closing ceremonies. It will also host the All Blacks from New Zealand for a much anticipated game against Manu Samoa. The ground has a capacity of 15,000.
10 Questions to well known sporting people
Today's KQ Rugby Quiz
Who captained the British and Irish Lions on tour to New Zealand in 1977?
What do you think?
Click here to show the answer.