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TV commentator John McBeth was touched to be asked to go to a New Zealand-Springbok test with Peter Henderson in 2009.
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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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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The record 70-6 World Cup win over Italy was just five days earlier. Now John Gallagher and Craig Green each scored 4 tries in this new record 74-13 win over Fiji.
KELLEHER, KEVIN
An Irishman and one of rugby’s best performed referees, in charge of 23 internationals from 1960 to 1971. Kelleher had a very successful career as a referee, but he is largely remembered for being the man who sent Colin Meads off at Murrayfield during the Scotland v New Zealand match in 1967.
Kelleher ruled that Meads’s lunging kick at a loose bouncing ball near the Scottish flyhalf, David Chisholm, was dangerous and, having previously issued a warning in the vigorous encounter, he dismissed Meads. As the New Zealander was arguably the world’s most famous player at the time, the sending-off created a storm.
Ironically, Meads and Kelleher became friends and for many years exchanged Christmas cards. Kelleher was flown to New Zealand in 1988 to appear on the TV show ‘This is Your Life – Colin Meads.’
Although New Zealanders poured scorn on Kelleher as a referee, they tended to overlook his exceptional record with the whistle. Kelleher’s first international was Wales v Scotland in 1960, and his last was France v Scotland in 1971.
In the decade from the 1960s through to the fourth test of 1970 the All Blacks played exactly 100 test matches. What % did they win?
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