Murdoch’s family gets cap at last

Former All Black Keith Murdoch never received his test cap from New Zealand Rugby while living, but his family finally has.

Murdoch, who was famously kicked out of the 1972 All Blacks tour of the UK and France after punching a security guard in Cardiff, died recently, aged 74. He was buried in Carnarvon, a coastal town nine hours’ drive north of Perth.

He was one of the nicest guys in the team, according to team-mates Duncan Robertson and Grahame Thorne.

The pair, along with former All Blacks Ian Kirkpatrick, who was the 1972 tour captain, Jeff Matheson and Alex Wyllie sent a condolence note to his funeral in Carnarvon, about 900km north of Perth in Western Australia.

The note was penned by Murdoch’s sister Barbara on behalf of the five, who were appalled by the way he had been portrayed by the rugby union and the media since the 1972 tour.

Murdoch became a reclusive figure in Australia after avoiding a return to New Zealand following his sacking.

The tradition of capping lapsed after World War II and was not reintroduced until 1997. New Zealand Rugby chose to present caps to former players in person, but when Murdoch, Robertson and Thorne requested to have theirs sent in the mail, NZR refused.

Thorne and Robertson collected theirs about 10 years later, but Murdoch never did. It was only after his death that his family were mailed the cap, which they chose not to bury with him.

‘‘It was no big deal, we said ‘just mail it’, but they wanted to present it with the president,’’ said Thorne.

‘‘Keith never got his cap as he would have had to come [home] and get it, so last week they sent it to his family.’’

While Thorne and his team-mates had chosen not to speak out in the

"Keith was the best duty boy we ever had. He was very studious."

Grahame Thorne, left, on Keith Murdoch

past about Murdoch’s treatment and ‘‘let sleeping dogs lie’’, he said it was appalling what had been said in the media since Murdoch died.

In December 1972, hours after scoring the winning try in a 19-16 victory over Wales at Cardiff Arms Park, Murdoch turned up to the Angel Hotel after hours.

When refused entry to the closed bar, Murdoch punched security guard Peter Grant, knocking him to the ground.

He was subsequently sent home from the tour by All Blacks management, and was never seen on a rugby field again.

‘‘Keith was the best duty boy we ever had,’’ Thorne told Stuff.

‘‘He was very studious and we were all on the bus on time, that was for sure. To be late was putting yourself in danger,’’ he said.

‘‘He roomed with me once, as I didn’t have much to do with players with small numbers on their jerseys. I only really enjoyed numbers 9-15. He told me that his sister got the brains, he got the brawn.

‘‘He wasn’t a fighter on the paddock as his technique was flawed.’’

Murdoch, a big, burly prop, played three tests and 21 matches for the All Blacks between 1970-72, and had a distinguished provincial career for Otago between 1964-72, though he played one season for Hawke’s Bay (1965) and one for Auckland (1966).

Murdoch’s life story since that fateful tour was essentially a mystery.

He disappeared into the Australian outback and was only sighted a handful of times after 1972.

Half a decade after the 1972 tour, New Zealand rugby writer TP McLean tracked Murdoch down to an oil drilling site near Perth, only to be told to get ‘‘back on the bus’’ and leave by a spanner-wielding Murdoch.

In 1980 he was back in New Zealand, living with friends, when he saved a child from drowning in a backyard swimming pool.