Simpkin — an inspirational leader, coach
The international rugby community is being asked to light a candle to remember one of the sport’s most innovative and respected coaches of the past five decades.
George Simpkin accumulated a wealth of achievements at school, club, provincial and international rugby level but on May 7, the 76-year-old husband and father lost his battle with cancer at Waikato Hospital in Hamilton.
George’s coaching career started when he was a physical education teacher at Matamata College in the Waikato, taking the school’s 1st XV on a 56-match winning streak.
He was head coach of Waikato from 1976-1984 taking the Ranfurly Shield off Auckland, moving the province into first division.
Long-time friend Robbie Hughes said like most coaches, George dreamed of leading the All Blacks but found his niche coaching the sevens version of the game and helping other countries develop their 15-aside teams.
George grabbed opportunities to coach in Fiji then Hong Kong, China, Sri Lanka and Germany.
In Fiji, he coached the national 15-aside team to the quarterfinals of the first Rugby World Cup in 1987.
Hong Kong was next where he introduced rugby to thousands of Chinese people over 16 years in his role as a director for Hong Kong Rugby Union.
During this time, George manufactured the world’s first kicking-tee, which replaced the need for players to dig mounds or use sand to place the ball before taking a shot at goal.
In 1997 when Hong Kong was handed from Britain to China, George became worried the parks available for rugby, some of them former military grounds, would be lost unless the Chinese army played rugby.
Hughes said George organised two Super Rugby teams to play an exhibition match at a university to successfully introduce the sport to the Peoples’ Liberation Army.
George and his wife Pip moved to Sri Lanka and it’s here she recalled one of her husband’s ‘‘greatest coaching moments’’.
He coached Sri Lanka’s 15-aside rugby team to its first international win, away against Kazakhstan, in cold temperature the players weren’t used to.
‘‘George had a great gift of giving people the idea that they could be successful and giving them success.’’
About five years ago George was asked to coach the ShanDong Province for the All China Games.
George was up against it, with little time to prepare and big-budget teams from Hong Kong to face.
‘‘ShanDong went on to win both the men’s and women’s competitions and it was the best coaching George ever did.’’
George eventually returned to New Zealand and in 2014 he was coaching rugby at United Matamata Sports Club, where he had played during his 20s.
Pip said George had been diagnosed with cancer about 10 months ago.
Once word got out, people from all over the world started to visit them at their home in Matamata.
‘‘George used to raffle off rugby balls signed by the teams in the finals at the Hong Kong Sevens, he’d raise about $60,000 each time and he used that money to set up a scholarship to help kids into rugby.
‘‘About six guys who had been recipients of the scholarships flew over together to come and see George, to thank him.’’
Others included Stuart Krohn, George’s captain at Hong Kong, who went on to set up rugby programmes for kids in the US.
‘‘They were able to tell George what he meant to them and George was able to say goodbye.’’
Pip said she would like to hold a special ‘‘memorial bash’’ for George when the country cycles down through the Covid-19 alert levels.
‘‘Both daughters (Leigh and Greer) and two grandsons are in Sydney and we’ve got a granddaughter in London.
‘‘George also has two sisters, one in Te Puke and Tokoroa and we’ve just decided to wait until we can honour his life in a happy frame with everyone here to do it.
‘‘Today, I’ve just asked everyone to light a candle for him, that’s what I would like people to do.’’
George’s daughter Greer, who lives in Sydney, wrote an ‘‘Ode to George’’ for Pip to read out to her dad during the lockdown, when she was unable to travel to be with him.
‘‘I wanted to tell you that you are the most wonderful father I could have ever hoped for,’’ the ode said.
‘‘I love you very much, you know that. And I am so grateful for the role model you have been for me.’’
Greer described her dad as a ‘‘modern father before that was even fashionable’’.
‘‘As kids, the biggest thing we could do wrong was to disappoint you, you never really told us off, raised your voice or smacked us.
‘‘We were terrified of disappointing you because that was the worst thing in the world ... you were only disappointed in our behaviour, it was never because you were disappointed in who we were as people.’’
Greer said in the letter, George had created a legacy which went beyond the family.
‘‘No one ever forgets you George. You are one in a million.’’
‘‘I wanted to tell you that you are the most wonderful father I could have ever hoped for. And I am so grateful for the role model you have been for me.’’ Daughter Greer