Brand Fitzy finally raking it in
an ambassador for All Blacks sponsor AIG and for the launch of the Haka 360 degree Experience.
For the next two hours the All Blacks great gets passed around like a rugby ball conducting interviews with media outlets from the BBC to TV3.
Fitzpatrick might have missed out on the professional era as a player but he’s done well in his retirement and, to several generations of rugby fans and plenty of sponsors, he still holds currency.
‘‘I’m a fan like you are now and absolutely love it and I’m a true blue All Blacks fan even though we live in London,’’ the 92-test veteran told his appreciative audience before reassuring the locals the host nation had made the final in every World Cup bar 1999 and 2007.
It all seems a little ironic. AIG’s temporary tent city is all about corporate exposure, designed to give the sponsor maximum exposure through the next seven weeks, but Fitzpatrick is captivating because his stories harp back to a golden amateur era.
The contrast isn’t lost on a bloke who was a builder by trade during his playing career and retired in 1997, just a year after rugby went professional.
‘‘Talking about commercialism, you see AIG and all this stuff around here today,’’ he said. ‘‘Well in 1987 the day after the World Cup team was named we stayed in a hotel, had a little party, and the next morning the 26 of us assembled and did a signing session of rugby balls, which we had never done. The rugby ball had Steinlager on it, which was sort of the first step toward professionalism.’’
Except the 1987 All Blacks were far from paid professionals.
‘‘I remember we had our final trial a week before the World Cup where they selected the final 26. We played the final trial in North Auckland at Okara Park in Whangarei where the possibles, who wore white, played the probables who wore black.
‘‘I was in the possibles funnily enough because the All Blacks captain was Andy Dalton who was captain of the probables.
‘‘We assembled on the Wednesday before the first game and our coach Brian Lochore didn’t even make it to the first training because he got snowed in on his farm.’’
Dalton would, of course, pull his hamstring four days before the All Blacks played Italy in their first World Cup match and Fitzpatrick would go on to one of the great test careers.
He recalled, after the final pool match against Argentina, being taken to the Wairarapa and billeted with local families in the build-up to the quarterfinal against Scotland.
‘‘We arrived at his [Lochore’s] local pub in Eketahuna which was called the Lake View pub. We turned up in the later afternoon and there were a bunch of utes … in the carpark with hay bales on the back and dogs barking.
‘‘We walked in and thought it was fantastic … we’re having a beer and Brian Lochore stood up and said Fitzpatrick and [Richard] Loe, you’re with the Brown family and we thought ‘what?’
‘‘The Brown family came walking over with their children so excited and we got billeted, literally, Loey and I in these single beds in this little bedroom, it was amazing. That’s what it was and it really brought everyone closer.’’
Nearly 30 years later, the All Blacks accommodation has changed drastically to five-star hotels but Fitzpatrick believes the strength of the bond between the players hasn’t changed.
He thinks New Zealand are one of seven teams capable of winning the 2015 tournament and picks Argentina to be the eighth side in the quarterfinals alongside Australia, South Africa, England, France, Ireland and Wales.
Fitzpatrick, who has lived in London for more than a decade, told Fairfax he believed fortress Twickenham was worth between nine and 15 points per match to coach Steve Lancaster’s side.
If the All Blacks end up playing the hosts in a knockout match, he said they must silence the local crowd early in the match.
‘‘You have to start well because in today’s game you cannot be chasing the game with 20 minutes to go because teams can shut games down. They can also exploit opportunities when you are trying to do things when you shouldn’t be.’’
He said losing to England at Twickenham in 1993 was ‘‘probably the worst day of my life’’, and provided the motivation for the All Blacks’ 45-29 semifinal win over the same team at the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa.
‘‘As an All Black you tend to remember the losses more than the wins,’’ he said before being whisked away to another interview.
Which may be true but to New Zealanders he will forever be remembered for the wins, many of them during an era when the game had nothing to do with money and everything to do with the stories that, like Fitzy, have not dimmed with age.