Breathtaking Birtwistle electric, crow D-pulling ABs try machine
Slick wing could glide past tacklers with ease
All Black No. 652 William Murray “Bill” Birtwistle is known across the generations as one of the slickest wingers to grace New Zealand shores. Now 83, Bill and wife Jan live in Cambridge after nearly half a century living in Hamilton.
“We’ve got three daughters; they’re all just over 50. No boys, just girls. They’re good as gold,” says Bill.
As expected, he says rugby has changed “dramatically” since his time.
“I’ve always loved rugby, from the age of 5 I started and it was the best thing I ever did, I just loved it. You meet so many different people.”
Bill was born on July 4, 1939, in Auckland, and went on to attend Mount Roskill Grammar School.
After high school he represented the College Rifles Rugby Club through which he made his first-class debut for Auckland in 1961, after scoring four tries for the Auckland Colts against Waikato at Eden Park.
Bill played two games for the navy and white hoops before heading to Canterbury where he joined the Christchurch Football Club.
“I’m an Aucklander, a yuppie. I was there for 20 years before I went down to Christchurch. I was in the Canterbury rugby team for five years and I loved it.”
From 1962-1966 he represented Canterbury 60 times, scoring 51 tries, while also being named in the 1965 All Blacks team to take on South Africa.
“I scored a try for Canterbury against the Springboks in 1965, and ran the length of the field. I got a bit of an intercept and
I was off like a startled rabbit. It was really something.”
The Springboks were leading 5-3 and were on attack when Bill snatched the loose pass and ran the length of the field to take the victory for Canterbury.
“With every yard Birtwistle ran, at the speed of an Olympian, the cheering became more and more hysterical,” wrote the New Zealand Herald’s TP McLean.
A 26-year-old Bill played his first All Blacks match on July 31, 1965, at Wellington, scoring on test debut.
He went on to play in all four tests against the Springboks, scoring another try in the fourth test.
“[My career highlight was] 1965, making the All Blacks. I had a great year and I won the Canterbury Sportsman of the Year. I scored quite a few tries and it couldn’t go wrong,” says Bill.
With a total of 20 tries at provincial level and above, he scored the most tries in New Zealand rugby for 1965.
Bill was named as one of The Rugby Almanack of New Zealand’s five players of the year in the 1966 edition.
“Without doubt the “star” wing of the season was Canterbury’s W. M. Birtwistle, a fine, well-balanced footballer; a greatly improved player, whose only weakness was at times some uncertain handling, which, however, did not prevent him from touching down for twenty tries during the year,” the Almanack said.
In previous editions, it stated he “revealed pace and finesse, eager to run and requiring very little room” (1964) and “Birtwistle was a constant danger to opposing sides, scoring 15 tries from 15 matches through speed and determination” (1965).
The year 1966 rolled around and Bill managed only eight games for Canterbury,
scoring five tries, due to a torn hamstring.
“I was selected for the All Blacks against the Lions and the week before, I had to pull out. I ripped [my hamstring] in a club game. That put me out for the whole four tests.”
The following year Bill and his family moved from the Garden City to Rosetown, Te Awamutu, to take up a job as a weed sprayer — but it was also a year packed full of rugby.
“One of my favourite grounds was actually [Te Awamutu’s] Albert Park. It was a good ground, we did well on it but old Lancaster Park [Oval] was the best park that I ever played on.”
With his 1967 debut for Waikato, he became the 608th Mooloo representative while also playing for St Pats Rugby Club (now Te Awamutu Marist on Park Rd), the Te Awamutu Sub-Union Peace Cup side and the All Blacks.
The St Pats team of 1967, coached by the late Manawatu¯ and Waikato rep Robin O’Neill, enjoyed a memorable season, winning the New Zealand Marist Spillane Cup Tournament, Phoenix Cup, Te Awamutu club competition and placing fourth in the Waikato first division club competition.
O’Neill was also at the helm of the Te Awamutu Sub-Union side, selected by the late former Waikato Rugby Union president Guru Singh, that uplifted the Peace Cup off South Waikato.
Their final Peace Cup match was against a Maniapoto side that had about 12 King Country reps, including All Blacks Colin and Stan Meads.
Te Awamutu stole the win with a longrange solo Birtwistle try scored between the posts at Albert Park — their first of 19 Peace Cup victories.
Former Te Awamutu Courier sports editor Colin Thorsen recalls that great try and the excitement Bill brought to the town.
“It was a privilege to watc as a teenager when Bill was a Awamutu. There were some I’ll never forget that try at against Colin Meads’ Maniap was unbelievably good. He that was his beauty — it was in motion,” says Colin.
“I think the only one that to him was Bryan Williams, hi sidestep, but this guy just glid and left them standing. He a freak.
“He was the best winger t Awamutu by a mile. He j crowds. I remember in that Pe the stand was always p spectators were 10-deep righ ground.
“When Bill got that try, I lo Guru Singh, the coach at th bawling. There were tears flo his face — it was that good o was a great era. It was a very Te Awamutu team and the of Waikato reps.
“I was an apprentice printer at Type Craft Ltd and I used to make sure I had an excuse to go uptown when the Peace Cup games were on.”
Bill was in Te Awamutu for only a year before heading overseas with the All Blacks, after the Peace Cup victory, on the tour of the British Isles and France for two and a half months.
“Before I went on the trip, Kihikihi Primary School wanted to put together the tour for me, they adopted me. They put a scrapbook together and when I came back they gave it to me,” he says.
“We had a very good tour, of course. When we returned I had an operation on my knee as I’d broken my cartilage. When I scored against Wales, I hit the side boarding as it was pretty wet and muddy.”
This tour was also to be the last of Bill’s test career with his final match played against Scotland at Edinburgh on December 2, 1967 — although he was the leading try-scorer on that tour, scoring nine tries in eight games.
In total, he played seven tests and five games on the wing, scoring 11 tries across the 12 matches.
Out of these 12 matches, the only loss was against South Africa at Christchurch on September 4, 1965.
“I came back and I had to go to Hamilton, because I had no job — I’d lost it before I went on the tour. So we went to Hamilton in 68 and I joined the bank. I was in the National Bank for 13 years.
“I was the only player [on the tour] that never had money coming in, but that’s the way of life.”
Bill then played for and coached the Hamilton City Rugby Club, which was based next to Rugby Park, while he and his family moved to Chartwell. They stayed in the same house for 46 years.
He represented Waikato until 1970, scoring seven tries from 29 appearances.
Although that was the end of Bill’s provincial and international career, it wasn’t the end of rugby for him.
“I played golden oldies rugby right up until I was 49. We started off the Harlequin Golden Oldies in 1979. It was great because we went overseas with my wife and we had 50-odd on the tour,” he says.
“I was lucky that I hardly ever had an injury, only the cartilage that I broke and the hamstring in 1966 — which we normally get as wingers.”
In 2009, he was one of the past All Blacks that the New Zealand Rugby Union honoured with long-overdue test caps and as a long-time member of the NZ Harlequin Rugby Club, Bill loaned his cap to the club for display purposes at FMG Stadium Waikato.
Since he and Jan retired to Cambridge six years ago, he says he enjoys reading every day.
“We enjoy it out here and there’s always something to do. There are good neighbours and all that sort of thing. At our age, that’s all you can ask for.”