All Black prop dies after a life of mystery
Keith Murdoch, famously known as the first All Black to be sent home from a tour for indiscipline, has died aged 74.
New Zealand Rugby confirmed the news via the All Blacks’ Twitter account last night.
‘‘New Zealand Rugby mourns the loss of former All Black #686 Keith Murdoch,’’ the post said.
Zingari Richmond Football Club chairman Stephen Baughan said one of their life members had heard the news from Murdoch’s family. ‘‘I don’t know too much about it because he was a generation older than me.’’
Born in Dunedin in 1943, Murdoch played three tests and 21 matches for the All Blacks between 1970 and 1972, and had a distinguished provincial career for Otago between 1964 and 1972, though he played one season for Hawke’s Bay (1965) and one for Auckland (1966).
The big, burly prop was widely known for being sent home from the 1972 All Blacks tour to the United Kingdom, and then disappearing into the Australian outback, rarely to be seen again.
Baughan said it was his understanding that Murdoch had died in Australia.
Murdoch’s brother, Bruce, had no comment to make when contacted yesterday.
Murdoch’s life story since that fateful tour was largely a mystery.
In December 1972, hours after scoring the winning try in a 19-16 victory over Wales at Cardiff Arms Park in Cardiff, 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.
Days later, Murdoch was sent home from the tour by the All Blacks management, and was never seen on a rugby field again. He disappeared into the Australian outback and was only sighted a handful of times after that.
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.
By the time the 1990s came around, Murdoch was back in Australia, tracked to the town of Tully, Queensland, by Margot McRae. She managed to talk to him but he wouldn’t do a formal oncamera interview.
His most recent sighting was in 2001, when he was a witness at a coronial inquest into the death of an Aboriginal man in the Northern Territory.
Murdoch had caught Christopher Limerick breaking into his home the night before the 20-year-old disappeared.
It’s not known where Murdoch disappeared to after that, only growing the mystery around him.