Legacy that’s anything but tiny
Richard Alexander (Tiny) White, former All Black and Gisborne mayor: b Gisborne, June 11, 1925; m Elsie Harvey; 3s, 2d; d Gisborne, March 10, 2012, aged 86.
TINY WHITE was one of the great All Black lock forwards, and played a leading role in the epic 1956 series win over the touring Springboks. With South African props Jaap Bekker and Chris Koch among the toughest and most uncompromising players to don rugby jerseys anywhere, the hard-fought fourmatch series was arguably the most physical ever played. It was seen as a must-win for New Zealand after the All Blacks were whitewashed 4-0 in South Africa in 1949, and generated huge interest throughout the country.
After losing the second test in Wellington 8-3, All Blacks hardman and one-time New Zealand heavyweight boxing champion Kevin Skinner was brought back by the selectors for the third and fourth tests.
White scored tries – at the time worth three points – in the All Blacks’ 10-6 win in the first test at Dunedin and the 17-10 victory in the third test at Christchurch. By the time he was booted in the back in the closing moments of the final match at Eden Park, the All Blacks had won the series 3-1 with an 11-5 victory.
Many in the rugby community still believe White’s 23 consecutive-tests career – at the time, an All Blacks record – was ended by the blow, which saw him forced from the field. But what most supporters did not know at the time was that White went in to the series with a badly-injured back. In the late 1940s, he fell down a bank on a Poverty Bay farm and twisted his spine.
None of the Springboks involved in the infamous match spilt the beans on who had kicked White till 1999, when the question was dramatically answered in an interview TVNZ rugby reporter Keith Quinn conducted with an ailing Bekker in Pretoria.
After asking the Springbok warrior if he had kicked White, Quinn was surprised when Bekker broke down. ‘‘I have carried the shame of that incident in my heart for 45 years,’’ he said. ‘‘I never told anybody I kicked him. I have kept it in my heart. Only my God knew. But the truth is I kicked the wrong man. I wanted to get Kevin Skinner, but instead I got Tiny White. Many times over the years I wanted to fly to New Zealand and apologise to both men. So now you know the story.’’
When asked for his reaction, White simply said: ‘‘If Jaap ever came to Gisborne to see me, I’d welcome him into my home.’’
Bekker died soon after the interview screened.
White’s reaction to the revelation was typical of the man, according to All Blacks great Sir Brian Lochore, who described White as his schoolboy hero.
‘‘He was a hard-working rugby player in his playing days. He was a big guy who just did the business. He didn’t cut any corners and when he gave the game away he continued on as a very good New Zealander.’’
After hanging up his boots, White, still very fit at the age of 50, suffered another serious injury that proved a turning point in his life. He had a tractor accident on his hill-country sheep and beef property in 1975. The accident scalped him and left him with two broken legs.
The gentle giant was forced off the farm and a manager was appointed to run it for the next decade. White moved to Gisborne, where he was mayor from 1977-83. He was also a member of the Cook Hospital Board for 24 years – the last six as chairman.
Richard Alexander White was born in Gisborne on June 11, 1925, the son of Herbert and Katharine White. He was raised on a farm at Ngatapa and attended Gisborne Boys’ High School and Feilding Agricultural High School.
At the end of World War II, he served as a member of J-force in Japan.
HIS MILITARY service resulted in him winning a ballot for a farm in the Waimata Valley 25 kilometres outside Gisborne. He grabbed the opportunity with his two very big hands and spent 25 years raising three boys and two girls alongside Elsie, the Gisborne woman he married in 1949.
He played all his representative rugby for Poverty Bay. The nickname ‘‘Tiny’’ was an ironic reference to his 1.88-metre frame.
During his playing days White regularly ran 160 kilometres a week to get in shape.
He played his international
‘He was a hard-working rugby player in his playing days. He was a big guy who just did the business. He didn’t cut any corners and when he gave the game away he continued on as a very good New Zealander.’ SIR BRIAN LOCHORE
rugby in the days when overseas tours were major undertakings. The 1953-54 tour to the British Isles, France and North America lasted nearly five months. White played 30 of the 36 matches, including the tests against Wales – the last time the All Blacks lost to that side – Ireland, England, Scotland and France.
The controversial 1981 Springbok tour to New Zealand proved a challenging time for White. Family members say he was ‘‘conflicted’’ by the tour, but he never spoke about it publicly.
One of his sons, David, was a lock in the Canterbury team at the time. Canterbury did not play the 1981 Springboks, but when his team-mates happened to be in Auckland at the time of the final test on September 12 – marked by a small aircraft flown by anti-tour protesters buzzing the stadium and dropping flour bombs – the young White declined an invitation to attend the game. He spoke to his father about his antiapartheid reasons for not going, but White would not be drawn into the debate.
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White senior saw himself first and foremost as a footy player. He described him as a man who, post1956, remained slightly bemused by the ‘‘bully’’ mentality of the Springboks to their rugby.
There was a certain irony then that, as mayor of Gisborne, White and the Maori people of the Pohoo-rawiri marae had the job of welcoming the 1981 touring side to New Zealand before the first game against Poverty Bay.
Away from the farm, local body politics and Springbok tour controversies, White found solace among the Ngai Tuhoe people as a fisherman on Lake Waikaremoana. He retreated to the solitude of the lake with friends whenever his farming and civic duties, which included a 15-year term as the QEII Trust’s representative in Gisborne, allowed.
In his QEII role, he made a significant contribution to conservation by assisting landowners identify and protect special natural and cultural areas on their properties.
White’s youngest son, Chris, was a rower who won 38 New Zealand titles over a 16-year career. In 1988, he won an Olympic bronze medal as a member of the Kiwi coxed four crew at the Seoul Olympics.
Reflecting on the 1956 series win in a 1998 interview with the Evening Post, Tiny White said it had been the All Blacks’ power, not Kevin Skinner’s fists, that buckled the Springbok scrum. ‘‘It was brute force which crippled their front row. Skinner didn’t have to belt anyone. He had to hold the scrum up, which he did magnificently. We just beat them by sheer weight and strength ... they just buckled under pressure.’’
From his Auckland home this week Skinner, who suffers from Parkinson’s Disease, paid tribute to White. ‘‘He was a very good lock and rugby player.’’