WHY DAD WOULDN’T APPROVE OF SCARLETS ROLE
SO the question is, what would Sean Fitzpatrick’s father have made of him sitting on the board of the Scarlets?
“Dad would be turning in his grave if he knew I had joined a Welsh side,” quips the Kiwi legend.
“Especially one that beat the All Blacks!”
Fitzpatrick’s late father, Brian, had good reason to have less than fond feelings towards Welsh rugby.
He made his Test debut as a centre threequarter at Cardiff Arms Park back in December 1953.
Famously, that remains Wales’s last victory over New Zealand.
“My dad never spoke about that game,” recalls Sean.
“He was a proud man and very proud to be an All Black.
“He always spoke about 525, which was his number. But he didn’t talk about that game.
“He became very good friends with Cliff Morgan, who he played against that day.
“Cliff tried for years and years to get him to go back to Cardiff because they had a reunion for the 1953 team every year.
“But dad would say to me ‘No bloody way, son, I’m never going back to that bloody place’.
“And he never did. Even in 1989, when we toured there, mum had to go by herself because dad wouldn’t go back to Wales.”
While his father only played in three Tests, Sean was to earn 92 caps, winning the 1987 World Cup, a Lions series and captaining the All Blacks 51 times.
Now the 57-year-old former hooker is bringing all his vast experience to bear in his role with the Scarlets.
Given his father’s involvement in the game, rugby was understandably a huge part of his upbringing in Auckland.
“Our life growing up in the 1960s and early 70s was very much based around our local rugby club, which was College Rifles,” he said.
“I was the youngest of four children, two sisters and an older brother.
“Dad being an All Black, I don’t think it really dawned on us how different that was to other dads.
“That’s because it was quite normal for us to have people like Keith
Davies, Kevin Skinner, Bob Stuart, these great All Blacks, coming round to our house.
“On Friday night, we would sit down in front of the fire, watch TV and we would be cleaning our rugby boots, with dad watching us out of the corner of his eye while reading the paper.
“Then Saturday morning we would pile into mum and dad’s car and head off to the rugby club for the day.
“At four or five years old, I was the mascot for my brother’s team and I would run around playing in the mud, pretending I was a great All Black.
“Then we would watch the senior game in the afternoon. Mum would be running the tuck shop, dad coaching the team and then they would go on and have a few drinks and we would re-enact our All Blacks versus Wales game on the main field, with all the kids of the families.
“Then we would head home at about 7pm. That was our weekend really, with off to church on Sunday.
“That’s how I remember it.
“I obviously had a passion for rugby and I have such vivid memories of our childhood.
“We used to wake up early hours in the morning and watch the All Blacks playing in South Africa and the UK.
“Then my brother and I would have Test matches out on the back lawn every night after school.
“The kids in the street would all come around and we would be kicking the ball over the power lines.
“I would imagine it was just exactly what went on in Wales.”
Fitzpatrick’s fascination with Welsh rugby was fuelled at a young age.
“I used to go to bed at night dreaming of playing at Cardiff Arms Park,” he reveals.
“It just looked like such a cauldron, such a beautiful looking stadium and I would listen to the singing. We didn’t have that singing in New Zealand.
“Then, in 1971, the Lions came over and that sparked my love affair for those players.
“My generation was brought up on Gareth Edwards and Barry John.
“You ask Grant Fox why he started kicking round the corner, he says ‘Well, Barry John did’.
“Our generation could probably name more of the 1971 team than the 2005 Lions that went to New Zealand.
“Those names still resonate now.
“Mike Gibson, Gordon Brown, Willie John, Derek Quinnell. Bloody hell.”
A pupil at Sacred Heart College, Fitzpatrick played his schools rugby at prop and that’s where he captained New Zealand U21s from.
But when he joined the University club in Auckland he made a decisive switch.
“Graham Henry was our coach, believe it or not, and he said ‘You are never going to make it as a prop, you need to be a hooker’,” he recalls.
They were to prove wise words.
Fitzpatrick went on to forge a reputation as a s t rong- scrummaging hooker with Auckland and made his Test debut against France in 1986.
The following year, a hamstring injury to Andy Dalton opened the door, and he was to start every game as New Zealand won the inaugural World Cup, including a thumping victory over Wales in the semi-final.
There was to be no displacing him from the team after that.
Then, in 1989, he got to fulfil his childhood ambition when he ran out at Cardiff Arms Park against Wales.
“We were quite dominant,” he recalls.
“The game was almost over at half-time and the Welsh fans stopped singing.
“I thought ‘ Oh, please sing’. All I wanted to hear was the singing.
“No disrespect to the Welsh team of that era, but it’s the club games that really stick in my mind from that tour. I just remember the intensity of those.
“Goodness me. Neath at the bloody Gnoll. Oh my word.
“Honestly, the passion there was greater than I could have expected anywhere really.
“I remember we walked into the ground wearing our All Blacks blazers and ties and they made us walk in front of the main stand.
“They were bloody booing us and jeering.
“Grizz Wyllie (coach Alex Wyllie) led the charge and we got to the door of the changing room.
“We had to go down a few steps, I can remember
It’s been really difficult because of coronavirus. I am big on culture and organisation and you can’t do that from a Zoom calll
Sean Fitzpatrick on his Scarlets role
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it clear as day.
“The dressing room door was shut and the crowd were still bloody yelling at us.
“There was a guy in a white coat standing there and Grizz said to him ‘Open the f****** door!’
“The guy was trying to get the key out of his pocket and he couldn’t find it.
“Grizz said ‘Don’t f****** worry about it’ and put his boot into the door.
“The whole door, the frame and everything was all over the ground and we walked over the door into the changing room. Bloody hell!
“I actually went to a 20-year reunion of that game in 2009 with the Neath boys.
“That was a hard case evening.”
Looking back on his playing career, Fitzpatrick views the period after the 1991 World Cup disappointment as a real watershed moment.
“I was going to retire at 27,” he reveals.
“Luckily, Laurie Mains (coach) rang me and said ‘Do you want to be an All Black again?’
“I said ‘I’d love to be’. “He replied: ‘ You are probably not going to be because you are too fat, you are too slow, you are bloody arrogant and you have lost the respect of the All Black jersey’.
“He said: ‘If you show me you have changed in the next six weeks, I might give you a chance in the trials’.
“That was the best bit of news I ever had because it changed me totally.
“When you look back, it was probably fair what he said.
“I had to change and reboot my career.
“I became fitter, faster, stronger, I became a better person.
“It made me look at the whole game, not just my game.
“It helped me change and I am forever thankful to Laurie for that.”
Appointed captain by Mains in 1992, Fitzpatrick went on to hold the position for five years.
His continued presence in the team meant yet more time on the bench for his long-serving deputy – a certain Warren Gatland, who was never to win an international cap.
“I played 63 consecutive games for the All Blacks and Gats sat on the bench for 57 of them,” he said.
“When you look back today, Christ, that was just so unfair. But that’s the way it was in those days.
“Once you got on to that hot seat, you weren’t going to let anyone take it.
“It made us hugely competitive because Gats was a very good hooker.
“I think he made me a better player.
“He obviously learned a lot. He was a schoolteacher, don’t forget, so he sat there and took plenty of notes!”
There was huge success for Fitzpatrick along the way, including leading the All Blacks to a series victory over the Lions in 1993, with his 92 caps bringing 74 victories.
But there wasn’t to be another World Cup triumph, with his New Zealand team losing the 1995 final to South Africa at Ellis Park.
“It was a lost opportunity, that’s for sure,” he says.
“We could have won it in normal time in the last minute, but it just wasn’t to be.
“It wasn’t through a lack of trying and it was the catalyst to keep me going for another couple of years.”
Finally hanging up his boots in 1997, Fitzpatrick, a builder by trade, went on to work extensively as a TV pundit.
“I never wanted to get into coaching for some reason. It just wasn’t something I felt comfortable with,” he said.
“I put so much effort into being an All Black.
“People would say ‘Do you miss playing?’
“I would say ‘No, I don’t actually’.
“For 12 years, it was such a huge focus in my life. You had to be totally dedicated.
“So, when I retired, I wanted to enjoy all the things I had been missing out on, playing golf, sleeping in my own bed, spending time with my wife and children.”
Then, around 2004, came a new adventure.
“My wife and I both decided we wanted a bit of change of life and to travel Europe,” he said.
“So we packed everything up and headed for this part of the world for two years and we are still here.”
Moving to London saw him join the board of Harlequins and he remains an advisor to the Premiership club.
For the past 20 years he has been involved with the Laureus World Sports Academy, of which he is chairman.
“We have made about 150 million euros, we support about 200 projects globally, we have changed the lives of six million children in 40-odd countries, which we are all very proud of,” he said.
Then last year another new project opened up for him when he was asked to apply for a position on the Scarlets board.
“That came totally out of the blue,” he reveals. “But it just fitted. “West Wales is the closest thing I have seen to New Zealand in terms of what rugby means to the area and there is such a great history with the Scarlets – including that 9-3 game in 1972!
“It’s a good board, good people and Ken Owens is a quality man, which is what you need as a club captain.
“I just like the people.” It has also seen him come into contact with some of his childhood heroes.
“When I was announced on the board, Phil Bennett called me,” he reveals.
“I put my hand over the receiver and said to my wife ‘It’s Phil Bennett on the phone!’
“It was such a buzz. I was like a kid in the candy shop that he had actually called me.
“This was that guy from the Barbarians game in ’73, the guy from that try. The way he got it going, my God.
“I like seeing Phil and Derek Quinnell down there. I still get a kick.
“The current players need to know about that, about where they come from, that’s what we do in the All Blacks.
“I love the modern game, but I am also very old school.”
Reflecting on his role with the Scarlets, Fitzpatrick said: “It’s been really difficult because of coronavirus.
“I am big on culture and organisation and you can’t do that from a Zoom call.
“But I am going down this week for the first time in six months.
“I would like to get my teeth into it a bit more and hopefully that will be possible now.”
As for the recent departure of head coach Glenn Delaney, he said: “I feel very sorry for Glenn, but it’s a results-driven business.”
Turning to the future, he said: “There are some massive changes coming in rugby. It’s an exciting time.
“As part of that, why shouldn’t the Scarlets look to be the best team in Europe?”
That’s Sean Fitzpatrick all over.
A man who set the highest standards as a player and one of the game’s truly great captains.