All Blacks legend

Born: June 3, 1936;

Died: August 20, 2017

COLIN “Pinetree” Meads, who has died of cancer aged 81, is widely considered to be the greatest-ever All Black, and certainly one of the greatest rugby players ever.

He was born on a farm outside Te Kuitu in the King Country of New Zealand's North Island and his raw agricultural strength quickly propelled the young farmer from the Waitete club into the King Country representative team, aged 19.

From there his progress was swift, to the Junior All Blacks – the Under-21 team, for a tour of Ceylon. He then progressed to the North Island representative side before, in 1957, he made his full All Blacks debut against Australia.

In those early days, he was considered “a bit loose” for an All Blacks lock, winning his early caps at flanker and number eight, but, before long he was an automatic choice as lock for the All Blacks, and on his way to immortality.

He made a total of 133 appearances for the All Blacks between his debut in 1957 and his retirement in 1973. He was the first All Black to appear in more than 50 tests, making a total of 55 full international appearances in the famous black kit. His younger brother Stan was also an All Black and the pair locked the All Blacks scrum together on a number of occasions.

He was never a regular All Blacks captain –his great friend Sir Wilson Whineray, behind whom he packed for so long, and another great friend, Sir Brian Lohore were more regular skippers –but, throughout his long international career, Meads was the heart-beat of the All Blacks. Indeed, many New Zealanders are convinced the troublesome All Blacks tour of the British Isles and France in 1972-73 would have been a lot less controversial, had Colin Meads been there to police the All Blacks.

He had a reputation as an “enforcer”, one of rugby's hard men. He was controversially ordered off against Scotland, at Murrayfield in 1967, when he tried to kick a loose ball just as Scottish stand-off Davie Chisholm grabbed it. There was no contact, but,it looked bad and Meads was dismissed. The yellow card was not in use then, but, since Meads had previously been warned for dangerous play at a ruck, in today's terms the dismissal, which Meads accepted immediately and without protest, was a case of a second yellow card.

Meads was respected by friend and foe alike. Whinerary always said: “When trouble erupted during games, I just whispered – 'Piney' and Colin sorted things out”.

His toughness was legendary; he sustained a broken arm when playing against Eastern Transvaal during a New Zealand tour of South Africa, but he finished the game, before going for treatment. Needless to say, the All Blacks won.

He forged fierce rivalries with Frik du Preez of South Africa and Willie John McBride of Ireland and the British Lions. Their confrontations were memorable – no quarter asked or given, but, in old age, the trio became great friends.

After hanging up his boots, Meads became chairman of King Country, coached and selected the North Island team and was elected to the three-man All Blacks selection panel, but, he was controversially sacked after agreeing to manage the rebel New Zealand Cavaliers tour of the ostracised South Africans in 1987.

He was forgiven, however, being elected to the New Zealand Rugby Council in 1994 and managing the All Blacks at the 1995 World Cup in South Africa.

He stepped down from rugby administration in 1996, but continued to work hard for many charitable causes, while his pithy comments on rugby matters made him a popular talking head.

He was made MBE in 1971, a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2001 and, when New Zealand restored titular honours in 2009, he became Sir Colin Meads. He was also named as New Zealand Rugby's Player of the Century in 2001, and he is a member of both World Rugby's International Hall of Fame and the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame.

Lady Verna Meads, his wife of over 57 years, and Colin have five children, Karen, Kelvin, Rhonda, who followed her father by becoming an internationalist, with the New Zealand Silver Ferns, the national netball team; Glynn, who followed his father into playing for and managing the King Country XV; and Shelly, who also played international sport, for the New Zealand women's basketball team. He is survived by Lady Verna, his children, 14 grand-children and great-grandchildren.

Sir Colin and Lady Meads sold the family farm in Te Kuiti, to relocate to a beach-front “bach” in the Bay of Plenty, but, he subsequently returned to spend his final days in a house in Te Kiute, where he died.

His toughness was also legendary off the paddock. He and Stan, strong though they were from their everyday farming, were advised to work in the weights room. Legend has it, their coach asked them: “Do you want to look good, or be strong?”

“Don't be silly, I've always been an ugly bugger, so, strong it is”, is the supposed Meads response. He also, during the 1967 tour of Europe, forcibly explained the facts of farming life to a group of Yorkshire farmers, in a memorable night in Skipton. They thought their life was tough, until they heard Meads speak of the realities of farming in New Zealand.

When the New Zealand government introduced a scheme, intended to bring hitherto unproductive scrub land into agricultural use, the Meads brothers were required to clear, by hand, an expanse of such unpromising land. This they did, during the rugby off-season. The work had all to be done by hand, and, when they had finished, both Colin and Stan had lost over a stone in weight. He was certainly, in more ways than one, a very hard man.

MATT VALLANCE