Colin Mead

Subject: Colin Mead

If Colin Mead was watching from his seat high in the sky he would have been well pleased at this game played in Dunedin in the shadow of his death last week.
Meads a colossus in the game when I lived for a short time in NZ in 1964. He was an icon to New Zealander's, for his fearless rugged play epitomising the plucky New Zealand spirit, a country for many on the other side of the globe, remote yet somehow emblematic of the (pre Thatcher) British sense of fair play in all matters.  
It was said of Pine-tree Meads  that he trained by running up the mountains of his beloved South Island with a sheep under each arm. The stories are legend and as the crowd went quiet in memory of him there were many with a teat in their eye at the passing of this age of tough resilience.
Watching the Hakka as the two antipodean rivals faced each other on the pitch we didn't know what a game we were in for. A game which ebbed and flowed, which highlighted the modern attempt to keep the ball in play to take risks with long passes or flipping it up as you were tackled for a team mate to run on to. Of course in this free flowing game of skill mistakes are made and suddenly Australia who had been thrashed in their previous game in Sydney were three tries up. Gradually the Kiwis regained control with their scrum totally dominant pushing the Australian pack all over the place.
The second half like the first was full of individual genius. Players popping up out of nowhere running the length of the field only to be pulled up by the referee for some infringement. Nigel Owens from Wales was the ref for the day and he contributed fully to a marvellous match. His heart stopping decisions were seen, on slow motion replay, as being spot on and courageous which even in the heat of the moment the players responded with respect. How different from the highly paid soccer louts scrambling around the ref when a decision goes against them.
In the last minute or so of the game New Zealand scored a try which they converted and ran out winners 35 to 29. Perhaps the most unhappy man on the field was the Australian kicker Bernard Foley who missed all but one of his kicks which, if he had cleared them Australia would have won the game.
An international side can't win without a specialist kicker. Nass Botha who played in the triumphant South African side in the 1980s was a match winner slotting goals over from all angles. Johnny Wilkinson for England and Greig Laidlaw for Scotland were metronomic in their ability to kick from any position in the opponents half.
It was the best 10 quid I have spent in a while and I still have the cricket test between England and the West Indies and the Belgian Grand Prix today, and another 7 days remaining on my sky sports pass.
One problem. I had promised myself to cut the lawn today but since I am best mates with myself I think I might get away with it.