New caps for NZ rugby greats
10 Sep 2009
One of the New Zealand’s best known rugby players, Sir Colin Meads, will receive his second major honour for 2009 when he’s capped at a special ceremony in Hamilton tomorrow night.
The rugby legend, who was recently awarded a knighthood, is among 29 players who will receive their first test cap on Friday (11.09.09) at an All Blacks capping ceremony - the final of six ceremonies being held in New Zealand this year.
The event will take place on the eve of what could be the decisive Tri Nations test match between the All Blacks and Springboks at Waikato Stadium on Saturday (12.09.09).
1957 Sydney test
Sir Colin, better known as ‘Pinetree’, will receive the test cap he earned when he first took the field for the All Blacks against Australia in Sydney in 1957.
Meads played 133 games for the All Blacks, including 55 tests. He captained the All Blacks 11 times, including leading the team in four tests.
Sir Colin’s brother Stan Meads will be among the other 28 All Blacks acknowledged at the Hamilton ceremony.
Stan and Colin first honed their skills in the backyard of their Te Kuiti home, in the Waikato. Stan played 30 games including 15 tests, for the All Blacks.
All Blacks honoured
Another famous rugby playing brother, Ian Clarke, will also be honoured at the ceremony.
Clarke, brother of All Blacks fullback and kicking legend Don Clarke - one of five brothers to play for Waikato - played 83 times in the black jersey, and captained the team on 12 occasions. He passed away in 1997.
In addition to the Meads brothers, who both played at lock, a number of other All Black second rowers will be acknowledged in Hamilton, including Mark Cooksley, Steve Gordon and Buck Anderson.
Cooksley, who was one of the tallest All Blacks, debuted against the World XV together with number 8 Arran Pene, who will also be capped.
Thirteen of the newly-capped players will be acknowledged again at Saturday’s test match at Waikato Stadium, when they will form a guard of honour to welcome the teams to the field.
All Blacks to be capped:
NB: * denotes deceased players (a family member will collect the cap).
- Keith Arnold* - 14.06.47 / NZ v Australia (Brisbane)
- John McLean* - 14.06.47 / NZ v Australia (Brisbane)
- Hugh McLaren* - 6.09.52 / NZ v Australia (Christchurch)
- Ian Clarke* - 19.12.53 / NZ v Wales (Cardiff)
- Ronald Hemi* - 19.12.53 / NZ v Wales (Cardiff)
- Colin Loader - 9.01.54 / NZ v Ireland (Dublin)
- Mark Irwin - 20.08.55 / NZ v Australia (Wellington)
- Sir Colin Meads - 25.05.57 / NZ v Australia (Sydney)
- Ernest Pickering - 6.09.58 / NZ v Australia (Christchurch)
- Ronald Horsley* - 23.07.60 / NZ v South Africa (Cape Town)
- Stanley Meads - 22.07.61 / NZ v France (Auckland)
- Thomas Heeps* - 26.05.62 / NZ v Australia (Brisbane)
- Anthony Steel - 16.07.66 / NZ v British & Irish Lions (Dunedin)
- Alan McNaughton - 26.06.71 / NZ v British & Irish Lions (Dunedin)
- Graham Whiting - 19.08.72 / NZ v Australia (Wellington)
- Christopher Fawcett - 14.08.76 / NZ v South Africa (Bloemfontein)
- Perry Harris - 4.09.76 / NZ v South Africa (Cape Town)
- Murray Taylor - 7.07.79 / NZ v France (Christchurch)
- John Fleming - 10.11.79 / NZ v Scotland (Edinburgh)
- Geoffrey Hines - 12.07.80 / Australia (Sydney)
- Bruce Smith - 16.06.84 / NZ v France (Christchurch)
- Brent Anderson - 9.08.86 / NZ v Australia (Wellington)
- Mark Cooksley - 18.04.92 / NZ v World XV (Christchurch)
- Arran Pene - 18.04.92 / NZ v World XV (Christchurch)
- Matthew Cooper - 6.06.92 / NZ v Ireland (Wellington)
- Steve Gordon - 20.11.93 / NZ v Scotland (Edinburgh)
- Mark Allen - 31.07.93 / NZ v Samoa (Auckland)
- Scott McLeod - 7.06.96 / NZ v Samoa (Napier)
- Adrian Cashmore - 22.06.96 / NZ v Scotland (Auckland)
Background: All Blacks test caps
A player’s first appearance in a test match for the All Blacks has traditionally been rewarded with a test cap.
However, along with international rugby itself, the capping tradition was interrupted by World War II, and was not re-introduced until June 1997.
In December 2008, the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) announced it would hold a series of events in 2009, 2010 and, if necessary, 2011, to cap more than 400 former All Blacks who did not receive their caps during that period.
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