Northlander Eric Rush met the Queen in Buckingham Palace as part of the All Blacks northern hemisphere tour in the late 90s. Photo / Michael Cunningham
Northlander Eric Rush met the Queen in Buckingham Palace as part of the All Blacks northern hemisphere tour in the late 90s. Photo / Michael Cunningham
Eric Rush was neither a royalist nor a republican but after meeting the Queen in Buckingham Palace, the former All Black became a big fan of the royal family.
The owner of Regent New World and his former All Black team mate and fellow Northlander Ian Jones paid tribute to the world's oldest monarch whom they both met during the All Blacks tour to the United Kingdom in the late 1990s.
"It was one of the very few times I've seen the All Blacks look like a bunch of school kids.
''We were all standing there 'wow, there's the Queen' and she was coming to meet us which was really humbling," Rush recalled.
Meeting the Queen was like meeting no one else, he said.
"There were lots of rules. You were not allowed to swear, say anything controversial, stand in groups of three or four, call her Majesty or Ma'am, not allowed to squeeze when you shake the Queen's hands.
"She's a very small lady, that was the first thing that stuck in my mind. Everything about her was royal - the way she walked, the way she dressed and she was nodding to the groups as she was walking through in the room.
"She walked past our group and the thing that stuck in my mind about her was her yellow handbag. I thought 'what's she carrying her handbag for, she's at home?.
"Every pair or eyes on this room was just transfixed on this lady. I always remember she went over to the group on the far side of the room and started talking to them and we were jealous as hell because those guys were talking to the Queen."
Rush said when she finally got to his group, she was knowledgeable about the All Blacks and New Zealand, which she spoke fondly of.
Also in attendance, he said, was Princess Diana, Princess Anne and her brother Prince Edward.
The next time Rush saw the Queen was during the 2002 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony in Manchester when the New Zealand rugby 7s, swimming and hockey players performed a haka in front of her and the Duke of Edinburgh.
"The Queen and the Duke were looking bored as hell and then we pulled out and a few of the guys started taking their shirts off and the Duke was like 'oh,oh' and he started getting excited and he's pointing at us 'they're going to do the haka', he knew what we were going to do and even the Queen, a big smile broke out on her face."
The Queen remembered which part of New Zealand Ian Jones hailed from when he met her in Buckingham Palace.
Photo / Michael Cunningham
Keeping the monarchy alive when a lot of people around the world wanted it to end would be her greatest legacy, Rush said.
"I was neither a royalist or a republican but after visiting Buckingham Palace that day, I became a big fan of the royal family and I hope it stays that way because it's a big part of our whakapapa in New Zealand. However you like to think, but we're linked."
Jones met the Queen at the same time as Rush and said the monarchy had a beautiful presence about her and an amazing mana.
He met her on three occasions in 1991, 1993 and 1998 and every time she was welcoming, Jones said.
"Her memory was very sharp. The second time I met her, she remembered I was from the northern part of New Zealand. She spoke fondly about the Bay of Islands and her memories about spending time there.
"The opportunity to go inside the Buckingham Palace was pretty special and looking back, our thoughts are with all her family and the rest of the Commonwealth. She's had 96 years of wonderful life."
