All Blacks great Ian Kirkpatrick opens up on 50 years of regret over Keith Murdoch expulsion

Ian Kirkpatrick speaks about his life in rugby - including the shock decision to send Keith Murdoch home from an All Blacks tour 50 years ago. Photo / Neil Reid

All Blacks legend Ian Kirkpatrick has endured 50 years of regret over Keith Murdoch being sent home in disgrace. In a frank interview, the former test captain opened up to Neil Reid about how he blamed himself - and what wearing the black jersey has meant to him in the years since.

Time has done little to ease the burden of regret that has weighed on All Blacks legend Ian Kirkpatrick’s shoulders.

Fifty years ago, Kirkpatrick departed New Zealand as captain of the 1972-73 All Blacks on their 32-match tour of North America and Europe.

A burning pre-tour ambition was for the team to complete the All Blacks first Grand Slam of test victories over England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Instead, when the team returned three and a half months later, their Grand Slam hopes had evaporated after a 10-10 draw against Ireland, and a cloud hung over the controversial decision to send prop Keith Murdoch home for off-field reasons.

Murdoch was expelled after punching a security guard at Cardiff’s Angel Hotel, going from hero to villain in the eyes of team management in less than 12 hours after earlier scoring a crucial try in the All Blacks 19-16 test win over Wales.

He never returned to New Zealand to live full-time, instead living in isolated parts of Western Australia and Northern Territory until his death in 2018, with his reputation forever tainted.

Keith Murdoch after he was expelled from the 1972-73 All Blacks tour and just days away from going into self-imposed exile. Picture / Peter Bush

“It never goes away. It never leaves you, it always rankles with me that it ever happened,” Kirkpatrick told the Herald about the treatment dished out to Murdoch.

“I have said many a time that I blame myself that he did get sent home. I tried my bloody darndest for him not to be sent home, but the manager had the power to do that, so that was it.

“The whole thing just never goes away.”

Murdoch was expelled after punching security guard Peter Grant.

At the time Murdoch was trying to source a late-night meal from the closed kitchen. Members of the next All Blacks team to visit Wales were told the prop had lashed out in retaliation to treatment a physically smaller member of the squad had suffered at the hands of hotel security.

Ian Kirkpatrick fought hard for Keith Murdoch to remain on tour. He was ultimately overruled by the team's ailing manager. Photo / Neil Reid

Kirkpatrick, his vice-captain Sid Going, coach Bob Duff and manager Ernie Todd met the morning after the incident, amid a firestorm of criticism from the British press.

Some journalists had targeted the Otago representative for special treatment even before the All Blacks arrived in the UK.

Todd – who it later emerged was dying of cancer - wanted to send Murdoch packing.

“Straight away Ernie Todd said, ‘He is going home’,” Kirkpatrick recalled.

“I said, ‘He is not going home ... there is no way he is going home’.”

Cardiff's Angel Hotel was the scene of an incident which would change All Black prop Keith Murdoch's life forever. Photo / Supplied

By the end of the meeting, Todd had been calmed and Murdoch was going to be allowed to stay.

“Whether it was the right thing to do or not, we named him in the team for the next game.”

But Murdoch never took to the field to play Midland Counties (West) on December 6, 1972.

Within 24 hours, Todd – who died months after the team’s return to New Zealand – backtracked on the decision to keep him on tour.

“It wasn’t until we got to Birmingham that [Todd] changed his mind again, or who I think changed his mind were the hierarchy back in the UK,” Kirkpatrick said.

“It really pissed me off. The next day, when we were on our way to the next game, [Murdoch] was on his way to the airport.

“I must admit, it took a lot of getting over ... f***ing big time.”

The decision would have huge ramifications for the legacies of both Todd and Murdoch.

The latter never played for the All Blacks again.

In fact, he never returned to live in New Zealand again, deciding on his way home to go into self-imposed exile across the Tasman to escape the attention his banishment had caused. It was also a decision that robbed him of the chance of ever meeting a child conceived during a brief relationship prior to him going on tour.

Prop Keith Murdoch in action during the All Blacks' 1970 tour of South Africa. Photo / New Zealand Herald

Kirkpatrick, one of the true greats in the history of New Zealand rugby, said the punishment dished out to Murdoch was the toughest moment in his 10-year, 113-game stint with the All Blacks.

“You can say that,” he said bluntly.

“In 1966 the Aussie team went to the UK and the hooker was a Kiwi guy from King Country. [Ross Cullen allegedly] bit someone’s ear and he ended up being sent home.

“I always thought then, wouldn’t it be a bugger to be in a team where someone gets sent home ... then Ernie Todd wanted to send Keith Murdoch home.”

Murdoch died aged 74 in the small Western Australian town of Carnarvon in early 2018.

His former captain was among a cluster of All Blacks who had, over the years, tried to contact him and encourage him to come home.

Kirkpatrick said while the intensely private Murdoch was “a bit different”, he wasn’t the wild man that members of the British press had tried to portray him as both prior to and after his 1972-73 tour expulsion.

“He was a bit quiet,” Kirkpatrick remembered. “On the paddock, he wasn’t too bloody physical I didn’t think, I never had any hassle with him.”

‘I was lucky I had 10 years of All Black rugby’

Kirkpatrick, now 76, reflected on Murdoch’s banishment and other notable moments of his career during a lengthy interview with the Herald at his lifestyle block on the outskirts of Gisborne.

It was “scary” to think it was 50 years ago he led the 1972-73 tour.

“You really want to say that quickly really, and get on with it,” he joked. “There has been a lot of bloody change since then obviously.”

Ian Kirkpatrick - centre - watching on as the Hurricanes play during his stint as the team's mentor. Photo / NZME

Rugby has been a huge part of Kirkpatrick’s life from his early years to today.

Forty five years on from his final test, he is president of New Zealand Rugby and in winter is a regular sight on the sidelines of both club and representative games in his beloved Poverty Bay province.

He is also a huge supporter of charities, giving up his time to make appearances and offer speeches at fundraising events.

Giving back to the community was easy to do for a sport that had given him so much joy, Kirkpatrick said.

“For 10 years in my 20s I was in the ABs so it took us around the world a few times,” he said.

“It broadens your general outlook on things and you meet your mates, play with new players, and they are there with you forever. It is part of the privilege of playing for the ABs ... it was something that was a bit special.

Ian Kirkpatrick replaced an injured Sir Brian Lochore in a 1968 test against the Wallabies, going on to score three tries in the remainder of the match. Photo / Getty Images

“Not everyone gets the bloody chance to play for the ABs, and I was lucky I had 10 years of All Blacks rugby. It certainly wasn’t like rugby is now, we still had to farm and work ... that wasn’t all that easy.

“But you always had something to aspire to. It wasn’t too hard to get motivated even as the All Blacks years wore on, it was always special to pull that jersey on.”

Rural inspiration

Kirkpatrick played during an era where the All Blacks forward pack featured many like him who worked the land on farms around the country.

They were men who, despite being based in rural provinces like Poverty Bay, could still aspire to make the national team.

Watching footage of All Black tests in a cinema in Gisborne as a schoolboy ignited Ian Kirkpatrick's dream to make it to the top. Photo / Neil Reid

For Kirkpatrick, that dream began when he was just 10 as he watched another Poverty Bay rugby legend take on the Springboks in the historic 1956 series.

“We never had television back in my young days so the only way we could see any live rugby was to go to the movie theatres and watch highlights of, say, the Springboks tests here in 1956,” Kirkpatrick said.

That four-test contest would be the first time the All Blacks ever won a series against the might of the South Africans.

“That is what I remember ... I was 10 then. We had Tiny White from here in [the All Blacks] then so it was a bit of a thrill to go and watch him play, even if it was just in black and white.”

Kirkpatrick says his own rise from club, provincial and then test rugby “happened bloody quickly”.

In his second year out of high school, he made his provincial debut in the combined Poverty Bay-East Coast team which narrowly lost 9-6 to the touring 1966 British and Irish Lions.

Rural-based legends - such as Sir Colin Meads, pictured - making the All Blacks was a common sight when Ian Kirkpatrick broke on to the scene. Photo / Nick Reed

Several months later he moved to Canterbury but the goal was to further his farming aspirations.

“I certainly didn’t have the bloody arrogance of wanting to go down there and play for Canterbury.

“But if it came my way, I certainly wasn’t going to turn that down.”

A year after playing against the Lions, he made it into the Canterbury team and then the New Zealand Under-23 team.

The crowning moment of 1967 came when he was named for the season-ending tour of Canada and Europe.

“I guess that was the moment of my All Blacks career,” he said. “That would be the moment that I would probably say was the [greatest] moment ... when your name was read out at Athletic Park. It was something else.

“You grew up with the history of it all.”

By the end of 1968, the talented Kirkpatrick – who went on to be the All Blacks highest test try-scorer for a fair while – had cemented his spot in the starting 15.

Footage of Ian Kirkpatrick's famous try against the Lions at Lancaster Park in 1971. Photo / TVNZ Archive

And in 1972 he took over the side’s captaincy, in what is still regarded as one of the greatest moments in the history of the Poverty Bay Rugby Football Union.

Throughout his first-class career – which featured 251 games, including 113 for the All Blacks – he was a proud man of the land, farming in both Canterbury and Poverty Bay.

He believed the physical nature of the work – which meant he rarely ventured inside a gym – gave farmers a “bit of an advantage over the city worker” when it came to footy time.

“Our general farm work, which varied a lot from shearing sheep to fencing, certainly kept you fit and kept your weight down,” he said.

“We would do a little bit of exercise above that in summer, but not much.

“We used to look forward to the break ahead of the new year, which normally signalled a Northern Hemisphere tour somewhere. Then you would hit the roads on New Year’s Day, that was always kick-off time.”

Gisborne's Rugby Park was the scene of many heroic performances from Ian Kirkpatrick for Poverty Bay. Photo / Neil Reid

Grassroots hero

For the majority of Kirkpatrick’s provincial career, the red jersey of heartland union Poverty Bay was on his back.

It was an era when other legends such as Sir Brian Lochore and Sir Colin Meads were also starring for the All Blacks despite coming from smaller, rural provinces.

Those days are now long gone, but Kirkpatrick realises his own achievements inspired his teammates and youth to “chase their dreams to the maximum”.

“It was always great to have an All Black in what we call the Heartland now. It gave others hope that maybe if they had a bit of luck and a fair breeze, they could make the All Blacks,” he said.

Inspirational East Coast halfback Sam Parkes was the inaugural winner of the Ian Kirkpatrick Medal. Photo / NZME

“That was the part of the game that sort of made New Zealand rugby, [rather] than what it is now, which is all about the professional level and living in the cities.

“Back then you could work anywhere in the country and as long as you could play rugby of consequence somewhere, club rugby on a Saturday, and then making your nearest provincial side ... you had the chance of making the All Blacks.”

Kirkpatrick’s status as a hero of grassroots rugby is now reflected in the best player of the Heartland Championship being awarded the Ian Kirkpatrick Medal.

He described the gesture as “humbling” and hoped it would be an “incentive to try and be 100 per cent every time”.

Former All Black Ian Kirkpatrick says one of his life in rugby's few regrets is that his brother David didn't make the All Blacks. New Zealand Herald photograph by Neil Reid

Given his service to New Zealand rugby, many All Blacks teammates and fans were incensed at the way Kirkpatrick was dropped from the team.

He was with his Poverty Bay teammates on the team bus when he learned of his unceremonious dumping as the squad to tour France in 1977 was named.

Despite the way his test career ended, Kirkpatrick says he was fortunate to have had 10 years of All Blacks rugby, adding he had more luck with the national selectors than his brother David – a highly rated Poverty Bay lock and All Blacks triallist, who never made the ultimate step up.

His brother’s omission, rather than his own dumping, was another of the few regrets from his life in rugby, Kirkpatrick said.

“It didn’t come his way, but it should have,” he said. “There have been quite a few guys in that category who should have been All Blacks but weren’t.

“The selectors at that time had their reasons why I guess. They probably picked on how they wanted the game played, and if someone didn’t fit in with that [they weren’t picked]. But Dave should have been.”