Andy Jefferd won just one match for his home province, but still went on to play for the All Blacks. Video / NZ Herald
Andy Jefferd won just one of his 32 games for the East Coast - but playing for them didn't stop him being an All Black, in the process becoming the only player to debut for the ABs from the province. He talked to Neil Reid.
Hangover cures don't come much better than the one provided to Andy Jefferd on a mid-winter Ruatoria morning.
The previous evening, the hard-running East Coast second-five had drank long into the night with family after watching the All Blacks lose the third test against the Wallabies during their 1980 tour of Australia and Fiji.
For the previous two years, Jefferd had become one of the most influential players in the East Coast team; but not even the class of the former NPC winner with Canterbury was enough to get the province of his birth a sought-after match win.
Head throbbing from the "pretty big night" before, the then 27-year-old still fronted for rep training at Ruatoria's Whakarua Park.
What was about to be bestowed on him would forever see him regarded as a true legend of the union – which celebrated its centenary last year.
Jefferd told the Herald what made his unexpected All Blacks call-up even more special was that the news was delivered to him by someone that he, and so many other Coasters, regard as one of the province's greatest legends: Kath McLean.
"I had had a big night in Toko [Tokomaru Bay], and the next morning, I was feeling bit hungover in the grandstand at Whakarua Park," Jefferd told the Herald.
"Dear old Kath McLean – who had contributed so much to Ngāti Porou East Coast rugby – looked over to me and said, 'Andrew', and pointed her finger and motioned for me to come over.
"I walked over with my hangover and she said, 'I've just had a ring from the New Zealand Rugby Union and they want you to go over and join the All Blacks in Fiji'.
"It was such a special moment, especially with Kath relaying that story to me."
The late McLean – who was lovingly known as 'Nanny Kath' by East Coast players and supporters – held numerous administrative positions within the East Coast Rugby Union during decades of service.
She was also known to have hand-stitched the province's emblem on successive NPC squads' playing jerseys.
In 2001 – 20 years after Jefferd's final match for the All Blacks – she was flown to Ireland by the International Rugby Board to receive the Chairman's Award for her services to rugby.
Kath McLean receives her International Rugby Board award from then chairman Vernon Pugh in 2001. Photo / Getty Images
Jefferd was called in to replace the injured Tim Twigden for the two-match Fijian leg of the 1980 tour.
The selection was a rare moment to celebrate for supporters of the East Coast – which is now iwi-based and has since been rebranded Ngāti Porou East Coast – during the 1980 NPC.
The side lost all eight matches in their NPC Division 2 (North Island) campaign, conceding 288 points and scoring just 19.
While Jefferd had played in an All Blacks trial that year, he didn't think he had a realistic shot of earning the black jersey.
Midfielder Andy Jefferd found out about his All Black selection after turning up for an East Coast training session at Whakarua Park with a hangover. Photo / Neil Reid
"It never entered my head, which was probably an advantage in a way," he said. "I didn't strive and strive to be an All Black.
"In the 1980 trial, I dropped a couple of passes; they weren't particularly good passes. If I had taken those, I might have gotten on the tour to Australia.
"Back home, the reaction was everyone was thrilled for me. They were proud they had a Coaster who had been selected."
'I don't think you should play rugby, you will get bloody killed'
Jefferd proudly hails from the coastline East Coast settlement of Tokomaru Bay.
It is also the former home of late All Blacks Sana Torium 'Tori' Reid and Henare 'Buff' Milner; both who made the All Blacks after moving away from the province.
Tokomaru Bay is proudly the home town of former All Black Andy Jefferd. Photo / Neil Reid
The latter – who toured South Africa with the All Blacks in 1970 - proved a major inspiration for a schoolboy Jefferd.
"Buff was an absolute idol of mine. I was very privileged to have him as a mentor," he recalled.
"I used to sit next to him on the bus going to school and I gave him an orange one day. He said, 'Thanks Andrew'. The next day, he sat next to me and he put his hand out for another orange.
"I said to mum every day, 'Have we got an orange?' She said, 'I didn't know you liked oranges so much, Andrew'. Eventually I told her who the oranges were for, and when he got in the All Blacks, she said, 'It must have been all those oranges we gave him'.
"He was a very special person, a wonderfully gifted player. He could run like Christian Cullen, he just glided through the gaps. He was a wonderful person."
The rugby ground at Tokomaru Bay was the scene of many of Andy Jefferd's school boy and club matches. Photo / Neil Reid
While Jefferd, now aged 69, played rugby while at primary school, he always thought farming – not footy – would be the area he would make his name in.
He travelled to the Solomon Islands for a year via Volunteer Service Abroad, based at a Catholic mission station.
On his return to his beloved East Coast, he worked on his family's farm and also asked his father's advice on whether he should play for the local Tokomaru Bay club.
"My father said, 'I don't think you should play rugby, you will get bloody killed'. So I didn't," he said.
Mention of the name Andy Jefferd at the Tokomaru United footy club, at Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast, results in plenty of pride amongst locals. Photo / Neil Reid
"I didn't have a yearning for it; I'd had so much competitive sport at school and I'd had it up to here really. I was happy just to cruise, go to parties and have a few beers."
It was only after moving to Canterbury to study agriculture at Lincoln University in 1974 that rugby became a priority for Jefferd.
After impressing for the Lincoln club team, he finished the year playing a late-season game for the star-studded Canterbury rep team.
"I'd gotten a late call-up . . . so I was a bit late to training," Jefferd recalled.
"I walked in with my gear bag and the only one still in the changing shed was Fergie McCormick. I had a bit of a beard, and he looked at me and just said, 'Who are you? Jesus?'
"That made me shake even more."
Jefferd went on to play 37 times for Canterbury until moving back to the East Coast midway through the 1978 season.
He said his time in red and black had provided him with "great memories", as well as helping him gain higher honours via selection for New Zealand Juniors, New Zealand Universities, South Island Universities and an All Blacks trial.
"We got beaten mum . . . but you wouldn't believe the feed afterwards"
Jefferd returned to the East Coast after playing three rep games for Canterbury in 1978.
The priority was to work on his family's farm. But given the breakthrough he had made on the field for Canterbury, it wasn't long before the East Coast selectors came calling.
"I loved playing for Canterbury, but I loved playing for the East Coast even more," Jefferd said. "That was home.
Andy Jefferd's rugby breakthrough came during a stint with Canterbury, but his real home has always been the East Coast. Photo / Neil Reid
"I wanted to give something back to Coast rugby, and I was the real winner because I got so much more than I gave back to them."
It was an era when East Coast struggled on the field.
Jefferd's debut for East Coast was a loss – 31 of the 32 games he played for his home province were.
But it introduced him to one of the great traditions of East Coast rugby; the aftermatch function spreads which are the envy of other provinces.
"One of the really memorable things was that Canterbury was the top province in 1977, winning the NPC championship, and for the aftermatch functions, we would have those little red sausages and tomato sauce. That was it," Jefferd laughed.
"I came back to play for the East Coast, the weakest union in the country, and the first aftermatch function, we had crayfish, paua fritters, chicken, pork and salad. The hospitality was amazing . . . I suddenly realised what a special place the East Coast is.
"I got home that night and my mother said, 'How was the game Andrew, did you win?' I said, 'No, we got beaten, mum, but you wouldn't believe the feed we had afterwards'."
Two of the jerseys that Andy Jefferd proudly wore during his All Black career. Photo / Neil Reid
Talking about his win-loss ratio for the East Coast, Jefferd said he and his teammates always tried to win.
But the "special" nature of playing for the province at the time meant "it was much bigger than a game and the winning and losing".
"I have been proud to be associated with the East Coast . . . they're the smallest union in the country but they've definitely got the biggest heart," he said.
"I just loved playing for the East Coast. That was my home, that is where I was from. I knew it was special."
Legendary local rugby tales from the region during the 1970s and early 1980s include some innovative selections to ensure a full matchday provincial squad; bus drivers sometimes having to pull on boots on away trips, wings being rapidly upskilled on the arts of propping to fill holes in the front row, and even an SOS from a coach towards those having a pint in the Ruatoria Hotel shortly before kickoff for an extra player.
One of Jefferd's favourite tour stories from his time with the team features teammate and future Māori Affairs Minister, the late Parekura Horomia.
Future crown minister and Labour MP featured in the East Coast front row during the early 1980s. Photo / NZME
After a loss to Thames Valley in Waihi, the East Coast team hit the bar.
Jefferd was one of the first players to bed, during which time Horomia – who never won a game during his four seasons of NPC rugby – led a raid on the kitchen of the motel the team were staying in.
"A couple of boys, including Parekura, raided the kitchen and found a big pot of mince, heated it up and ate the lot," Jefferd said.
"Then they put the empty pot outside my room.
"The next morning at 6 o'clock, I'm lying there asleep in the bed and into my room comes this Dutch woman. She grabs me and yells, 'Vot have you done with my pot? Where is my mince?'
"She was shaking me by the shoulders. I was like, 'What are you on about?' It was classic."
The history maker
When Jefferd ran onto Suva's National Stadium on July 19, 1980, to play Suva, he became All Black No 815.
In the process, he became the first player to debut for the All Blacks from the East Coast. The only other player to play for the All Blacks while with the East Coast was the great George Nepia but he first made the national team while representing Hawke's Bay.
Four days later, Jefferd again wore the black jersey in a clash with Fiji which was not classed as a test.
He didn't make the 1980 season-ending tour of North America and Wales.
Andy Jefferd now lives in semi-retirement at Wainui Beach, on the outskirts of Gisborne. Photo / Neil Reid
But when the All Blacks returned to test duty in June 1981, Jefferd was selected for both tests against the touring Scotland team.
"I was stoked to get selected for the starting XV for that first test in 1981. It was actually on my birthday," he recalled.
"I was still asleep on the morning [of the test] and Keith Quinn rang me. He said, 'Is it true that today is your birthday?' I told him it was."
Jefferd was then selected in the run-on team for the first test against the Springboks.
While many East Coasters were "reasonably low key" around his initial All Blacks selection, Jefferd said when the Boks arrived, the "hype level went up about 25 notches".
A framed portrait photo of Andy Jefferd in All Black kit hangs proudly above the bar at the Tokomaru Bay United clubroom, at Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast. Photo / Neil Reid
But he said his selection for the start of the series was one he shouldn't have taken up after being badly troubled by a slipped disc suffered while farming.
"I should never have played in the test against the Springboks," he said. "I could have cost New Zealand the game, which would have been pretty tragic.
"Luckily we won it but I didn't have a good game. I was the only All Black dropped out of a winning team, and that doesn't happen very often."
Former All Black Andy Jefferd says he was a lucky man, even though injury cruelly ended his rugby career. Photo / Neil Reid
He was demoted to the reserves for the second test, before being dropped from the squad for the series decider.
"That was a blessing in disguise because my father died a day before that test of prostate cancer," Jefferd said.
The first test against the Springboks – which the All Blacks won 14-9 – would prove to be Jefferd's final match of rugby.
He described his back as being "buggered" and a similar injury to that suffered by then All Blacks captain Kieran Read, who needed back surgery to extend his career in 2017.
"Six weeks after [the Springboks series], I was in hospital in Napier getting a scan," Jefferd said. "And that was it for my playing career . . . I never played again after that."
"Lucky and privileged"
Jefferd returned to club rugby fields around his province in 1983 with whistle in hand; the start of a three-season stint as an official East Coast Rugby Union referee.
Officiating was something he said he "loved", and again saw him the target of some ribbing from the sharp-witted Horomia.
He said having his playing career ended so abruptly through injury was tough to comprehend at the time.
But time was a great healer for those feelings.
He added that he realised as soon as he was selected for the All Blacks, and again after he was forced to retire prematurely, that he had been "lucky" to have been chosen.
Andy Jefferd firmly believes some of his old East Coast team-mates could have been All Blacks too if they had received greater exposure. Photo / Neil Reid
"If I had been injury free, you wonder how many more games I might have got [for the All Blacks]," he said. "But who knows, I might not have gotten any more.
"I look back and I am very thankful. Having a long All Black career would have been fantastic, but it might have impacted my farming career a bit more."
Forty-one years on from his fifth game for the All Blacks – and the end of his playing career – Jefferd is semi-retired and living with his wife at Wainui Beach, on the outskirts of Gisborne.
He still helps out on the family farm, which he sold two years ago to one of his sons and his daughter-in-law. He can also be found helping his other son on his orchard near Gisborne.
"I go out and help the boys and they tell me to bugger off when they get a bit annoyed with me," he laughed.
Looking back on his time with East Coast, he firmly believes some of his former provincial teammates would have done themselves proud if they ever had the opportunity to play for the All Blacks.
And Jefferd said he would not have been selected from the province if he hadn't earlier been noticed by selectors during his initial rep stint with Canterbury.
"I was very lucky and privileged to have had five games for the ABs," Jefferd said.
