Glenn Metcalfe of Scotland in action during the 2003 Rugby World Cup Pool B match between France and Scotland at Telstra Stadium in Sydney, Australia. Photo / Getty Images
Former Waikato and Scotland rugby player, now Hamilton firefighter, Glenn Metcalfe was born in Auckland in April 1970, before moving to Te Rahu, near Te Awamutu, at a young age.
Metcalfe was the youngest of eight siblings by five years and was nicknamed “Snowy”, because of his platinum blonde hair. The name has stuck with him his whole life.
Albert Park-based Te Awamutu Old Boys was his first stomping ground, where he played barefoot rugby while attending Pekerau Primary School (now Pekapekarau).
His early years were “a bit of a caravan, gypsy life” as the family moved to several farms and Metcalfe played musical chairs with schools.
He attended Melville Primary and Intermediate Schools before finishing his primary schooling at rural Ngāhinapōuri Primary School in 1983.
“I played 12th grade rugby for Ōhaupō while at Ngāhinapōuri, coached by [now Ōhaupō life member] Ron Currie,” he says.
He started at Melville High School before the family moved to Pōkuru where his brother was share milking.
Te Awamutu College was his next stop, for the second half of 1984 and then 1985.
There he built several lifelong friendships, with the likes of future Hong Kong rugby rep Johnny Gordon, before finishing his final two years of schooling at Melville.
He remembers how strong the Te Awamutu College First XV was with the likes of the older Gordon brothers – David, Rob and Steve.
“We were just in awe of them. They were a team that won the Tricolor trophy. They used to play against Church College and the whole school would go out to watch them on the main field,” says Metcalfe.
“It seemed like they were men running in into each other. TA College beat them and you’d think ‘that’s what I want to be, a first XV player’. It was quite inspiring.”
And become a first XV player he did, albeit for Melville High School.
“I went to Australia at the end of sixth form. I had a couple of brothers there. I just went for the holidays but I ended up staying for a year.”
He played for Old Ignatians’ Rugby Football Club in Sydney alongside one of his brothers.
“It was pretty rough rugby, pretty dirty. I was a 17-year-old out there playing openside flanker. Then I came back and played one year of Melville Under-19.”
A school friend then enticed him to Hamilton Marist, where he would play the rest of his New Zealand club rugby, through two years of under-21 and around 80 senior games.
During this time Metcalfe also represented the Hamilton Rugby Sub-Union Under-19, Under-21 and senior side in the Peace Cup.
He wore the No 7 jersey right up until his second year of senior rugby, as he liked to tackle and “didn’t mind getting in the mixer”.
His Hamilton Marist coach pulled him aside and said he’d like him to move out to the wing, a decision Metcalfe wasn’t fond of as he “wouldn’t get the ball”.
This ended up being the turning point of his rugby career as he became a prolific try scorer, and Waikato B took an interest in him.
“I held the Waikato club rugby record for two years I think, I broke my own record in 1996 – 24 tries, but we played more games back then.”
While playing for Waikato B, he was also scoring tries “left, right and centre”.
“In 1995, I had another great season for Marist and Waikato kind of had to pick me.”
That year saw Metcalfe become Waikato #939, playing seven matches but unfortunately, didn’t cross the chalk.
“Getting that jersey was unreal but I couldn’t establish myself in the team. If I had never done another thing, I would have loved to have played a full season for Waikato and really establish myself.”
After another great club season in 1996, he wasn’t selected for Waikato or even the development team.
Former Waikato coach and player Kevin Greene was coaching Glasgow Academicals in Scottish division two rugby, so Metcalfe got in touch with him.
“I thought he’d be a good contact to have. I have a Scottish grandmother. So that was an avenue just to get a work permit. I never had any aspiration of it being a vehicle to play rugby for Scotland,” he says.
“I played in Glasgow for a year and Lisa, my wife now, and I travelled around, just thinking we’d go for a year or two.”
Then two Glasgow amateur sides, Academicals and Glasgow High Kelvinside, decided to amalgamate to form a stronger team to compete professionally in Europe.
Metcalfe was “lucky enough” to receive a contract with the newly formed Glasgow Hawks team for the 1997/1998 season.
“The Glasgow Hawks were still playing amateur club rugby in the second division then. By virtue of the merger, we had about 10 pro players in our team. We had a fantastic year, and won the division quite easily.”
The Hawks also won the Scottish Cup, a knock-out competition where every club in Scotland played off against each other.
Glasgow Rugby (now Glasgow Warriors) team then kicked off their inaugural campaign, competing in the European Challenge Cup.
“I started playing fullback, which I had never played before, and I got selected in a [second-string] Scotland A team for the Five Nations (now Six Nations) in 1998 – that was the start of it all,” says Metcalfe.
“Then I made the Scotland tour to Australia in ‘98. I’d only been there for a year and a half and next thing I was playing for Scotland with all the guys I had looked up to.”
One of Metcalfe’s greatest stories involves his former Ōhaupō junior rugby teammate Andy Ward, who went on to represent Ireland in 28 test matches as a flanker.
“Lisa and I went to Andy’s wedding in Ireland in 1997 and the next year, he played for Ireland in the Five Nations. Then the following year, we played against each other, Scotland v Ireland at Murrayfield,” recalls Metcalfe.
“Thirty years earlier, we were at primary school together, then high school and then we played a few years of Waikato B together.
“[Then to end up] playing against each other in the Five Nations – it was crazy. It’s a cool story.”
In 1999, Metcalfe and the Scottish side won the Five Nations, and are still the last Scottish side to do so.
Scotland had great momentum going into the 1999 Rugby World Cup at home.
They had a good squad that contained the likes of the late Doddie Weir and the Kiwi brothers, John and Marty Leslie, who had Super 12 experience.
“It was pretty freaky. We played all of our matches at Murrayfield and then ended up playing against the All Blacks in a quarter-final. Ultimately, they were too good but I took away an amazing experience,” says Metcalfe.
“Facing the haka and knowing my family was in the stadium never got old. It was scary, you felt like they were all watching you, staring you down – 22 pairs of eyes burning a hole in your head.
“That was the second year I was playing, it evolved and I held my place in the team for a good few years.”
Between 1998 and 2003, Metcalfe played 40 tests for Scotland, scoring four tries.
He went on to a second Rugby World Cup in 2003 before hanging up his boots at international level. Some may remember his try-saving tackles on Fijian players Aisea Tuilevu and Ifereimi Rawaqa, which allowed Scotland to progress to the quarter-finals.
After one more year in Scotland he left with more than a century of games for the Glasgow Warriors and was voted Glasgow Hawks’ Player of the Decade.
French club Castres was the next stop, playing part of the 2004/2005 season before retiring from the sport.
“I guess it was a bit of a blessing that [coach] John Boe dropped me from Waikato, otherwise I wouldn’t have gone to Scotland,” says Metcalfe.
“I came back to New Zealand and joined the fire service, working my first six years in Auckland. When I was young, I always liked the idea of being a fireman.”
Metcalfe will bring up 18 years in the fire service in October, much of which he has spent at the Chartwell branch in Hamilton.
Other than three tournaments playing at Dubai’s Rugby Invitation Over 35s Tournament, coaching is mainly where he’s been involved in the game since – coaching several years at Morrinsville Sports with the Colts and then the premier side.
But these days he’s happy watching his son Sam don the Morrinsville Colts kit.
“Being a shift worker, it was hard to commit 100 per cent to coaching. It’s something you want to do boots and all. You don’t do the players justice if you’re not there every Tuesday or Thursday.”
Almost two decades on from his rugby journey, Metcalfe says that the memories never get old but they get more sentimental and more special.
Recently he was humbled to be named in the Hamilton Marist team of the past 50 years (1972-2022) at their centenary celebrations.
He still keeps in touch with former teammates on the other side of the world and the victorious 1999 Five Nations squad have a WhatsApp group.
“The only places I didn’t go with rugby were South America and Asia, I’ve been everywhere else. I would never have done that without rugby,” reminisces Metcalfe.
“Rugby is such a galvaniser; a glue for relationships and people, places, times, and memories.”
Veteran Sam Cane is given his farewell test appearance.