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Size: 500mm x 340mm Limited Edition: 100 World Wide - Printed using archival quality paper and light fast inks
- Supported by a Certificate of Authenticity and a photograph of the signing session
Colin Meads (Pinetree) It is a measure of the fame Colin Meads achieved in New Zealand and beyondthat for most of his life he was immediately recognisable by the nickname bestowedon him by his team-mate Kevin Briscoe on the 1958 tour by the national under23 team's tour of Japan : Pinetree. And no nickname was more apt because fornearly 14 years in All Black rugby Meads, firstly as a siderow forward but moreconstantly as a lock, was a towering presence, one of the best and most inspiringplayers New Zealand rugby has known in any position.
Throughout the 1960s, a golden era in All Black rugby, Meads became the personificationof the New Zealand style of the game. He was rugged and uncompromising and asthe All Black prototype he quickly became a genuine folk hero. A farming product of backblocks New Zealand , Meads epitomised the nationand the rugby of his era, one which is in stark and somwhat nostalgic contraststo the way the game and society with it has evolved under professionalism.
For Meads was to achieve his status as a rugby icon while always playingat representative level for his small, rural-based provincial union, King Country.
Meads was no bigger than many of his contemporaries and at at about 1.92mand around 100kg he would be regarded as too small as a lock for modern rugby.But he always gave the impression of being a giant and he complemented his naturalathleticism with a rare ferocity.
Inevitably he had the reputation of being what euphemistially is called "anenforcer" and certainly he was involved in his share of controversial incidentsand in 1967 he became only the second All Black ordered off in a test when Irishreferee Kevin Kelleher dispatched him for dangerous play against Scotland atMurrayfield.
For many years, too, he was seen as a villain by Australians because theybelieved that his reckless action in trying to pull Wallaby halfback Ken Catchpolefrom a ruck prematurely ended that player's career.
There were other occasions when Meads erred with an indiscreet punch. Butfor all that, while Meads would never be intimidated and was quick to take actionif one of his team-mates was suffering from someone else's illegality, he wasnever a deliberately dirty player. Such was his power, commitment and determinationhe never really had to be.
Growing up on family farm near Te Kuiti, Meads emerged as an outstandingpropect in the mid 1950s and in 1955, when just 19, played the first of his139 matches for King Country. In his debut against Counties he showed earlythat he was a player who was slightly out of the ordinary. He not only scoreda try but did something locks, certainly in those years, are not supposed todo: he dropped a goal.
In 1955 he was the biggest player in the New Zealand under 21 side whichtoured Ceylon (now Sri Lanka ) and which contained another soon to become anAll Black immortal in Wilson Whineray. Meads played all eight matches, scoredthree tries and was recognised by the Rugby Almanack as one of the 1955 season'smost promising players.
By 1956 Meads was on the brink of All Black honours, playing in nationaltrials and for the North Island . While he was not risked, wisely perhaps becausehe was just 20, in the tests against the Springboks his promotion to the nationalside was by now a formality and in 1957 he was taken on the tour of Australia.
He played in ten of the matches and was capped in both the internationalsagainst the Wallabies, though at that time, with Nev MacEwan and the veteranTiny Hill preferred as the locks, he was frequently used as a flanker and evenat No 8. Indeed, in the second test in which he scored the first of his seveninternational tries he did so from the wing, having been posted there in thosedays of non replacements from the flank for a temporarily injured Frank McMullen.
From 1957 onwards Meads was pretty much an automatic All Black selectionthough there were the odd interruption to his sequence of test appearances.He missed, for instance, the first test against the British Lions in Dunedinin 1959 and paid the penalty for some lacklustre form by being left out of atest against the Wallabies in 1962. Ironically, his replacement then was hisyounger brother, Stan.
Meads had an outstanding tour of South Africa in 1960, among other notabledeeds scoring the try which clinched the second test win. By now he was establishedas a lock and over the next decade, mainly with MacEwan and his brother Stanbut also with Ron Horsley and Allan Stewart, he held a mortgage on a test spot.
In 1964 he returned briefly to No 8, for a test against the Wallabies, butthat match was lost 20-5 and the experiment was never repeated.
In 1963-64 Meads had another phenomenal tour, being one of the stars of theformidable pack fielded on the tour of Britain and France . He and other championforwards such as Kel Tremain and Ken Gray were then to be the basis of the sidewhich claimed series wins in 1965 and 1966 over the Springboks and the Lionsand then on another successful British tour in 1967.
Meads was made vice captain of the All Blacks for the 1970 tour of SouthAfrica and though he was 34 it seemed he was poised on another triumphant tour.Unfortunately, his arm was broken early in the tour and though he recoveredand appeared in the final two tests he was not quite the force of old.
In 1971 he led an inexperienced All Black team to a narrow series loss tothe Lions and that was to be the end of his long and illustrious career. Nearthe end of 1971 he injured his back in a car accident and though he recoveredand was available if required for the 1972-73 tour of Britain and France hedoes not appear to have been seriously considered as an option.
Of the 361 first class matches in which Meads played from 1955 to 1973 133,including 55 tests, were for the All Blacks. He was the first to reach a halfcentury of tests and while that figure has become commonplace with the growingnumber of tests, in Meads' career it was a colossal feat and considerably morethan any of his playing contemporaries. Had he played in the modern professionalera with at least 12 tests a year Meads would easily have exceeded 100.
In 1973 he appeared in two President XV matches against the All Blacks ingames which were billed, albeit unofficially, as his farewell to New Zealandrugby. At Athletic Park the Meads-led President's XV upset the All Blacks thenled by Ian Kirkpatrick.
His biography was dubbed "Colin Meads, All Black," a simple titlebut one which seemed apt because by then it was being widely recognised thatno one player better embodied the special ethos of the black jersey or worethe silver fern with more innate pride. The biography writted by Alex Veyseybecame a best seller, another reflection of Meads' vast popularity.
After his retirement Meads turned to administration and coaching. He becamechairman of the King Country union and during his term the representative sidehad a lengthy spell in the NPC first division. After selecting and coachingNorth Island sides he was elected to the national selection panel in 1986.
This turned out to be a brief appointment, though, for without the permissionof the New Zealand union he opted to go on the unauthorised Cavaliers tour ofSouth Africa as coach. He was axed from the panel and for a time was personanon grata to the NZRU hierarchy.
However, as with just about all the Cavaliers, Meads was soon forgiven andin 1992 was elected to the NZRU council which just six years before had chastisedhim. In 1994-95, including the World Cup tournament in South Africa in the latteryear, he was the manager of the All Blacks.
When the NZRU council was replaced by a smaller board in 1996 Meads droppedout of administration. However, his legend has grown and increasingly as thegame succumbed to professionalism Meads was seen by both media and public asa champion of the game's old values. He became a hugely successful and popularafter dinner speaker winning applause and national headlines with some of hisdown to earth, home spun wisdom.
Meads received just about every honour the game bestowed, including membershipof the International Hall of Fame and the New Zealand Sporting Hall of Fame.There was no dispute when at the end of the 1999 The New Zealand Rugby Monthlymagazine proclaimed him the New Zealand Player of the Century and in the NewYear Honours list of 2001 he was made a New Zealand Companion of Merit, theequivalent of the by then scrapped knighthoods.
As a sporting legend Meads is New Zealand 's equivalent of Australia 's SirDonald Bradman or the United States of America 's Babe Ruth.
(Information courtesy NZ Rugby Museum)
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