The Last Word

By Mitchell Duncan | Posted: Monday November 2, 2020

A good bugger I know.

You have probably heard of this a lot. I had nothing else to write about, so here you go.

In the summer holidays, I was fortunate enough to meet a former All Black captain, a man called Ian Kirkpatrick. He had over 280 first class appearances, including 79 tests for the All Blacks. Some say that he is one of the best loose forwards to ever wear the black jersey.

During a long yarn about rugby he said one thing that stuck in my head. "It doesn't matter if you can smash the halfback from 10 metres away or any of that crap. All that matters at the end of the day is if you could go up to the opposition after the game, yarn and have a beer with them" he said "that's a good bugger." Although it's a year since I talked to him, I have thought about what he said. One thing that kept coming to mind is that I have meet some people that could hit the halfback, and I have meet people that would come and yarn to you after the game and they are the ones that you remember. Most of them become long-time friends. Kirky also pointed out that the South Africans would try to kill you during the match, but they would be the first people to come into your changing room and have a beer after the game.

Last season most of you boys will recall me being the scrappy little front rower getting the odd yellow card here and there trying to hit the halfback type of guy. This season I have made an effort to go and talk to the opposition after the game which was hard for me, as I was so used to being in this arrogant sort of way towards the other team.

I have learnt that it is really easy to hit the halfback, but it can be quite difficult to socialise after the game. This doesn't have to be in rugby, this can come into all sports and just life in general.

Lastly, I would like to finish with a quote. "Sometimes the worst experiences are the ones that you learn the most from." - Sir Colin Meads.