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Infamous All Black history turned on its head with new revelation about Murdoch's banishment
By Online Editors
One of the most infamous All Blacks story of all time has been dramatically turned on its head nearly 50 years later.
It has always been believed that when the late Keith Murdoch was banished from the 1972 tour to the UK that he had been sent home by manager Ernie Todd for punching security guard Peter Grant in Cardiff's Angel Hotel the night New Zealand beat Wales 19-16.
Murdoch never returned home after the incident, instead setting up a life for himself in the Australian outback until his death in March 2018.
However, publication of the book 'Murdoch - The All Black Who Never Returned' prompted Moyra Pearce, daughter of tour manager Grant to speak out at the Featherston Booktown festival in Wairarapa.
Pearce alleged that contrary to the story about an assault of a security guard, Murdoch instead threatened and pursued a woman in the Angel Hotel, and her father's actions saved him from police prosecution.
"A female staff member would not open the bar for Murdoch," said Pearce to Mark Reason on the New Zealand website, stuff.co.nz. "He became abusive. She ran from him screaming into the kitchen and he pursued her before security staff intervened.
"We [the family] were told that charges were going to be pressed. But the police said if you get him out of the country before our offices open on Monday morning, we won't press charges.”
The book’s publication finally triggered Pearce to speak about an incident she was told about after her father died of cancer in 1974.
"I needed to break the silence we have held (as a family) for too long. There have been enough other views. I didn't know Ron was writing the book. He didn't talk to us. It was the same with the play about Murdoch.
"When the book came out I thought, 'Not again’. I didn't want to know about it. But I bought the book, although it was very difficult just carrying it to the counter of the bookshop.
"A friend then told me about Booktown. That was the moment. At first I could only read the chapter about my father but I've now read the book twice.
"I prepared over and over again in my head, but I still didn't know if I was going to be brave enough.”
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Latest Comments
You must not understand the point WN. France were every chance to win in 1995, so close in that rain sodden match it was literally a toss of the coin. Ditto in 2011.
The point being it shows teams whether or not they have the metal, so even if you have examples of full strength sides losing every game, they still know the kind of bar they need to meet (NZ being in this case just a team that is nearly always up around that bar needed to win). France sends a side missing key components? It's very easy for them to believe they are still good enough when they aren't, or their best players not to release they need to try and acheive getting better..
Go to commentsNice one brett and full circle for these brumbies boys who also formed the spine of Rennie's wallabies for a chunk of his tenure. As you and others have said, I'm most happy for Noah given the ups and downs he has had over the last couple of years. I have spent alot of time telling others to be patient and to point out the good things he was doing in those earlier games this year while everyone seemed fixated on the 2-3 errors he was making. Luckily shmidt is patient and level-headed and persisted with him allowing his confidence to grow. I said from the start, I didn't care who he picked at 10 out of noah, donno and lynagh (although I thought noah deserved it on SR form), we had to stick with them and let them grow in the new system, we couldn't chop and change. As you say, to me noah is playing like Ford or Foley where his skill is in organising the play and getting the ball to the right person, at the right time, in the right part of the field rather than a quade/M smith (also quality players) who are going to create 5 linebreaks a game single handedly. What hasn't been talked about enough under schmidts tenure and in these winning games because the focus has been on the flashy tries, is that the wallabies are finally managing the game well. They are getting more 22 entries, more territory, less penalties, less turnovers etc etc. These are things the wallabies have struggled with for a long time and are finally getting right. The difference in turnovers at the ruck and lineout was a huge factor in this wales game, suaalii and his restart turnovers vs england etc...
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