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Former All Black prop Keith Murdoch has passed away at the age of 74, New Zealand Rugby confirmed Friday.
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Murdoch is remembered for his role in one of sport’s strangest tales, first reported by the Sydney Morning Herald in 2011.
Born in Dunedin, Murdoch made 27 appearances for the All Blacks. But it was his final appearance that had the greatest impact.
The scene was set, it was December 1972 at Cardiff’s Arms Park. Murdoch scored the All Blacks’ only try, an integral part of a 19-16 win over the Welsh. It would be the last time he pulled on the black jersey.
Just hours later, after a few too many drinks at the Angel Hotel, Murdoch punched security guard Peter Grant, leaving the man with a pair of black eyes.
“He tried to punch one of his tour officials and I stepped in to restrain him,” Grant said in 1972.
“They managed to get him away but then he came round from some pillars and punched me.
“They held me back to stop me getting at him. Our men restrained him, with one or two of the New Zealand players helping. It was ridiculous. We were there to protect the New Zealanders. This should never have happened.”
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Two days later, All Blacks manager Ernie Todd decided to send Murdoch back to New Zealand.
He never arrived.
Murdoch had simply vanished.
It’s believed that he switched flights in Singapore and moved to the Australian Outback, where he followed seasonal work around the country.
Repeated attempts to contact Murdoch and try to bring him back to New Zealand rugby failed, as did many journalists who tried to seek him out over the years.
Roughly five years after Murdoch’s last appearance in 1972, New Zealand rugby scribe Terry McLean found Murdoch near Perth, where the pair had a brief encounter.
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McLean greeted Murdoch, and was told to get back on the bus. “I got back on the bus,” McLean wrote.
Murdoch’s true nature was revealed in 1990 when journalist Margot McRae tracked him down in Queensland and convinced him to do an interview off camera.
“He was a deeply shy person, not very articulate. He felt it was better to be quiet than be embarrassed. He was not going to come home and be confronted by reporters,” she said.
Murdoch’s last appearance came just over ten years later in 2001 when he acted as a witness in an inquest into the death of an Aboriginal man, Christopher Kumanjai Limerick.
The young man’s body was found in an abandoned mine, and his last appearance in the town was reportedly when he tried to break in to Murdoch’s home. Murdoch ignored the media and said little at the inquest before disappearing from the public eye once again.
Although a cause of death remains unknown, it has been reported that he passed away in Australia.
