Match Fit: World Cup hero Piri Weepu talks about his mental problems

In 2011, Piri Weepu was a national hero who runs, passes and kicks goals. Nine years later, he has opened up to being tormented by “bad thoughts,” injuring himself, and having a stroke in 2014 that caused him to have difficulty speaking.

On Tuesday night Weepu spoke candidly with Three’s Match Fit television documentary about the physical and mental damage he now has to deal with. It was so far away from the heady days of 2011 when T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan “Keep Calm – Piri’s On” were printed.

There seemed to be nothing Weepu couldn’t do as he took over the goal kick and led the attack from the corridor. But those who once looked superhuman, like Weepu in 2011, are only humans.

As with others on Match Fit, Kees Meeuws, Ron Cribb, Pita Alatini and Sir Graham Henry, Weepu said that he had had mental problems. He had those problems while he was still playing.

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“It’s just having these bad thoughts,” said Weepu, 37.

“I was actually hurting myself and stuff. Yes, I was just drinking to mask the thoughts that were going through my head. “

He wrote in a book in an attempt to get the problems out of his head “then burn it.”

Of his attack, he said: “I started talking like a baby. My friends would say ‘Huh? What is this guy up to? In my mind I was speaking normal. It can be traced back to a clot in the part of the brain that controlled speech.

Weepu now weighs much more than when he was an All Black. His knees hurt from cartilage damage, he always sleeps on his right side to prevent a broken nose playing rugby from waking him up.

For all that, decent sleep remains elusive.

New Zealand beat France 8-7 in a Rugby World Cup final at Eden Park in 2011, with Weepu playing and Henry coaching. Henry remembered it as a stressful game that he had no intention of revisiting.

“I’ve never seen that game since, never,” he told Buck Shelford as the pair surveyed Eden Park, where the Old Blacks were going to play their comeback game.

Visibly upset Ron Cribb, a former No. 8 All Black with a great line of jokes, told others that he couldn’t play contact rugby, on medical advice.

That dampened the mood of a post-workout lunch at a Waiheke Island vineyard until the mateship kicked in, with prop Craig Dowd and Henry quick to provide a comforting shoulder.

“One more game doesn’t matter, but it’s the rest of our lives (that matters),” Dowd said.

Henry offered Cribb a job for the team; ball boy.

“I couldn’t think of a bigger or better ball boy,” Henry told the general acceptance jokingly that “bigger” was accurate, but that “better” was possibly a bit of an exaggeration.

With Cribb gone, reinforcements had to be called in. And so came former All Blacks Mark “Bull” Allen, Highlanders coach Tony Brown, Blues coach Leon MacDonald and lockout Greg Rawlinson.

And so the team went into battle against a veteran Pakuranga United Rugby Club team, and MacDonald immediately showed good form on and off the field.

“I see there is an ambulance here, some medical personnel,” he joked.

“I hope we don’t have to use them.”

Fortunately, they did not.

Where to get help

• 1737, do you need to talk? Call toll free or text 1737 to speak with a trained counselor.
• Kidsline 0800 54 37 54 for people up to 18 years old. Open 24/7.
• Life line 0800 543 354
• Rural support trust 0800 787 254
• Samaritans 0800 726 666
• Suicide Crisis Helpline 0508 828865 (0508 SUPPORT)
• Youthline 0800 376 633, free text 234, email [email protected], or find online chat and other support options here.
• Anxiety New Zealand 0800 ANXIETY (0800 269 4389)
• If it’s an emergency Click here to find the number for your local crisis assessment team.
• In a life-threatening situation, call 111.