[ad_1]
Former All Black forward Alan Sutherland died in South Africa after a brief battle with cancer.
Alan Sutherland at the Outbreak of New Zealand, 1972-73 toured Britain and France.
Photo: Photosport
He was 76 years old.
Sutherland played 64 games for the All Blacks, including ten tests between 1968 and 1973, and was part of three controversial All Black tours.
He was also a member of the story making Marlborough Ranfurly Shield win the 1973 side.
He toured South Africa twice, in 1970 and 1976 and after the second tour he stayed to farm there and breed race horses.
In 2013 he returned to Blenheim for the 125th anniversary of the Marlborough Rugby Union.
At the time he spoke to the Marlborough Express saying that his first role was “a professional rugby player, probably the first of all time.”
“I started in Rhodesia as a coach-player for a season and then I went down to Witts [Witwatersrand] University as a player-coach of the entire university, I suppose. Today they would call me rugby manager. “
He kept playing rugby until he was 36 years old and then “he closed the door and never came back … these big Afrikaaner guys were taking my life. Besides injuries. Whatever, I had it.”
He bought a farm in the central region of Natal.
“I bought an existing bolt,” he told the newspaper, “and I’d like to think I built it.”
He spent 30 years doing that before selling most of it in 2012.
Sutherland said he sometimes contemplated returning to New Zealand.
“Being sincere, [South Africa’s] One of the few places in the world where you don’t have to be a millionaire to live like one. Compared to New Zealand, it is still relatively cheap. You could actually buy a mansion in South Africa for around $ NZ400,000, a very, very impressive house. “
Despite being a member of the controversial tours to the republic in 1970 and 1976, he was also a member of the 1972-73 tour of Britain when support Keith Murdoch was sent home.
“In 1970 I was a pretty good player, a test player, in 1976 I was normal, I got injured,” he told the Marlborough Express.
He recalled the 1970 victory over South Africa in the second round in Cape Town, “the most brutal game I ever played.”
“I still have the scars. Five minutes later they kicked me in the face, where it really hurts, just below the lip. I can’t say what happened, but I got a little pissed off. I’ve never seen so many people sew after a game in my life.
“In fact, when I entered, they had run out of premises [anaesthetic]. It felt like a boy was driving an eight-inch nail into my lip. But it had to be done. “
Infamous “Black Hats” in Porthcawl, 1972 – Alan Sutherland, Tane Norton, Alex Wyllie.
Photo: Photosport
The tour of Britain remembered her as “very funny” despite the departure of Murdoch, who he sent home for hitting a security guard at the Angel Hotel in Cardiff.
“It was a disaster when it came to public relations and nobody told the truth about it. Our manager [Ernie Todd] I was dying of cancer. It was a bit of a nightmare. A hell of a good guy, but the man is dying of cancer. Unfortunately, he drank too much and said a few words that he shouldn’t have said. . . well, he died two months after we got back, so maybe it was understandable, “he told the newspaper.
“But they never told us, if we were, we could have had a more comprehensive vision [of Todd’s management]. We weren’t children. You don’t go in and you abuse the boys, some of us had families, we actually knew how to behave, we were always responsible.
“Coach [Bob Duff] He was fantastic, basically he did the whole tour, without him it would have been a disaster. “
About Murdoch, who never came home from Britain but got off the flight in Australia and lived a lonely life in the Australian outback, Sutherland said “Keith was also a troubled kid, but he could have been handled differently” . the firecracker that was made to be, but was different.
“Most of the time he was 100 percent. But that night he was very hungry and couldn’t find food.”
“The Welsh had just won the Lions series and thought they were going to walk on us, we didn’t look too good in the test and when we beat them they couldn’t handle it.”
“His behavior was embarrassing, even in the hotel they didn’t give us food, they didn’t give us anything. So that’s what happened. He created a very, very toxic situation and he was a bit excited guy. [Murdoch] was caught in the crossfire.
“I think if he had been there he would have also hit that guy, he was an arrogant bastard, that security guard.”
