In the history of All Blacks rugby it’s harder to find a more hard done by player than Keith Murdoch. His dismissal while on tour in the UK in 1972 for punching a security guard at a hotel in Cardiff is remarkable, not only for the severity of the punishment he received but for the series of events that created perhaps the All Blacks’ most famous folk hero.
Murdoch died earlier this year and many former players and journalists have since spoken highly of Murdoch as a man and a rugby player and analysed in detail just why he was sent home from that infamous tour. One of the more sobering aspects of Murdoch’s tale is that he would never have been treated in such a way in the modern game and many players have done far worse and kept their careers intact. His story belongs to another time, not so long ago, when players were held to a rather high standard.
For many years the All Blacks’ reputation has been a thing of legend and they have worked incredibly hard to become the most successful team in the history of sports. Throughout the world the All Blacks signify excellence, innovation, commitment, and adherence to a higher code. How players comport themselves off of the filed is as important as how they conduct themselves on it.
“It signalled how important it was to move the team into a new era where connection and availability meant more to fans than it had in the past.”
It’s worth remembering, for example, the huge PR exercise the squad undertook when the World Cup was hosted in New Zealand in 2011. In an attempt to shake off a reputation of being aloof and untouchable, the All Blacks travelled throughout the country before the tournament – visiting small towns and connecting with fans, young and old. It was a huge success and garnered even greater support from an already rugby mad nation. It signalled how important it was to move the team into a new era, where connection and availability meant more to fans than it had in the past.
“He had gone from hero to zero in less than 24 hours – scoring the team’s only try in the win against Wales before being packed off to the airport to return home the next day.”
Unfortunately for Keith Murdoch, 1972 was a very unforgiving time for a player considered to have ‘let the side down’. Murdoch played 27 times for the All Blacks and had played the last of his three test matches the very day he was later accused on punching a security guard. He had gone from hero to zero in less than 24 hours – scoring the team’s only try in the win against Wales before being packed off to the airport to return home the next day. To this day that decision is clouded in mystery – was it All Blacks’ management or Home Unions’ officials that pushed for the move that would ultimately end Murdoch’s rugby career?
Either way, Murdoch himself engineered how he would deal with his sending home. Instead of flying back to New Zealand he changed planes in Singapore and ended up in Perth, Australia, where he then spent the remainder of his life. He was tight lipped about his past and even locals and friends knew little about big Keith Murdoch – the All Black cut down in his prime.
“There was little investigation into the fracas that ended up with a security guard punched, no mitigation on Murdoch’s behalf, no effort to work out the whys and the wherefores.”
All Blacks team members were dismayed and upset by the treatment doled out to Murdoch and harboured resentment for decades. It’s easy to sympathise with them and imagine instead a different way of dealing with the situation. There was little investigation into the fracas that ended up with a security guard punched, no mitigation on Murdoch’s behalf, no effort to work out the whys and the wherefores. Instead he was shunted on a plane to begin a lonely journey that created a folk hero back home in New Zealand.
One punch does not make a thug and by all accounts Murdoch was an amiable and respected member of the All Blacks. Often players perceived to be hard men were goaded into altercations, on and off the field, and Murdoch most definitely deserved the chance to explain the situation and be given another chance. He wasn’t.
“If circumstances were similar today I can imagine he would have been interviewed, supported, there would have been a case and if found guilty he would be helped – not thrown into the wind.”
In the years until his death, the odd Kiwi journalist tracked Murdoch down but he wasn’t in the mood to talk or to share. That only increased the legend and there is something admirable about Murdoch’s reticence to tell his tale. He lived his life, moved on, he was not defined by one moment in his past and the subsequent outcry. If circumstances were similar today I can imagine he would have been interviewed, supported, there would have been a case and if found guilty he would be helped – not thrown into the wind. Other All Blacks have done far worse than throw one punch and got to wear the Silver fern again.
That’s really the most damning thing about the whole saga – the abandonment of a team member without much thought or effort. To every successful team, cohesion and connection is paramount. Players perform for each other, support each other, put their bodies on the line for each other. There is no doubt many members of that squad would have felt incredibly let down by All Black’s management’s treatment of one of their own and I wouldn’t blame them.
There is a nice but far too belated postscript to Murdoch’s passing. This year his family was finally awarded his All Blacks cap, 56 years after he scored the only try in a fantastic win against one of our old foes. What an even greater player he may have become, if only given half a chance.
