The TRAGIC Final Year of Colin Meads, How He Really Lived It

He broke his arm six minutes into a match in South Africa in 1970 and played the other seventy-six anyway. He was booed off Murrayfield by sixty thousand Scots in 1967, the first All Black sent from the field in forty-two years. He captained the only side ever to lose a home series to the Lions. He gave fourteen winters and fifty-five Tests to the black jersey and was paid nothing for a single one of them, while his wife Verna held a hill-country sheep farm together and raised five children largely alone. This is the full story of Sir Colin "Pinetree" Meads: a boy from the limestone hills of the King Country who became the most famous forward in world rugby, and a man who stayed in the same small town, played for the same small province and drank in the same club rooms for the rest of his life. The poverty of the amateur era. The moment in Sydney in 1968 that Australians have never forgiven. The rebel tour of 1986 that made him an outcast at his own union. The finance company collapse that cost ordinary New Zealanders their savings and cost him his peace of mind. The farm sold at seventy-one. The statue in June 2017, and the two months that followed. If you remember watching him on a black-and-white set with the reception coming and going, this one is for you. Tell us in the comments what you remember about Pinetree — and whether you think we will ever see his like again. #ColinMeads #AllBlacks #RugbyHistory Tags colin meads, sir colin meads, pinetree meads, all blacks legend, all blacks history, new zealand rugby, king country rugby, te kuiti, rugby union 1960s, amateur era rugby, meads broken arm 1970, meads sent off murrayfield, ken catchpole 1968, 1971 lions series, new zealand cavaliers 1986, all blacks 1995 world cup, rugby player of the century, stan meads, waitete rugby club, rugby documentary, sports documentary, rugby legends, 1960s rugby, springboks all blacks, rugby biography, kiwi icons, new zealand history, rugby nostalgia, hardest rugby players, colin meads death