Murray Mexted is an original. He played 34 consecutive Tests at No.8 for the All Blacks – a record when he retired.

He was married to 1983 Miss Universe winner, Lorraine Downes.

As a television commentator he was humorous, outspoken and polarising.

He pioneered the International Rugby Academy of New Zealand (IRANZ), which has helped launch the careers of more than seventy professional rugby players.

Even the most interesting learn from somebody though, and Mexted learned from some of the best. He recalls an incident in his first class debut for Wellington B against Marlborough in 1975.

“I was marking All Black Alan Sutherland. In a lineout he took a step back and I thought, what the hell is he doing, he is a metre behind me? He pushed me into Trevor Morgan, took a two-handed ball, delivered to the halfback and ran off after the ball before I had realised what had happened.”

Mexted marked Sutherland again in 1976, this time for Wellington.

“I followed Alan every time he took a step back. I was holding my own until he punched me in the ear. I collapsed momentarily and was dizzy. GC Williams pulled me back to my feet and dragged me by my arm to the next scrum. Williams growled, ‘don’t show pain!’”

Sutherland scored three tries that day. Williams played a record number of games for Wellington, 174.

Despite the inauspicious start, Mexted seemed destined for a long career in rugby.

His father Graham was an All Black who missed his son’s birth. On September 5, 1953, Graham helped Wellington defend the Ranfurly Shield against Auckland.
Mexted recalls there was never any pressure to emulate his dad.

“I was raised in Tawa, which is like a small town. Being an All Black, Dad was well known, but he never hassled me about my rugby. In fact, when I was playing for the Tawa College First XV, I often wondered if Dad was watching at all. I could never see him. Later I discovered he was peering from behind the trees away from everybody else.”

Mexted sought to get away in 1977. He was restless, despite cracking the Wellington side, so he pursed opportunities in France.

“I wrote a letter to four rugby clubs: Agen, Pau, Lourdes and Tarbes”, Mexted recalls.

“I described myself as a commodious No.8 who played for Wellington. I got replies from three clubs so I chose the first letter in the alphabet and ended up in Agen.”

Mexted laughs, “I learned how to drink red wine, eat cheese and speak to beautiful women while in France.”

In one match against Toulouse, Mexted marked Springbok No.8 Dugald MacDonald and encountered French greats Jean-Claude Skrela and Jean-Pierre Rives for the first time. Agen lost, but Rives was a personal hero of Mexted’s.

“He’s a rugby Napoleon. He was a courageous and outstanding player who has a non-conformist attitude to life.”

“I remember returning to Paris in 1984 to play for the English Barbarians against the French Barbarians. Rives had organised a party that night, but the after-match function lasted for hours and I couldn’t leave.”

“At about 11pm I finally jumped into a taxi in pursuit of the party venue. I was in a befuddled state. The taxi driver pulled up in a crowded Paris street and directed me towards a bar that was barricaded by a bouncer. He looked like a gorilla in a suit, and he had a cantankerous personality.

“When he heard I was present for Jean-Pierre’s party he warmed to me. I was let inside and waiting there were about eighty of the most gorgeous women I have even seen. After midnight Jean-Pierre and his friends arrived, including Graham Mourie. Everything they said happened that night, happened that night, but neither Graham nor I can remember it.”

1978 was a memorable year for Mexted. He was in imperious form for Wellington as they won the National Provincial Championship for the first time, and his club the Wellington ‘Axemen’ captured the Jubilee Cup.

In 1979 he was selected for the All Blacks for the first time. He scored a try on his Test debut against Scotland at Murrayfield.

Dour coach Eric Watson complained that they should make two balls, one for Murray and one for the rest of the team. Mexted’s athletic running brought him 21 tries in 71 games for New Zealand.

Perhaps the most crucial Test try Mexted scored was in the first Test against the 1981 Springboks at Lancaster Park, Christchurch.

Mexted drove over powerfully from a scrum in a 14-9 victory. Mexted considered taming the Springboks the ultimate challenge.

“I have no regrets about playing that series. It was the best rugby I played. We had little idea what they would offer, but soon discovered they were much bigger than us and played a brutal, territorial-based game. We figured that to beat them we had to move the ball at speed and drive low and hard in contact to avoid being man-handled.”

Rob Louw and Hempies du Toit were disciplined by the Springboks management in the week of the second Test. They were dropped for missing curfew and Mexted had some part to play in this.

“Because of the political protests, the Springbok players were suppressed and isolated. I asked Rob and Hempies at a function if they had been out for a night on the town and they said they hadn’t it, so I fixed it. Rob and Hempies sneaked out of their hotel window at about 7pm and returned the following morning as the remainder of the team was filing onto a bus.”

Du Toit enjoys a drink. His family owns the famous Alto Rouge South African wine label.

Springboks first-five Naas Botha was another one singled out for special treatment by the All Blacks in the capital. It didn’t work. South Africa levelled the series and Botha reigned supreme.

“Naas would hang back in the pocket and use his prodigious boot to dominate games. He was a very composed and intelligent player. In Wellington it was blowing a gale and Naas was playing with even more authority than usual. Doug Rollerson (the All Black first-five) was sledging Naas and would occasionally late-hit him, in an attempt to ruffle him. In the second-half, Naas kicked a drop goal. He turned to Doug and quipped, ‘that’s why they call me the golden one.'”

In 277 first-class appearances between 1977 and 1995, Botha scored 3,781 points. However, he didn’t score enough points in 1981 to conquer the All Blacks. Allan Hewson’s last-minute penalty in Auckland won New Zealand an epic series.

An epic battle in survival was enduring a trip to Romania later that year. Like many of his contemporaries, Mexted has unsavoury memories of that former communist country:

“Romania was like a scene out of George Orwell’s, Animal Farm. We shared toilet paper on that tour and ate toasted dog that the local farmers alleged was meat. We were accompanied by an old wrinkled battle axe of a security agent who knew nothing about rugby, but plenty about guns and surveillance. The only thing I bought over there was a Persian rug on the black market. They had beautiful tapestry so I changed the local currency for five times its worth in some dark street corner just to get this rug, which I still have.”

To make matters worse Mexted was injured out of the Test.

By contrast, life was bliss playing for Wellington. Mexted represented his province 111 times captaining the team from 1983 to 1985.

Mexted describes an incident in 1981, which illustrates the humour and talent in the team.

“We challenged Waikato in Hamilton for the Ranfurly Shield and we were defending on our own goal-line. All Black wing Bernie Fraser intercepted a pass and took off on a clear 90-metre run. Both teams were sprinting after him, including Brian Cederwall who proceeded to launch into a [radio commentator] Winston McCarthy-style booming commentary. Even the Waikato guys were laughing. Bernie got the try and we won the game.”

By 1982, Mexted was a senior All Black. He helped the All Blacks retain the Bledisloe Cup for the next four years.

The 1984 three-test series was especially tough. Australia won the Grand Slam for the first time later that season under the astute coaching of Alan Jones.

Earlier, Australia beat the All Blacks 16-9 in Sydney. In Brisbane the Wallabies burst ahead 12-0 in as many minutes, only to lose 19-15.

In the final Test in Sydney, New Zealand won 25-24, starting a sequence of four successive Bledisloe Cup matches decided by a point. Australia missed four penalty attempts and two drop goals at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Robbie Deans kicked ten penalties in the last two Tests.

Mexted was extended by Ross Reynolds, who later trailed for the Chicago Blitz in the now defunct United States Football League organised by billionaire Donald Trump.

While playing for New South Wales against France in 1981, Reynolds also roughed up Mexted’s hero, Jean-Pierre Rives, who played on despite a broken nose and shoulder dislocation, the latter being put back four times during the game.

Mexted captained the All Blacks in seven midweek games, the team winning them all.

Mexted would prove to be a winner as a television commentator. He spent 20 years at Sky TV and became famous for his insightful analysis and occasional, but humorous slips of the tongue. His most famous lines include:

“As you know, I have been pumping Marty Leslie for a couple of years now.”

“Paul Tito looked like a blind man in a brothel, just left groping.”

“I haven’t had a knee operation on any other part of my body.”

“He was OKin his own way, but he didn’t weigh much.”

“Trapped like a shag on the rocks.”

“It’s very easy to be exposed as an open side if you don’t have your mate up your backside.”

Mexted explains how he became involved in commentary and his approach to the job.

“I was asked by Richard Mason at Sky to get involved. The first series I did was the All Blacks beating the Springboks in 1996 with Bill McLaren. That was a great experience. I always tried to approach commentary like I was watching it with mates on the couch.”

“There are some really funny and interesting things said when you watch footy with mates on the couch. I had a laid back conversational style. I tried to tell the viewers about things they couldn’t see. Occasionally I would blurt out a malapropism.”

Malapropism?

“That is the act or habit of misusing words ridiculously, especially by the confusion of words that sound similar.”

Mexted had very little to say when he commentated an Italy v Argentina Test in 2005. He explains why:

“Argentina was playing New Zealand the next season so Sky decided it would be a good idea for Grant Nisbett and I to commentate a Pumas Test on our day off in Paris. The All Blacks had played France the previous day. We went into a studio in the middle of nowhere and no team sheets were provided. The coverage commenced and we waited for the teams to come up so we could quickly scribble them down. The teams didn’t come up until halfway through the first-half. We had no idea who was playing.”

Mexted has firm ideas about player development. In 2000 he read an academic paper about the challenges facing the game in New Zealand and determined that an Academy needed to be urgently formed.

“IRANZ is a way of harnessing and transferring leading edge knowledge. The goal is to develop the best young players and coaches in the world. We provide a high end, specialised service to mainstream Academies which have a higher intake of players.”

In the recent All Blacks v USA Test there were 12 graduates from IRANZ, seven in the All Blacks and five in the Eagles.

Mexted is an original. That’s no malapropism.