A beer with an All Black: Waka Nathan

Two broken jaws, two ruptured Achilles tendons, one broken finger, one displaced vertebra, torn ligaments in both knees and pulled thigh and calf muscles are just some of the injuries Waka Nathan suffered in rugby.

This is the next episode of our Beer with an All Black series. So who were the toughest opponents?

“The referees” quips Nathan, roaring with laughter.

Meet the fearless ‘Black Panther’, a man who up until recently was going to the gym three times a week. Nathan shrugs his broad shoulders and reflects on his ailments.

“Injuries are a part of the game. I never complained.”

Nathan has Mana. Mana is a Maori word denoting an individual with control, power, influence, status and charisma. The great All Black later became a highly accomplished New Zealand Maori coach and respected administrator. Ironically, he can’t speak fluent Maori.

Nathan recalls the pressures of leading the All Black haka on the 1963-64 tour of Britain.

“At Otahuhu College we were threatened with the cane if we spoke Maori so I never mastered the language. In Britain I would practice the haka out loud in my hotel room and my teammates thought I was mad. We only did the haka in the Test matches. After practice I would stand there waving my hands with a piece of paper.”

Nathan was always quick to adapt. He recalls his first senior club game for Otahuhu in 1958.

“It was a pre-season game and I didn’t bring any boots. I thought I wouldn’t be playing, I was only 17. I got on the field and had to run fast to avoid being stood on, I scored two tries.”

A year earlier at Otahuhu College, Nathan helped the school win the 1A Auckland Secondary Schools championship.

Since 1895, Otahuhu and Takapuna Grammar School in 1941 are the only state funded co-education schools to win that title.

Otahuhu had a special team that was coached by All Black Des Christian and included future All Blacks Peter Murdoch and Mac Herewini.

Mac Herewini passed away last year. He was Waka’s “best mate.”

“Mac was a great man. We did everything together. He was a big softie.”

Both men joined the 1963-64 tour party two days after the rest of the squad had assembled. Herewini’s 21 year-old sister died from a brain-tumour before departure. Tragically during the tour his younger brother died in a motorcycle accident and his four-year old son Mackie suffered osteomyelitis. He recovered and later represented the New Zealand Schools’ rugby team as a halfback.

Herewini and Nathan sat next to each other in the All Blacks dressing room.

Herewini would get so tense before big games that he often started crying. Coach Fred Allen, in a masterstroke of man-management, would console Herewini and rip into Nathan.

“That made me angry, but Fred knew how to get the best out of people”, Nathan says.

Otahuhu got plenty of out of Nathan and Herewini. The club won the Gallagher Shield four times with the pair in the team. They have only won three times since 1969.

In 1959, aged 19, Nathan was selected for the New Zealand Maori. Though they lost to the British Lions, 12-6, the Maori was the only team to prevent the tourists from scoring a try. The Lions scored 113 tries in 25 games!

Terry Davies three penalty goals were the difference in a contest frequently interrupted by fighting and 38 penalties.

Auckland developed great fight in the early sixties. They defended the Ranfurly Shield 25 times between 1960 and 1963. They won ten of those games by less than five points and a Malcolm Dick try earned a 3-3 draw against Hawke’s Bay in 1963.

Nathan’s importance in the great Shield era can’t be underestimated. He scored seven tries in the games concerned. He scored two tries in a 26-11 win against North Auckland; Auckland won the Shield of North Auckland in 1960.

He also scored the winning try in the 5-3 win against Hawke’s Bay in 1961, but his most famous Ranfurly Shield try was his 1960 effort against Canterbury.

Unusually the game was played midweek at Eden Park. The crowd was so big that “Auckland traffic was worse than what it is today”, laughs Nathan.

Canterbury led 18-14 with only a minute left when a scrum went down. Dennis Young was the Canterbury and All Black hooker, but conceded a tighthead. Unheralded Colin Currie hooked the ball into the hands of All Black Snow White, White dispatched to Herewini who stabbed a kick into space and Nathan ran the ball down. Mike Cormack’s conversion won Auckland the game, 19-18.

Nathan’s opportunism earned him selection for the All Blacks tour to Australia in 1962. He was the top try-scorer with eight and played all five home-and-away Tests against the Wallabies that year, winning his first Tom French Cup as Maori player of the year.

He scored a try on his Test debut in Brisbane which the All Blacks won by 20-6. However the games were dour affairs. Don Clark kicked a last-gasp penalty to draw the Wellington Test, 9-9; No.8 and Doctor Geoff Chapman famously kicked three penalties on debut for the Wallabies.

The ‘Night of the Long Knives’ saw half the All Black forward pack, including Kel Tremain and Colin Meads dropped for the next Test in Dunedin. Clark saved that game with a second-half penalty, the only scoring.

Nathan recalls the Australian’s were much tougher than what people give them credit for:

“We won four out of the five Tests, but Australia was a tough side. John Thornett was a magnificent captain and his brother Dick played rugby, league and water polo for Australia.”

Later All Black halfback Des Connor played for and coached the Wallabies. Nathan played a lot of rugby with Connor.

“Des was a great player. He had a sharp pass and was a quick thinker. It was sad that New Zealand rugby lost him.”

New Zealand rugby lost Nathan for 33 days on the 1963-64 tour of Britain.

While scoring a try against Llanelli, Nathan was thumped by Terry Price and broke his jaw. For a man who enjoyed half a dozen eggs and sausages for breakfast, a broken jaw was a nightmare.

“My jaw was held together by a wire. I used to take if off and hide it under the bed trying to convince the doctor I was fine which of course I wasn’t.”

“For a while I was reduced to eating non-solid food with a straw. I’ll never forgive Pat Walsh for hiding my custard”, Nathan says.

Remarkably Nathan played 15 games and scored 11 tries on tour. He was the third-highest try-scorer behind backs Malcolm Dick (19) and Ralph Caulton (14).

Nathan played in the Test victories against France and Wales and scored two tries in the famous 36-3 hammering of the Barbarians in Cardiff. Nathan has a theory as to why the tour was such a success.

“We played 36 games and won 34, unbelievable really. In the forwards we had four knighthoods and a token Maori.”

Colin Meads, Wilson Whineray, John Graham and Brian Lochore were all knighted. Nathan laughs the “Maori boys kept everybody honest.”

“We went to dinner at Buckingham palace and the servant asked ‘how is the food?’ Pat Walsh replied, ‘this is not a function, there is no kumara.’ ”

There was no rugby for Nathan in 1964 and very little in 1965 as injuries took their toll.

In 1966 he was named in the New Zealand XV for the final All Black trial at Athletic Park. This was a brutal game!

Incumbent All Black No.8 Red Conway was controversially dropped back to captain the ‘Rest of New Zealand’ team. Conway had his finger amputated so he could take part in the 1960 tour of South Africa and was in an unforgiving mood. He instructed his team to “play hard.”

The game was marred by fighting and the New Zealand XV was nearly frightened. Rest prop Jack Hazlett played himself into the Test team with a rambunctious display.

However Colin Meads knock-out of promising lock Robert Meadows and two tries by Denis Panther and five penalties by Mick Williment settled the feud 26-17 in the New Zealand XV’s favour.

Nathan recalls, “The 66 trial was one of the most violent games I have played. Hazlett was magnificent that day. He died last year, what a player.”

Nathan flourished in the four-test series against the British Lions. He scored two tries in the third Test in Christchurch which was won 19-6. Nathan claims one of his tries was the easiest ever scored in Test rugby.

“We caught the Lions unaware and had a quick lineout right near their goal-line. Colin Meads threw the ball to me and all I had to do was fall over. All Colin had to do was avoid the ball hitting the corner flag.”

Nathan scored again in the fourth Test and produced arguably his greatest performance. He terrorised Lions first-five David Watkins, in one tackle driving him back ten-metres. Shortly afterwards Watkins retired from union and sought refuge in league. Nathan went onto collect a second Tom French Cup.

When he retired Budge Rogers held the record for most caps for England. The first English player to be honoured by the Queen for his services to union played 34 Tests.

Well aware of Nathan’s formidable reputation he punched the ‘Black Panther’ flush on the jaw in the Midlands, London and Home Counties fixture causing another broken jaw.

Being reduced to a spectator was a tortuous ordeal for Nathan. While cheering too loudly in the Swansea fixture Nathan re-broke the jaw. He retired from playing after the tour.

Concerned by the declining standard of Maori rugby, Nathan assumed coaching duties of the top side in 1971.

In his seven year tenure the Maoris won 19 out of 27 games and restored much pride and relevance to the whole concept of Maori rugby.

“You’ve got to have it”, Nathan says, “The Maori team is unique and has contributed a lot to the game.”

The Maori signalled that they would be tough to beat against the 1971 British Lions. A spiteful match saw the Lions take out Sean Lynch and Val Baker and grind out a 23-12 victory. Barry John kicked six penalties for the Loins and Butch Pickrang four for the Maori.

Pickrang would become a valuable assist for Nathan. In 1973 he kicked all 15 points in two gruesome victories over Fiji. The tour was an education in pre-match tactics, explains Nathan.

“I was approached by Fijian coach Arthur Jennings who asked for some spare jerseys. He told me he wanted them for a raffle. I happily gave him some, but later discovered that the Fijians had stuffed the jerseys full of straw and put them in different places on the training field. They were rucking the hell out of them.”

In Samoa the Maoris were treated with even greater distain. Ken Going was knocked out and Billy Bush was denied an “obvious try” in an 11-3 defeat. However that was only half the drama.

“The crowd invaded the pitch and Butch was chased around the field by mad women holding the corner flag. The bus home was pelted by beer bottles,” Nathan recalls.

Nathan enjoyed a beer; he worked for Lion Nathan Brewers and owned a pub in Manukau. However he objected to whiskey before a game.

In 1974, before the second-test against Fiji in Wellington two Fijian locks entered the Maori dressing room and offered a bottle. Nathan says, “We took the wind and won.”

Interestingly Fijian No.8 Vilikesa Mocelutu scored three tries in the game and threw the ball into the lineouts. He was named as one of the five Players of the Year in the 1975 Rugby Almanack.

In 1977 the Maori nearly pulled off the upset off the year. Sid Going scored two tries as they surged to a 19-6 lead against the British Lions at Eden Park.

However the Lions rallied and some Mike Gibson genius combined with two tries by Peter Squires ensured the Lions escaped with a 22-19 triumph.

The effort of Squires was herculean; he damaged his hamstring in the act of scoring his second try. He missed the remainder of the tour as the Lions finished the game with 14 players.

“That was my proudest day as Maori coach”, Nathan says.

“Though we didn’t win we had come a long way since 1971 and have continued to do so.”

Since 1977 the Maori have beaten Ireland, England, Wales, Argentina, Scotland, and in 2005 the British Lions. Nathan concludes:

“The Maori way is to throw the ball around, play hard and don’t think too much. We like to have a crack.”

Did You Know?
Waka Nathan played 37 games for the All Blacks and scored 23 tries. He was on the winning team 35 times and never lost any of his 14 Tests.

His famous nickname the The Black Panther was coined by journalist T.P. McLean in the early sixties. The French refereed to Nathan as “Panthorie Noire.”

Terry Price who broke Nathan’s jaw in 1963 later played league for Great Britain. He trialled for the Buffalo Bulls NFL franchise too.

Nathan enjoys jazz music, especially Nat King Cole. He has been married to his wife Jan for 51 years.