The 1967 All Blacks

Book excerpt: The 1967 All Blacks is a social history of the great 1967 All Blacks tour and what became of the players. In 1967 the All Black rugby team enjoyed an extraordinarily eventful northern hemisphere tour. It involved encounters with lsquo;Flower Childrenrsquo; and seeing a fatal gun-fight in San Francisco, the cancellation of the Irish games after a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak, an opposition player paralysed for life, and Colin, now Sir Colin, Meads sent off for violent play. The 1967 team is remembered today as enormously significant in transforming the national style of rugby from a defensive to an attacking focus, acting as a bridge between the past and the game played today. Thus men from an essentially conservative background paradoxically produced a radical change that seems entirely in keeping with our image of the lsquo;60s as a period of radical change. This well-illustrated book situates the tour within that context, drawing on interviews with surviving team members, diaries, contemporary reports, etc.