Graham Mourie: A Man of Conscience

One of New Zealand's great men of rugby sits in a comfortable armchair below a giant black-and-white painting of tortured figures. These grotesque bodies are entwined in battle, their distorted faces gasping, misshapen muscles grasping, all for the dominance of an oval ball. This is the rugby version of Pablo Picasso's Guernica.

The great man sitting below the picture is Graham Mourie. The painting is by Roger Morris, who signs himself as Remo. Both men are from coastal Taranaki. The artwork, called ‘Man Meets Man’, speaks a great deal about sportsman and artist. But this tale is about Graham, the former All Black captain, now ex-Hurricanes rugby coach.

The Wellington home he shares with partner Shona Fokerd and their four children is filled with Taranaki art. There are a dozen paintings of the mountain, and other pieces by Morris, his partner Marianne Muggeridge, along with works by Rae van't Hof, Waldo Hartley, Joyce Young and Graham's mum, Juan. But it's the massive Remo painting that best captures Graham's rugby career. It's been huge, fraught with conflict, sometimes emotional, with fierce struggles and great triumphs. It began with a tackle.

Graham remembers the moment he first thought of being an All Black. He was seven years old and playing rugby at Opunake Primary School. "I tackled a bigger boy and someone said 'good tackle'." That was all he needed to set him on a path to higher fields. When he was nine, and in standard three, he and a mate were granted permission to play in the standard five group. Already, Graham was instinctively learning to push himself.

His father, Colin Mourie, says he remembers the prophetic words of Opunake draper and rugby supporter Joe Morron. "He said to me, 'That boy's going to be an All Black'." At aged 12, Graham won the Alf Bailey Memorial Scholarship for being Taranaki's top primary school rugby player. By the time Graham was 15, he was in the Opunake High School 1st XV, playing first five eight, though he had his heart set on being a flanker.

"It was quite difficult for a fifth former to captain a team with seventh formers in it," says Graham, modestly revealing how he led the side. For the sixth and seventh form, Graham went to New Plymouth Boys' High School. He got straight into the 1st XV, playing lock his first season and flanker in his second and last winter at the school.

During that time, he played in a Taranaki B side against Taranaki A, which included a number of All Black forwards. "That was my first big game. We were pretty nervous I think. It was pretty stressful."

The next year, Graham went to Victoria University to study … rugby mostly. "My mates were going and I think I wanted to get away from home for a while," he explains. He majored in geography and also took a few political science papers. Over the years, he has added to his study, taking papers in coaching and marketing. "I've got one paper left to do in my degree," he says, doubting he will ever finish it.

While at university, Graham was chosen for his first national side – the New Zealand under-21 rugby team. Among his team-mates were All Blacks Joe Karam, Grant Batty and Kent Lambert. As part of that internal tour of 1972, the young men played the forward-strong Taranaki team, and won.

The following year, Graham was picked for a New Zealand under-23 team to undertake an internal tour finishing with an All Blacks showdown. He was extremely fit for that series – thanks to the Men in Black. "They had been on a tour of the UK and every time they played, I went for a run."

When the young guns faced the top team, there was a surprise. "We beat them and that made it memorable. It certainly upset the All Blacks. Being together on an eight-game tour, the junior’s team was pretty focused." Graham also played for the New Zealand Universities side. Interestingly, he played for national teams before playing for the Wellington side, which he made in late 1973. He was also in the Victoria University club rugby team. He took the place of a Taranaki bloke, who had gone on holiday. "He never played for the club first team again, and obviously not for Wellington," Graham says

During the university holidays, the Opunake lad would return home to work in the town's dairy factory, as well as taking on hay-making contracts. "When you were working, you got pretty lean. You were doing 2000 bales of hay and doing it all manually. It got you pretty fit."

In 1975, Graham went back to farm life at Opunake. He played for his local club and was also in the Taranaki team. Early the next year, newly appointed Taranaki coach Leo Walsh asked Graham to captain the team and he accepted.

On the national front, the All Blacks were to tour South Africa that season and Graham was hopeful of getting in the team. He didn't. "I had missed the trial for the team. I was in hospital (for rib surgery). JJ Stewart wanted to take me, but he couldn't convince the other selectors."

Instead, he was chosen to captain a New Zealand second team to tour Argentina. "The All Blacks had been to South Africa and the players who had gone on that trip were not eligible." That trip to South America was one of the highlights of his rugby career.

"In retrospect, 1976 was the last year I would enjoy rugby as others who play it enjoy it. The freedom of just playing rugby, of being another hopeful stretching forward with the vigour of youth to grasp what the rugby world had to offer," he says in his book Graham Mourie – Captain. "It was the last year of being relatively unknown, without the pressures of media and masses on the moves that I would take."

In Argentina Graham first met Claudia Maria Servin, who later became his wife. The pair met up again when Graham was playing rugby for Paris University and Claudia was on a European holiday. "She was pretty keen not to go back to Argentina because one or two of her friends had disappeared during the military takeover."

Their marriage lasted only three years. "It was probably my fault really," he says. "You grow up a bit as you go along. There were cultural differences and I was pretty focused on rugby and didn't want to have children and she was pretty keen on having kids, and you make decisions." As Graham talks, he entwines his hands in the thinker pose and holds them in front of his mouth as if he's trying to stop the words coming out. Long gone is the rugby-playing moustache to offer such protection.

It's obvious he doesn't like talking about his private life, or himself at all. On rugby, he's far more forthcoming and especially happy to talk about teamwork. The side Graham led to Argentina was unbeaten, even on home turf.
"The following year, we played that (All Black) team that went to South Africa and beat them fairly convincingly. We were a younger team with a lot of players coming through." The other special thing about that team was its coach, Jack Gleeson, a man Graham learned to revere.

Many members of that Gleeson team were named in the All Black side to play the British Lions in 1977. Graham was one of them. His dad, Colin, delivered the news to his son. "I had shot home from club rugby to tend the animals before going back," Graham says. "I was on top of the hill just turning a tap on to release some whey to feed the pigs in the sties below and my father yelled, 'You're in the side to play'. I said 'That's good' and just kept going, I imagine'."
Despite his low-key reaction, inwardly Graham was feeling: "A sense of apprehension and sense of elation and a sense of responsibility."

Looking back over those years, which encompassed 21 test matches and 61 games for the All Blacks, Graham says he's gained a lot from his rugby career. "A lot of friends, that's the first thing. Obviously, it changes your life. I don't know what I would've done – farming, gone on my O.E? I only planned to play rugby 'til I was 25, but at that time I was captain of the All Blacks. Your friends are all playing and you are enjoying it and it's quite exciting when you are able to travel around the world.

"You love the game and there's nothing better than playing with the best people at the top of the sport. It's fantastic."
So Graham stayed, playing in the black uniform from 1976 to 1982. Among the triumphs was the 1978 ‘Grand Slam’ tour of Britain, in which he captained the first New Zealand team to beat the four home unions.

In 1981, he made one of the biggest choices of his life – not to play against the South African Springboks during their two-month tour of New Zealand. Despite his stance, Graham was called back into the team at the end of the '81 tour to Romania and France. He finished his playing career on a high, by captaining the All Blacks to a Bledisloe Cup series victory at Eden Park in 1982. Then came more controversy.

At the end of that year, Graham's autobiography was published. The book, written with the help of journalist Ron Palenski, forced the All Black captain to again take a provocative stance. He openly accepted the royalties from the book, breaking what he considered to be ludicrous rules regarding amateur rugby. "It was such a stupid rule that if nobody stood up and challenged it, it would never be changed."

He says most of the rugby players were accepting royalties for their stories, but had to lie about what happened to the money. Graham and Stu Wilson both told the truth – and paid for it. By declaring themselves ‘professional’, they received a 10-year ban from playing or coaching rugby and were not allowed to be rugby officials.

To put the professional claim into context, the most Graham ever earned from the farm while playing for the All Blacks was $5000. And in 1980, his bank manager advised him not to go away with the team because he couldn't afford to.

However, Graham still managed to make money out of sports, taking time away from the farm to work for West Nally, the marketing body for the Rugby World Cup. He also began coaching behind the scenes, advising John Hart on the Auckland rugby team during the 1985 and '86 seasons. This only lasted a couple of years – until he was sprung by ‘some desperate reporter’, who put his banning back in the spotlight. "I was not able to travel with the team. It wasn't an issue – I didn't want to go anyway," he says.

Finally, he went back to the Taranaki farm, and once his ban was up began coaching the Opunake Rugby Club's top team. He was also a major player in the formation of the Coastal Rugby Club, which amalgamated Ōkato, Opunake and Rahotū clubs in 1995.

During that period (1994-95), Graham was once again in the news. This time he was the subject of untrue rumours that he was growing marijuana on the farm. Uncharacteristically, he went to the media to help clear his good name. "This is part of being a public figure that's not so pleasant really," says Graham, who is fiercely anti-drugs.

He reacts to other public lambasting with humour. "The ultimate drawback is being mixed up with Murray Mexted," he says. "I got a letter from a woman in Whāngārei abusing me for the comments that I had made in a match commentary. She had obviously confused me with Murray." Graham has had a few stints behind the microphone, but didn't find it to his liking. "I've never felt that comfortable in a public role – it's not my inherent nature."
Yet, he has put himself in that position again and again.

He began coaching the Wellington rugby side in 1998, with the goal of winning the National Provincial Championship (NPC) within three years. "It had been 14 years since they won the championship, and they had not been in the semi-finals since the inception of the semi-finals," he says.

The first year I coached Wellington we finished sixth, in 1999 we were runners-up, and in 2000 we won it although my role then was ‘technical advisor’ as I was coaching the Hurricanes and Dave Rennie had stepped up from the assistant role to be head coach."

Graham also helped set up a retention and recruitment development programme to build on the capital's player resources.

In 2000, the Super 12 side was in the top four until the end of the season. "If we'd won our last game we would've qualified." However, Gordon Slater and Tana Umaga missed that match because they were at home with their wives, who were having babies. Jonah Lomu was also out through suspension for knocking the ball forward.

The 2001 and 2002 seasons followed the same pattern, with the team crashing near the close the Super 12 season. At the end of last year, Graham resigned his position with the Hurricanes and has no intention of coaching again. Yet Hurricanes captain Gordon Slater speaks highly of his coaching abilities.

"He was well organised. He was a good motivator. He always did his best to get the best out of the team," says Gordon, a Taranaki farmer. "He's a pretty positive sort of guy and certainly a deep thinker. He's got his own ideas on how the game should be played."

On the Hurricanes' failure, Gordon says: "It takes more than a good coach to make a good team. I thought that he was a very good coach and he had a lot of good ideas and a lot to offer, and unfortunately, the results didn't reflect that."
Now, Graham is offering his ideas on high.

Following the fallout over the 2003 Rugby World Cup sub-hosting loss, Taranaki officials asked him to stand for the New Zealand Rugby Union's board of directors. He was successful. "Since the game has gone professional (in 1995), the administration side of the game has had a lot of attention and the professional structure side has had a lot of attention, but the coaching and player development side of the game, in particular the welfare of clubs, has suffered and I felt it was an area I could make a contribution into."

In between time, he was working on the land around his Wellington home and, with Shona, was helping to develop, subdivide and sell off a large block of land on the coast north of the capital.

And he's teaching the next generation – his children, Kohia (15), Rewa (12) and six-year-old twins Tai and Moana. He has a contract with them all, which says that if they make it to age 16 without getting any tattoos or piercing, apart from their ears, they will get a trip anywhere in New Zealand.

If they make it to 20 without smoking, they get an overseas trip. This dedicated dad also tries to inspire his children with philosophical thoughts. Using a black wipe-off marker, he writes sayings on the glass that covers a replica of Picasso's black-brushed bullfighter.

Today's offering is from Henry Thoreau: "If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that's where they should be. Now put the foundations under them."

Mourie, G. (1982). Graham Mourie, Captain: an Autobiography. Auckland: Moa Publishers.