Gentle Giant Colin Meads In Memory Of The Mighty Pinetree

NZ farewells a footie icon, farmer and family man.

- Megan McChesney

Tough, loyal, humble. All Black Sir Colin Meads embodied the best of old-fashioned Kiwi values. In his heyday, the 1.92m sports legend would think nothing of shearing sheep all day on his farm before heading off for an evening run. He loved his rugby, mateship and beer.

But when the man lovingly nicknamed Pinetree lost his battle with pancreatic cancer last week, it wasn’t an oval ball or a pint of bitter that was first placed under his bronze statue in his hometown of Te Kuiti. It was a bunch of yellow daffodils.

It was a fitting reminder that there was another side to the beloved Kiwi icon, who played 133 matches for the All Blacks – 11 as captain – between 1957 and 1971. On the field, he played with such ferocity that he once soldiered on after emerging from a ruck with a dangling arm. It was only later he discovered it was fractured.

But off the field, he was a dedicated husband to his wife, Lady Verna, a proud dad to his five kids, Karen, Kelvin (Kelly), Rhonda, Glynn and Shelley, grandfather of 14 and a great-grandfather of seven. He was also a “consummate gentleman”, who told off blokes at his local rugby club for swearing in front of women and was passionate about the tulips growing in his garden.