The legend of Wyatt Crockett, Super Rugby's quiet record-breaker
Wyatt Crockett does not seem the most obvious man to set a new Super Rugby appearance record. But on Friday night, against the Sunwolves at AMI Stadium – his 176th game for the Crusaders – he will do just that. Scotty Stevenson has shared summer beers with Crockett through the lows and the highs. Here he reflects on rugby’s reluctant record-breaker.*
Golden Bay is the kind of place that gives a compass a headache. It cradles the eastern side of the north-western edge of the South Island, a great arc of hill-ringed coastline that stretches from Separation Point to Farewell Spit. Separation to Farewell: it feels like one long goodbye.
It is here that we say hello to Wyatt William Vogels Crockett, the Canterbury, Crusaders and All Black prop who, on Friday night in front of a home crowd that will include his wife Jenna and his two sons Sonny and Emmett, becomes the most capped Super Rugby player in history. This is a man whose career has so neatly mirrored the unpredictable tides on these cellophane seas.
This is where Crockett is most at home; where he learned to run the hills and the beaches; where after every setback and disappointment in a career plagued by both he returned to bury his doubts and redouble his efforts. This is where he draws his inspiration from.
His is a story of perseverance, and there are plenty of those stories around these parts. Golden Bay is one of those end-of-the-line places – one road in and the same one out, over the mighty Takaka Hill into which was carved a nauseating and unforgiving thoroughfare of switchbacks and bends. The people of the Bay are used to getting on with the job no matter what the problem is. It’s easier than driving back out.
Crockett was just eighteen months old when his father Peter and mother Johannah purchased the lease on the camping ground at Tukurua Beach, a few kilometres from the settlement of Collingwood with its three men, and two horses. He was educated at the local Area School until he was eleven, and then he was sent to boarding school at Nelson College. Summers were spent back at Tukurua, helping out in the camp.
About fifteen kilometres from Tukurua is Pohara Beach, where Crockett and his own family now holiday every year. Back in February of 2015 he and I sat on the grass in the camping ground, drinking cold beer and watching the tide march in across the sun-warmed sand below us.
It is a strange tide in Pohara, one that slowly gobbles up the vast expanse of stone-grey beach in noisy bites and nibbles. Once full, the water gnaws on the limestone boulders that line the scrubby banks before retreating once more into the depths of the Bay. It is a place for tidal enthusiasts, a reassuring reminder that what comes up must go down, and what goes out must come in.
“I leave here tomorrow,” I remember him saying with a sigh that year as the last of the sun drained from the sky and a full moon came up behind Port Tarakohe and the old cement silos carved into the hills. Season by season those silos are being reclaimed by the very land that once filled them. Nature calling in the debt.
“Ah well, there’ll be a lot of hard work if I want to be sitting here next year with a couple of titles, won’t there?”
He was referring to the elusive Super Rugby title, the one the Crusaders haven’t been able to win since 2008 despite reaching a couple of finals. He was also referring to the Rugby World Cup. I told him that I didn’t think he was afraid of hard work, doing my best to answer his rhetorical question.
“Not when there’s a fair bit riding on it,” he said, draining the last of his summer indulgence with the countenance of a big old Labrador who has suddenly come to the realisation that nobody’s throwing the stick.
There was certainly a fair bit riding on that Super Rugby season for Crockett, who knew more than most that there were few guarantees in professional sport. The Super Player of the Year in 2011, he had been selected for the All Blacks’ Tri-Nations squad that season and started the first two games against the Springboks and the Wallabies – each ending in victory for the New Zealanders.
He was rested for the third match, against the Springboks in Port Elizabeth, making way for the returning Tony Woodcock. He spent that night, like the rest of the squad, wondering if he had made the cut for the Rugby World Cup side.
“I remember it being a very tense time,” he recalled. “We were told that if we hadn’t received a phone call by 10 am the next morning then we were in the team. It was twenty past ten when my phone rang.”
Of the team in South Africa, just three players – Liam Messam and Hosea Gear were the others – received that phone call. Crockett had been sucker-punched by selection decisions before but this was almost a knock-out blow. The team flew from Johannesburg to Sydney. The rest went on to Brisbane while Crockett, Messam and Gear boarded a flight for Auckland.
“I had no problem with them going with Woody, but I was gutted. I didn’t really enjoy the tournament, although I was still very happy the boys won.”
All Blacks Coach Steve Hansen was the Assistant to Sir Graham Henry in 2011. I asked him if after that he would have blamed Crockett for leaving, for giving up on his All Blacks aspirations and moving on.
“There would have been other players who would have done just that,” he said. “It says plenty about the character of Wyatt Crockett that he went away, worked on the things he needed to, and returned a better player – a player fully ready for international duty.”
Crockett would suck it up and get on with the job. He had endured tough times before. Remember that game in San Siro in 2009? Yeah, we’ll get to that.
Crockett’s earliest rugby memories were made at Collingwood Area School. Collingwood was once a town of such enormous potential that it was mooted as a possible New Zealand Capital. Today it is the gateway to the Farewell Spit, a tourist village that hunkers down for the winter and springs to life for the birdwatchers and the 4WD trekkers who descend in summer. This was the stamping ground of Crockett’s former Crusaders coach Todd Blackadder.
“Every year Toddy would come by the camp selling raffle tickets for the local Collingwood rugby club and Mum would make me get a photo with him,” Crockett remembers.
“I used to size up myself against him and think, ‘fuck, he’s not actually that much bigger than me!’
“What he represented was very important to me though. What he represented was the embodiment of a small town boy who had made it on the big stage.”
Blackadder well remembers those days. He reckoned he would go to the camp ground on those raffle ticket trips looking for a free ice cream to cure the hangover from the prior evening’s festivities. Crockett never gave him one.
“He’s a good family man. He wouldn’t have wanted to give away his mum and dad’s stock,” Blackadder said.
“He’s a great story though, isn’t he? I love thinking back to those days and thinking how much he has grown, how much inner drive he had, and how inspirational it is that a young lad from such a small place could go on to do very big things.”
Who knows where a young man’s drive comes from? Is it something that resides in the great and complex collection of chromosomes or does it coalesce inside the imagination – fuelled by dreams that are so big and so regular that the brain becomes fully engaged on the goal?
However it came to be, Crockett built his career on sheer determination. He had nothing but drive.
“I certainly wasn’t marked for any kind of greatness,” he said. “In fact I remember bawling my eyes out as mum and dad drove off after dropping me at boarding school.”
He found the going tough in ‘the big smoke’. It was a big step up from the Golden Bay-Motueka under 10s. He worked hard, channelling his passion for the game into practice. Some years later he was told the South Island under-16 team was interested in him as a prop. The coach took one look at him and said, “You’re too tall for a prop.” He put him in the trial as a flanker. Crockett was terrible and missed the cut.
He turned around and trained his ass off but in his seventh form year he ruptured his spleen and missed six months of school. He turned around and trained his ass off before venturing to Otago Boys High School to have another crack. He made the South Island Schools Team, then he missed out on the Otago under-18s. He returned home and trained his ass off.
Counselled by his father, Crockett called the Canterbury Academy Coach, Rob Penney, who immediately offered him a place in Christchurch. He was about to return to Golden Bay for the summer when Penney told him he could trial for the New Zealand under-19 team. He turned around and trained his ass off. He made the team along with Piri Weepu, Jerome Kaino, Luke McAlister and John Afoa.
After that he was selected in the Canterbury Colts side. He had taken up a building apprenticeship, would train at six in the morning, work the day and return to train at night, five days a week. He also added a couple of scrummaging sessions a week with Mike Cron who would become an integral member of the All Blacks coaching staff and who remains his mentor to this day.
Even for Wyatt Crockett the workload was too much. The next year he missed out on the Colts so he did what he always did. He turned around and trained his ass off.
“I had the final trial of the year and I was adamant I was going to make it count,” he said. “During the game I tore my medial ligament and I’ll be honest, I thought that was the end of the world.” It wasn’t.
Instead, it was the beginning of Wyatt Crockett’s professional career. The enforced layoff gave Crockett a chance to decompress, and Rob Penney a chance to think about where the front rower’s next opportunity lay. In 2004, Penney called him and offered him a chance to join the Canterbury National Provincial Championship (NPC) team as a project player. A year later Robbie Deans picked him in the Crusaders Wider Training Group. A year after that, in 2006, he played his first game for the franchise, against the Highlanders, at AMI Stadium.
Crockett would become a fixture of the Crusaders, and higher honours would beckon. He made his Junior All Blacks debut a year later and was on the wrong side of the coin toss between him and Jamie Mackintosh for the 2008 All Blacks end of year tour.
“I wasn’t ready to be an All Black,” he said. “I wanted it badly enough but I wasn’t big enough or strong enough and I was still identifying the weaknesses in my game. I had been invited to trainings on a couple of occasions but I felt like the waiter at the party – there, but not on the guest list.”
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His break came the following year with his selection for the 2009 June series against France and Italy. He debuted against the Italians in a scrappy win at AMI Stadium. Five months later he would face the Italians again, in San Siro. In that test
“It was a nightmare, really,” he recalls. “I got penalised time and time again and was subbed off for Neemia Tialata. Then he got carded and I came back out, scrummaging without reprieve for reset after reset on our own goal line. The whistle finally blew, and I wouldn’t play for the All Blacks again for two seasons.”
Following that test Crockett became a beacon for the whistle. He would spend the next two years topping penalty counts in almost every competition he played. Worse, he would also have run-ins with critical fans in pubs and bars. He would cop a spray from strangers while walking around town.
It was a tough time, the toughest of his career.
“I though this could either finish me or I could go back to the drawing board and work harder and train harder. Just like I had done all those other times. I wasn’t going to let that game or that axing or that criticism define me.”
He wouldn’t let the disappointment of 2011 define him either. He turned around and trained his ass off. In 2012 he was back in the All Blacks under new head coach Steve Hansen with a newfound sense of belonging. Since then the All Blacks have not lost a test in which Crockett has started. He has gone on to match up against the best tightheads in the world and rarely been beaten. Jannie du Plessis, the former Springbok tighthead prop, told me that he was the toughest opponent he had ever faced.
Crockett finished that beer on the bank at Pohara in 2015 and went back to work. He didn’t win that Super Rugby title for his old mate Toddy that year, but he made the All Blacks Rugby World Cup team and returned to New Zealand with at least one of the titles he wanted, even if he had been injured and unable to take the field in the final. And yes, that pissed him off.
We shared another beer that following summer on the bank at Pohara and looked out at the water. We shared another one this summer, too. My boys played with his boys and they rode bikes around the camp ground while ice creams melted in their hands. On New Year’s Day the beers stopped and the work began again. For Wyatt Crockett at least. He had a Super Rugby title to win for his new coach Scott Robertson.
And now here we are, in April, and we’re standing on the beach at Pohara again. The day has dawned calm and grey and the mussel boats have their lights on as they chug across the Bay to load up at the marine farms. We’re here to talk about this Friday and his record-setting 176th appearance for the Crusaders. He’s already the most capped man in the history of the team he grew up idolising, now he will be the most capped man in the history of the competition.
“I think of the all the guys I have played with and against and I actually can’t believe I am going to record this milestone,” he said. “It doesn’t sit very comfortably with me.”
He talks about men like Nathan Sharpe and Stephen Moore, and his great friends Corey Flynn and Keven Mealamu, whose record he will surpass on Friday night. There is no false modesty. He speaks with admiration about all of them and many others, too. It really is as if he can’t believe any of this ever happened to him.
It did happen to him, though, and it will likely keep happening. He’s just built that way: determined, driven, focussed. Everyone says the same thing about him: he’s the ultimate team man. His team is 6-0 to start the season. This whole business is probably a distraction he doesn’t need. What he needs is to run down that tunnel on Friday and perform for his team.
“I want the young guys in the team to experience winning a title because when I was the young guy in the team it was expected that we go out there and do the business. That loss in the final in 2011 hurt so badly, for so many reasons outside rugby. So did the loss in the final in 2014. I don’t want to be in the pack chasing.”
Well, they’re all chasing him now. Wyatt Crockett will make history of his own on Friday night in his 176th appearance for the Crusaders. Wyatt Crockett: the man who was raised in the land of one long goodbye, and whose tide has finally come in.
* Parts of this story first appeared in a feature titled “Wyatt Crockett Wants to be the One” written by Scotty Stevenson for the February 2015 issue of SKY Sport – The Magazine.
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Article intéressant ! La question devrait régulièrement se poser pour les jeunes français originaires de Nouvelle-Calédonie, Wallis-et-Futuna et de Polynésie entre la Nouvelle-Zélande et la Métropole… Difficile pour la fédération française de rugby de se positionner : soit le choix est fait de dénicher les jeunes talents et de les faire venir très tôt en Métropole, au risque de les déraciner, soit on prend le risque de se les faire “piller” par les All Blacks qui, telle une araignée, essaye de récupérer tous les talents des îles du Pacifique… À la France de se défendre en développant l’aura du XV de France et des clubs français dans ses collectivités d’Outre-mer !
2 Go to commentsWrong bay. He needs to come to the REAL BAY which is Bay Of Plenty and have a crack at making the Chiefs.
2 Go to commentsIs Barrett going play full back??? They already have all the centers…
15 Go to commentsForgive my ignorance, I might not fully understand so would appreciate clarification: Didn’t the Bulls have to fly with three different carriers, paid for by the South African Rugby Union, whilst Edinburgh got a chartered flight sponsored by EPCR? Also, as far as I understand it South African teams don’t yet share in the revenue from the competition and are not allowed to host Semi-finals or Finals at home. Surely if everyone wants South Africans to “take the competition seriously” then they must make South Africans feel welcome, allow them to share in the revenue, and give them the same levels of access as the teams from the other countries. Just a reminder that South Africa has a large and passionate Rugby audience. Just by virtue of our teams being a part of these competitions means that more of us are likely to watch the knockout games, even if our teams haven’t qualified. It would be silly to alienate such a large audience by making them feel unwelcome.
18 Go to commentsFirst of all. This guy is very much behind the curve. All the bleating, whingeing, whining and moaning took place days ago already. Not adding anything to the topic other than more bleating, whingeing, whining and moaning. 🍼 Second of all, not one mention of the fact that South African teams can’t get home semi finals or finals. The tournament was undermined and devalued by the administrators. 🤡 Thirdly, football teams often have to juggle selections in mid week games, premier games, champions league games etc. and will from time to time prioritize certain titles over others. 🐒 And lastly FEK Neil, and anyone else for that matter, for insisting on telling teams how to manage themselves. If they make what is largely a business decision that suits them and doesn’t suit you - tough shite. 💩 It’s not rocket science as to why the Bulls did what they did. If this guy is too slow to figure it out (and is deliberately not mentioning one of the key reasons why) then he isn’t a journalist. He should join the rest of us pundit plebs in comments section. 🥴
18 Go to commentsSo the first door to knock on Rob is Parliament followed by HMRC. The Irish Revenue deliver a 40% tax relief rebate on the HIGHEST EARNING TEN YEARS of every pro Irish rugby players contract earnings at retirement. That goes a long way to both retaining their best talent and freeing up wages for marquee players. Who knows, if that had been in place in the UK, you might not have been able to poach Hoggy and Jonny Gray from Glasgow…!!!
2 Go to comments1. True, if that “free” ticket means access to all but the prized exhibit - EVIP only. SA cannot host semis, even if they’ve earned it (see Sharks vs ASM Clermont Auvergne at… Twickenham Stoop). 2. Why no selective outrage over Lyon doing the exact same thing a week earlier? Out of all the countries France send the most “B teams”, why nobody talking about “disrespect” and “prioritising domestic leagues” and “kicking them out”? 3. Why no mention of the Sharks fielding all of their Springboks for the second rate Challenge cup QF? No commitment? 4. Why no mention of all the SA teams qualifying for respective euro knock out comps in the two seasons they’ve been in it? How many euro teams have qualified for KO’s in their history? Can’t compete? 5. Why no mention of SA teams beating French and English giants La Rochelle and Saracens? How many euro teams have done that in their history? Add no quality? The fact is that SA teams are only in their second season in europe, with no status and a fraction of the resources. Since joining the URC, SA has seen a repatriation of a number of players, and this will only grow once SA start sharing in the profits of competing in these comps, meaning bigger squads with greater depth and quality, meaning they don’t have to prioritise comps as they have to now - they don’t have imports from Pacifica and South America and everywhere else in between like “European” teams have - also less “Saffas” in Prem and T14, that’s what we want right? 'If the South Africans are in, they need to be all in' True, and we have to ensure we give them the same status and resources as we give everyone else to do just that. A small compromise on scheduling will go a long way in avoiding these situations, but guess what, France and England wont compromise on scheduling because they ironically… prioritise their domestic comps, go figure!
18 Go to commentsthe success of the premiership can be summarized by : only 10 teams. It makes a huge difference with the overcrowded top 14 (let us not talk about Leinster and URC…)
1 Go to commentsGood for him. The ABs were fooling around again with converted fullbacks that had a penetration of a marshmallow. Laumape or as Aki has shown for Ireland, go forward is important in the centres. If it had been DMac - Aki- Aumua - Ioane- Telea- Jordan in France the final result would have been different.
4 Go to commentsDan Carter a apporté son professionnalisme, des méthodes de travail, un esprit qui manquaient à l’USAP. Son influence, même une fois blessé a été énorme. Et pour citer une anecdote, certains soirs il venait de lui-même à l’entraînement des jeunes pour dispenser ses conseils. On ne peut pas compter ce qu’il a apporté au club en heures de jeu sur le terrain. Est-ce que le club en a eu pour son argent ? Avec la publicité sur son nom et le titre, je suppose que oui.
1 Go to commentsThe SA sides are suffering from a bum rap here. There isn’t a side anywhere in the world that would do things differently in their shoes. They’ve been set up to fail in the EPCR comps by vested interests, with last minute intercontinental travel requirements that costs an arm and a leg to book in advance just on the possibility they might be required. And the total nonsense that denies any chance of home venues is entirely biased and absolutely unsporting. Either EPCR, the Top14 & the Gallagher Premiership get it sorted on a fair and equitable sporting basis for ALL participants or expect the ridicule to continue. Right now, these comps are a joke!
18 Go to commentsSA sides should do the right thing and leave the champions cup, they are lowering the standard with completely one sided games, not up to the right level. The greatest club tournament in the world is being banjaxed by the weak SA sides.
18 Go to commentsCouldnt agree more. SA sides need to show more committment and really have a go at the Champions Cup. Its quite possibly the most prestigious title in Europe and SA sides need to respect that prestige and serve up their best. EPCR needs to do more to ensure that sides from South Africa and sides travelling to and from SA have a better chance in this competition. The Bulls were put in a really difficult position of having to travel there and back in one week. One could argue that this is what the SA sides signed up for and that La Rochelle didnt complain or send out weakened sides despite having to travel to SA and back and play on successive weekends but surely the situation is also unfair on La Rochelle as well and so EPCR needs to think about successive gameweeks and the travel effect of the competition
18 Go to commentsI hadn’t watched much Canes this season but sat through a replay of that Chiefs game with no distractions. That pack is beastly. I really like the look of Iose. He loves the tough stuff. The first Quins clip may be the best I have even seen for a TH driving his opposite into oblivion. i need to take your word for the contribution of Walker, but Collier there with a straight back pushing up from under was a lovely thing to see. Have you fallen in love with Baxter also, Nick? I think Stuart Barnes may have written his column about him recently, naked. He positively frothed.
14 Go to commentsSmart guy. I wish he was running the RFU or something!
2 Go to commentsWhy Barrett, when Leinster already have at least 4 top centres.?
15 Go to commentsGood write up, Brett. Rebels are an interesting one for sure. 88 points scored in the last two games, but against two teams that are unlikely to be in the top 4 at seasons end. However the other side of the coin, against the Hurricanes, the team to beat atm, they conceded 54 points, and add in another 53 points to the then high flying Reds, and things don’t look so good. The acid tests will be against the Blues and the Chiefs. I do hope they do contest the finals this year, if only to confound those working on their demise. Les Kiss has made a big difference to the Qld. Reds, and they could so easily have now been sitting unbeaten at the top of the table. But they have now lost some games in a most disappointing fashion, and now step up against the Highlanders this weekend seriously depleted, four absolute key players down, two to suspension, two injured. Of the other Australian sides, the Brumbies look unlikely to fold to anyone any time soon, while the Waratahs and Force both disappoint. But still and all, winning games against the NZ sides is very welcome, and one would hope for more to come. Who will come out on top ? A North Island side for sure should contest the final, but I would hope an Australian side might just get there this year. Brumbies most likely, Qld. Reds could be formidable with a full team back on the field.
12 Go to commentsThe stat that illustrates some progress compared to recent years is that Aussie sides have won 5 of 12 games against Kiwi sides. The Tahs have lost 2 tight games against Kiwi sides, while the Reds and Tahs have contrasting experiences in games against Kiwi sides decided by that farcical thing called golden point.
12 Go to commentsThe Hurricanes pack has stepped up in a huge way this year. Their improvement at scrum time has been a big contributor to their success. Aumua looks like he is playing with a lot of confidence and put in a really good display at both set piece and in general play on Saturday. Him and Numia are putting in a good case for higher honours, A dominate combination with Lomax will help their case. And their loose forward depth is class. Iose has benefited from regular game time and Lakai has shown his versatility and promise. Thanks Nick. Hope all is well.
14 Go to commentsSamoa have enough former internationals who want to flick a switch for a country most have probably hardly set foot in. If you’re that passionate about Samoa, go live and play rugby there to qualify instead of just waltzing into the side and kicking a player actually from Samoa out of the squad. All these ex internationals hasn’t really made them that much more competitive because most look like they're going through the motions.
2 Go to comments