Luke Hamilton Is A Legend And His Post-Match Interview Was Gold
North Harbour Sevens captain Luke Hamilton dared to be different during a post-match interview last weekend, then someone decided to go and be a jerk about it. Scotty Stevenson says: screw that.
Luke Hamilton, you are a champ.
I’ve been working in rugby for a decade and in that time I have heard all sorts of things in halftime and post-match interviews. I have also heard the same thing – insert personal favourite rugby cliché here – at least two hundred times, which is no surprise given the fact that players are A) tired as fuck and B) don’t actually want a microphone shoved under their nose at that point (or any point) in time.
I have heard F-bombs and banter, put-downs and sulks; full credit has been given and ‘nah definitely’s delivered. I can’t remember a time, however, when a player has finished a game, immediately whipped out photos of his two kids, and proceeded to sing a Barney the Dinosaur song to one of them, on live television.
Will be hard to beat this post match interview @NationalSevens in 2017. Luke Hamilton is a #champion pic.twitter.com/rCKT2Qm7vv
— Shaun Eade (@ShaunEade) January 14, 2017
Barney the Purple damn Dinosaur!
Holy shit! What a champion. Speaking as a father of two young children who have moved on from such shows, I have done everything in my power to forget the words to every Barney the Dinosaur song ever written (as well as the collected works of the Wiggles, and the theme song to any toddler-targeted television programme produced in the 21st century). A mix of liquor and paternal denial, in my case, has almost done the trick.
Not so the laudable Luke Hamilton, who rightly acknowledged he was closer to 40 than 20 and who would be the first to admit he had no business playing five games of sevens over the weekend. Not only did the wee fella know all the words to ‘I Love You’, he managed to belt them out while trying to reinflate two ageing lungs and bring his heart rate down from 300 beats per minute. That, in itself, is a miracle.
I bumped into Luke a little while after his performance. “Me Facebook is blowing up, Sumo!” he exclaimed, with trademark Luke Hamilton enthusiasm. “No shit, mate,” I offered in return. He informed me that Kaeleigh and Lachie (his young children for who he had sung the song) had already re-wound and watched the interview approximately 467 times. Barney be damned!
Of course the video of the interview was shared a gazillion times across various websites, which is tantamount to an open invitation to severely repressed men with penis plaque and/or unhappy disapproving types everywhere to tut-tut the whole thing because, well because how dare someone be so comfortable in their own skin and so obviously adoring of their children?
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Most of the reaction, thankfully, has been positive – along the lines of “Luke, you are definitely not right in the head” (he has had a few concussions) and “You’re a fucken legend” which was true before he sung Barney and is even truer now. However, from somewhere deep in the bowels of the New Zealand Herald came an anonymous write-off of the now-viral clip excoriating Luke Hamilton for having a personality. [Note: the story has since been completely rewritten from a positive angle]
In honour of Luke Hamilton’s number 9 jersey (which should be hung from the rafters of North Harbour Stadium) let me list nine things that are [were] wrong with this piece:
1. It has no by-line. If you are going to rain down hammer blows on one of the finest midget ginger battlers ever to grace the game’s provincial fields, at least have the good grace to put your name to it.
2. “This needs to be nipped in the bud” is a phrase that should only appear in a gardening advice column.
3. “Before this becomes a trend”: What? Do you really think every rugby player on the planet is now going to sing purple dinosaur songs to their children post-match? I think you may need to calm the fuck down. And what if they did? Well, we can’t be having all those happy children, now, can we?
4. “Cringe-inducing note”: Nope. Everyone else laughed their asses off.
5. With the greatest respect to my esteemed colleague Willie Lose, I’m not sure he has ever spoken for the nation. In much the same way this opinion piece (and every other opinion piece, ever) doesn’t.
6. “Viewers quite rightly began to fear the worst”: Yes, we all thought we were going to get bowel cancer and burn alive. Good grief! It’s a fun post-match interview, not the apocalypse.
7. “Hamilton has absolutely no future in show business”: I’d watch him. So would all of my friends. Five nights a week. At least.
8. “It makes you wonder what his team speeches are like”: Yes, it does. I want to hear one. In fact I want Luke Hamilton to give me a little pep talk before every workday. I would be so into work with a little encouragement from a man who so obviously gives so few fucks.
9. It has no by-line.
I say be damned you soulless ghoul. May Luke Hamilton’s children never grow old enough to be embarrassed by their dad, and may this crazy man play on forever, if only for the post-match interviews.
[Full Disclaimer. Luke and I go back a ways, and what you may not have seen is the part of the interview in which he says that song was as much for me as it was for his kids. Which was really lovely and quite touching, actually – especially as I had just taken the piss out of him in a commentary.]
Comments on RugbyPass
We’re building a bridge but can't agree where the river is.
2 Go to commentsfirst no arms shoulder or helmet tackle into his rib cage is going to be so very painful even to watch. go back to RU mate.
1 Go to commentsBulls by 5. Plus another 50.
3 Go to commentsJohan Goosen avatar. Cute. Surely someone at RP knows how to do a google image search?
3 Go to commentsCan’t these games play a little earlier? Asking for a friend.
3 Go to commentsIt’s impressive that we can see huge stadiums with attendance in the 40 000 to 50 000 region. It shows how popular this competition is becoming. What is even more impressive is the massive growth in broadcast viewership. The URC is one of the two best leagues in the World, the other being the Top14.
7 Go to commentsChristie is not Sottish, like the majority of the Scotland team.
2 Go to commentsHold the phone, decline over-rated. Is it a one game, dead cat bounce or the real thing? Has the Penney dropped? Stay tuned.
45 Go to commentsTotally deserved win for the Crusaders Far smarter than the Chiefs who seem to be avoiding the basics when it matters Hotham showed them what was missing and Hannah seems a real find - a tad light but that can be fixed over time
8 Go to commentsGreat insight into the performance culture with Sarries and I predict Christie will be a fixture in the Scotland team now for some time to come. However, he is slightly missing his own point around Scotland “being soft” when he cites physicality examples in defence of that slight. The issue is much closer to the example he referenced around feeling off before a game but being told “it doesn’t matter, you can still play well” by Farrell. Until Scotland can get their psyche in that square, they will carry on folding under extreme pressure…
2 Go to comments> We are having to adapt, evolve and innovate more than when we were in Super Rugby where there was only really one style that everybody had to play to gain the most success. Have = able to? Interesting what that one style might be? I thought SA sides still had bad tours now, or at least bad schedule, months away? Those extra few hours flights have to be a killer though, no surprise to see their sides doing so badly at the start of the season each year. I wouldn’t enjoy that unfairness as a supporter.
7 Go to commentsThe problem for NZ, and Aus, is they ripped up the SR model and lost a massive chunk of revenue that hasn’t been replaced. Don’t forget SA clubs went North because they were left with no choice, Argy unceremoniously binned and Japan cast adrift. Now SR wasn’t perfect, far from it, but they’ve jumped into something without an effective plan, so far, to replace what they’ve lost. The biggest revenue potential now lies in Japan but it won’t be easy or quick to unlock, they are incredibly insular in culture as a nation. In the meantime, there is a serious time bomb sitting under SH rugby and if it happens then the current financial challenges will look like a picnic. IF the Boks follow their provincial teams and head north then it’s revenue meltdown. Not guaranteed to happen but the status quo is a very odd hybrid, with the Boks pointing one way and the clubs pointing the other way. And for as long as that remains then the threat is real.
45 Go to commentsI think Etene has had some good tuition, likely while at the Warriors to be a professional that helped his rugby jump, but he was certainly thrown in the deep end way too early. Should have arguably 20 less SR caps, and therefor a way better record that he does at his age, but his development would have been fast tracked by the need to satiate his signing away from league. Again, credit to him and others that he has done it so well. Easy to fall over under that pressure in the big leagues like that but he kept at it when I myself wasn’t sure he was good enough.
1 Go to commentsAwesome story. I wonder what a bigger American (SA) scene might have mean for Brex.
1 Go to comments“Johnny McNicholl and the Crusaders” save a Penney. Who has been in camp this week and showed them how to play?
8 Go to commentsSo, reports of the Crusaders’ demise / terminal decline are perhaps just - slightly - premature/exaggerated…? 🤔 Will we see a deep-dive into that by the estimable Rugbypass scribes, and maybe one or two mea culpas? Thought not.
8 Go to comments1. The Chiefs are rudderless without DMac, which enhances his AB chances 2. Chiefs pack are powderpuffs. The hard men arent there anymore 3. They had their golden title chance last yr and wont threaten this yr. Gone in second round of playoffs.
8 Go to commentsHonestly, why did you have to publish such a foolish article the day they play us? 😂
45 Go to comments> They are not standalone entities. They are linked to an amateur association which holds the FFR licence that allows the professional side to compete in the league. That’s a great rule. This looks like the chicken or egg professional scenario. How long is it going to be before the club can break even (if that is even a thing in French rugby)? If the locals aren’t into well it would be good to se them drop to amateur level (is it that far?). Hope they can reset from this level and be more practical, there will be a time when they can rebuild (if France has there setup right).
1 Go to commentsWhat about changing the ball? To something heavier and more pointed that bounces unpredictably. Not this almost round football used these days.
35 Go to comments