Why the Gordon Hunter Memorial Trophy is a special piece of New Zealand rugby silverware
Gordon Hunter was a detective – a very good one according to everyone who worked with him and not a few who were put away by him. He was also one of the most memorable rugby coaches of his, or any, era. This weekend the Highlanders and Blues will contest the trophy named in his honour. Here’s why that matters, and why his memory deserves to be kept alive.
It was a fine winter’s Friday in Christchurch, mid-morning, when the policeman’s phone rang. The voice on the end of the line was familiar to him, the words clipped and to the point, delivered with an unmistakable accent that rose and broke, rose and broke.
“Suspect. Shaved head. 2pm. Cathedral Square.”
Then the phone clicked dead. At 2pm that afternoon, the policeman was parked in his police car in Cathedral Square when there was a knock on the passenger window. It was a man with a shaved head.
“How can I help you, son?” Enquired the officer, as he wound down the window.
“I’m here to confess to a crime,” came the reply. “But I’ll only talk to Detective Hunter.”
“Well, you better get in the car then, son.”
Once at the station the policeman explained to the Sergeant that the man in his custody wanted to confess to a crime, but that he did not know what the crime was, or when it took place.
“What are you here to tell us, lad?” barked the Sergeant.
“I’ll only talk to Detective Hunter,” said the man.
“Detective Hunter works in Dunedin, lad, not here in Christchurch.”
“Well, you better get him on the phone.”
The Policeman called Detective Hunter.
“Speak!” the Detective barked down the phone.
“We have your man at the station but he’ll only talk to you.”
“I guess I better come to Christchurch then,” he said to the policeman. “I’ll be there in five hours.”
To this day, no one really knows who that man with the shaved head was. No one can say for sure if any crime was committed at all, no one is sure about anything other than this: five hours later Detective Hunter walked into a police station in Christchurch, briefly chatted to the suspect, released him immediately and then, upon conferring with the policeman who had snared his catch, decided that while he was in town he best stay up for the Canterbury game at Lancaster Park the next day. Be a shame to have wasted the drive.
The policeman in question was a man named Steve Hansen.
Apocryphal or not, that is one of the many stories of Gordon Rowland Robert Hunter – Gordy to everyone who knew him or played for him. Steve Hansen first played for Hunter on a combined services trip to the UK, and had enormous respect for him as a man and as a coach. On a freezing evening in Invercargill a few years ago, he told us the above story, and many others. Our stomachs were in pain the next day from laughing so hard.
There was the time he made the Combined Services team get dressed in their number ones because they were going to have a photo with Queen Elizabeth. He got them organised, marched them down to the gates of Buckingham Palace, arranged them tallest to shortest and then asked a Japanese tourist to take the photo. With the tourist’s own camera.
Once the bewildered tourist had snapped the shot, Gordy ordered the team back to the barracks and on to training.
“But Gordy,” one of the backs complained. “I thought you said we were having a photo with the Queen.”
“She was in the window,” was his reply.
No member of the team has ever seen the photo, but wouldn’t it be nice to think that on a wall in an Osaka Apartment, there is a framed picture of that New Zealand Combined Services team and an elderly man sitting there looking at it, still telling some manufactured story about why he has that photo in his living room.
There was the time he arrived in Invercargill at the home of the Wilsons. A young blonde boy opened the door and standing before him was a moustachioed man with a glass eye.
“Here to see your parents boy,” he barked.
The young man let him in, called for his mum and dad and then sat in the lounge while Gordy and the folks talked in the kitchen. Approximately 25 minutes later, Gordy walked out, stopping only briefly to shake the boy’s hand.
“See you in Dunedin, lad.”
And that was it. Jeff Wilson was heading north.
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There was the time he called a young Temuka player by the name of Brendan Laney into his office.
“Sit!” he barked at the bewildered kid.
He turned in his chair and gestured at a whiteboard upon which were written the names of the Otago Higlanders midfielders. Names like Marc Ellis and John Leslie. Laney watched as Gordy wrote his name below the others on the list.
“They’re all ahead of you,” Gordy told him. “Nice meeting you.”
That was the end of the meeting. Many years later, when Laney headed to Scotland and Gordy began his battle with cancer, he stopped at his old coach’s house with a six pack of beer. They didn’t touch the grog but they sat around for a chat. The coach had one last piece of advice.
“Wear a backpack,” he said. “Always pays to keep your hands free.”
There was the time he coached an Otago selection against Sassenach side. After the match, both teams gathered in the changing shed for a ‘court session’. The visiting captain laid down the rules for the initial round of drinking.
“You each come up, put one hand over one eye, say three words, and drink your beer.”
The Otago lads all shot a glance at their glass-eyed coach who stood at the back with the usual steely look on his face. The temerity of this bloke, they thought, to come into Gordy’s shed and take the piss out of his glass eye.
Rules were rules, however, and each and every player made his way to the front of the room, placed a hand over one eye, conjured three words, and necked their cans.
And then it was Gordy’s turn. A hush fell over the shed as the coach made his way forward. He stood there and took a moment to eyeball the room. Then he turned to the front, placed a hand over his good eye, and with his three words he said, “Fuck it’s dark.”
There was the time Highlanders first five Tony Brown turned up under the weather to a training session at Tahuna Park. Halfback Stu Forster thought it would be funny to throw his passes a metre or so in front of the ailing Brown, just to watch him struggle. Brown dropped the first one. And then the second. And then the third.
When he dropped the fourth, Gordy had finally seen enough. From his position under the goal posts he roared at his hungover charge.
“Tony! I don’t know who she is, but she’s got to go!”
She went.
This Saturday night, the same Tony Brown will be head coach of the Highlanders for the first time in a Gordon Hunter Memorial match. There will be no shortage of motivation. The Highlanders have held the trophy since 2012 when they beat the Blues 27-20 at Eden Park. They will be looking to make it five straight wins in the Gordy match this weekend.
Adding to the occasion on Saturday is the fact the trophy was not contested last year at all. The rules of the fixture dictate that the holders must put the trophy up only in their home game. The Blues and Highlanders met just once last year, at Eden Park, and the trophy stayed in the cabinet in Dunedin. The two sides have already met once this year, with the Highlanders holding off a late charge to clinch a 16-12 win in Auckland. The Blues have not won a New Zealand fixture away from home since 2013.
Gordy Hunter would have loved watching the Highlanders play their helter-skelter rugby under the roof at Forsyth Barr Stadium. He may have been a Southlander by birth but he was an Otago man at heart. As New Zealand Herald columnist Chris Rattue noted in his 2002 obituary of Hunter, “Laurie Mains may have given Otago teams structure and led them to a title in 1991, when Hunter was his assistant, but Hunter gave Otago flair.”
The mischievous Marc Ellis always called Gordon Hunter ‘The Riddler’, but there was nothing overly complicated about him. In essence, he was a coach who loved the game and even more so the boys who played it for him. He was the Detective who left his own fingerprints on New Zealand’s national sport.
This weekend men like Laney and Wilson, Ellis and Brown will get to think of their old coach and friend once more. Hopefully, the players in both teams will be able to sit around and listen to some of the stories about Gordy. Hopefully, they will laugh at the tales and then go out on Saturday and play with flair and pace and a sense of joy. The way Gordy expected his teams to play.
If you believe in the afterlife, then you will know Gordon Rowland Robert Hunter watches still.
At least out of his good eye.
Comments on RugbyPass
Thanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
4 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
4 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
25 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
13 Go to commentsTalking bout Ryan Crotty? Heard Crotty say in a interview once that SBW doesen't care about the team . He went on to say that whenever they lost a big game, SBW would be happy as if nothing happened, according to him someone who cares would look down.. Personally I think Crotty is in the wrong, not for feeling gutted but for expecting others 2 be like him… I have been a bad loser forever as it matters so much to me but good on you SBW for being able to see the bigger picture….
25 Go to commentsThis sounds like a WWE idea so Americans can also get excited about rugby, RUGBY NEEDS A INTERNATIONAL CALENDER .. The rugby Championship and Six Nations can be held at same time, top 3 of six nations and top 3 of Rugby championship (6 nations should include Georgia AND another qualifying country while Fiji, Japan and Samoa/Tonga qualifier should make out 6 Southern teams).. Scrap June internationals and year end tours. Have a Elite top six Cup and the Bottom 6 in a secondary comp….
13 Go to commentsThe rugby championship would be even stronger with Fiji in it… I know it doesen’t fit the long term plans of NZ or Aus but you are robbing a whole nation of being able to see their best players play for Fiji…. Every second player in NZ and AUS teams has Fijian surnames… shame on you!!! World rugby won’t step in either as France and England has now also joined in…. I guess where money is involved it will always be the poor countries missing out….
84 Go to commentsNo surprise there. How hard can it be to pick a ball off the ground and chuck it to a mate? 😂
2 Go to commentsSometimes people just like a moan mate!
4 Go to commentsexcellent idea ! rugby needs this 💪
13 Go to comments9 Brumbies! What a joke! The best performing team in Oz! Ditch Skelton for Swain or Neville. Ryan Lonergan ahead of McDermott any day! Best selection bolter is Toole … amazing player
12 Go to commentsI like this, but ultimately rugby already has enough trophies. Trying to make more games “consequential" might prove to be a fools errand, although this is a less bad idea than some others. Minor quibble with the title of the article; it isn’t very meaningful to say the boks are the unofficial world champions when it would be functionally impossible for the Raeburn trophy not to be held by the world champions. There’s a period of a few months every 4 years when there is no “unofficial” world champion, and the Raeburn trophy is held by the actual world champions.
13 Go to commentsIts a great idea but one that I dont think will have a lot of traction. It will depend on the prestige that they each hold but if you can do that it would be great. When Japan beat the Boks (my team) I was absolutely devestated but I wont deny the great game they played that day. We were outclassed and it was one of the best games of rugby I have seen. Using an idea like this you might just give the the underdog teams more of an opportunity to beat the big teams and I can absolutely see it being a brilliant display of rugby. They beat us because they planned for that game. It was a great moment for Japan. This way we can remove the 4 year wait and give teams something to aim for outside of World Cup years.
13 Go to commentsHi, Dave here. Happy to answer questions 🥰
13 Go to commentsDon’t think that headline is accurate. It’s great to see Aus doing better but I’m not sure they’ve shown much threat to the top of the table. They shouldn’t be inflating wins against the lousy Highlanders and Crusaders either.
3 Go to commentsSuch a shame Roigard and Aumua picked up long term injuries, probably the two form players in the comp. Also, pretty sure Clarke Dermody isn’t their coach. Got it half right though.
3 Go to commentsOh the Aussie media, they never learn. At least Andrew Kellaway is like “Woah, yeah it’s great, but settle down there guys” having endured years of the Aussie media, fans, and often their players getting ahead of themselves only to fall flat on their faces. Have the “We'll win the Bledisloe for sure this year!” headlines started yet? It’s simple to see what’s going on. The Aussie teams are settled, they didn't lose any of their major players overseas. The Crusaders and Chiefs lost key experienced All Blacks, and Razor in the Crusaders case, and clearly neither are anywhere near as strong as last year (The Canes and Blues would probably be 3rd & 4th if they were). The Highlanders are annually average, even more so post-Aaron Smith and a big squad clean out. The two teams at the top? The two nz sides with largely the same settled roster as last year, except Ardie Savea for the Canes. They’ve both got far better coaches now too. If the Aussies are going to win the title, this is the year the kiwi sides will be weakest, so they better take their chance.
3 Go to commentsThe World Cup has to be the gold standard, line in the sand. 113 teams compete for what is the opportunity to make the pool stages, and then the knockout games for the trophy. The concept is sound. This must have been the rationale when the World Cup was created, surely? But I’m all for Looking forward and finding new ways for the SH to dominate the NH into the future. The autumn series needs a change up. Let’s start by having the NH teams come south every odd year for the Autumn/Spring series games?
13 Go to commentsWhat’ll happen when the AI models of the future go back in time and try to destroy the AI models of the past standing in their way of certain victory?
45 Go to comments