Ninety-two Tests, and a ceremonial job at Ellis Park is what left Sean Fitzpatrick stranded. Ardie Savea saw it. What Fitzpatrick told Planet Rugby afterwards is where the argument starts.
Sean Fitzpatrick did not know where to put himself.
Ninety-two Tests, and the thing that undid him was ceremonial. He had carried half of the Greatest Rivalry trophy onto Ellis Park and set it on a plinth, which was the whole of the brief. He expected to walk off.
Instead a New Zealand flag was pushed into his hands for the anthem. He said yes before anyone explained the rest of it. Out came the All Blacks, up they lined beside him, and there he stood in front of a capacity crowd.
The music started. Matiu Walters began to sing, and Fitzpatrick stood there wondering what on earth he was supposed to do with himself.
The anthem is the one passage of a Test where nobody has a job. No ball, no call, nothing for the hands. Players stand in a line and hold onto each other because the alternative is standing there with nothing, which is precisely what Fitzpatrick had been left to do.
I was a bit awkward to say the least,
he told Planet Rugby. To be there with the team beside Ardie, standing on the pitch at the national anthems, I didn’t feel right.
Then Ardie Savea put an arm around him.
Ardie put his arm around me and I was like, ‘My God’,
the 92-cap great said. I felt so honoured. What a moment it was, in terms of passing on the baton and the legacy of the All Black jersey.
Why he was out there at all
Thirty years ago Fitzpatrick led the All Blacks to their first series win on South African soil. That squad has been known as the Incomparables ever since.
Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry was built to mark that anniversary as much as to generate commercial income. That is why the flag ended up in his hands. It is also why he gets asked what the series cost, and why the answer counts.
The place that shaped what he thinks rugby is for
Fitzpatrick chairs the Laureus Academy, and in that role he has been inside Bonnytoun, a Cape Flats secure care facility.
That area has more murders there than anywhere else in the world per capita and a lot of those are carried out by kids,
he said.
Many of them have little teardrop tattoos for how many they’ve killed, which is just mind-blowing, and end up at that detention centre. We run boxing and rugby projects in there.
Hold that alongside a row about fixture lists, because the two are connected in his head even if they look nothing alike.
The part that lands on Argentina
The Rugby Championship was canned to make room for this tour. Plenty of people have said that is unfair on Australia and Argentina, and Fitzpatrick has heard all of it.
He is not apologising.
I take my hat off to the New Zealand and South Africa rugby unions for creating this Greatest Rivalry series,
he said. A lot of people are saying it’s not fair on Australia, it’s not fair on Argentina, in terms of the southern hemisphere championship.
But, honestly, the time has come that we need to create meaningful tours and meaningful games, like the Nations Championship over the summer.
He rates that experiment too. I thought that was a brilliant three weeks we had in July, with the Nations Championship creating meaningful games. And now everyone’s looking forward to November when it resumes.
So, as much as it’s Argentina thinking, ‘we’ve been left out’, it’s a case of saying we have to do this, in terms of engaging fans.Sean Fitzpatrick, speaking to Planet Rugby
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His evidence is a room in Cape Town
His case has nothing to do with broadcast money. He is not measuring a fixture list by what it earns. He is measuring it by whether anyone is still watching, because the programmes he chairs live or die on whether anyone is still watching.
The fan engagement out here is just off the charts,
he said. I was at a function last night for Laureus, and everyone was talking about this series. And that’s what we need.
Read also: why Cape Town decides whether this is a series or a procession, and the late change that puts Cheslin Kolbe back in the run-on side. Both teams for the second Test are here.
Frequently asked
What did Ardie Savea do during the anthem at Ellis Park?
Sean Fitzpatrick had carried half the Greatest Rivalry trophy onto the pitch and was then handed a New Zealand flag to hold during the anthem, leaving him standing in front of a capacity crowd. Savea, the All Blacks captain, put an arm around him and drew him into the team line.
Why was Sean Fitzpatrick at Ellis Park?
He led the All Blacks to their first series win on South African soil thirty years ago, with a squad known as the Incomparables. Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry was created partly to mark that anniversary, and his ceremonial job was to carry half the series trophy out and place it on a plinth.
What did Sean Fitzpatrick say about Argentina being left out?
He acknowledged the grievance and rejected it. Fitzpatrick told Planet Rugby the sport now has to build tours and fixtures that carry consequence, praised both unions for building the series, and said fan engagement in South Africa during the tour has been off the charts.
Your turn
Nobody is arguing about the arm around the shoulder.
The rest of it is harder. Argentina and Australia lost a season so this tour could happen, and the man the tour honours says that had to be done. Either he is right, or two unions took something that was not theirs to take. Settle it below.
