{"id":188071,"date":"2025-12-17T10:25:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T10:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/188071\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T10:25:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T10:25:09","slug":"he-is-the-most-respected-individual-ive-ever-seen-inside-the-all-blacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/188071\/","title":{"rendered":"‘He is the most respected individual I’ve ever seen inside the All Blacks’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Former All Blacks<\/a> mental skills coach Gilbert Enoka made room in his recent book, \u2018Become Unstoppable\u2019, for a special tribute to All Blacks great Kevin Mealamu, and has since doubled down on that sentiment.<\/p>\n

Enoka, who first joined the All Blacks in 2000, worked alongside many a rugby icon over his 23 years with the team, including the famous Rugby World Cup-winning sides of 2011 and 2015, both rampant with household names and Hall of Fame careers.<\/p>\n

Of all the talent and personalities who came into the All Blacks environment during his tenure, Enoka says Mealamu\u2019s stature was singular and unmatched.<\/p>\n

In his book, Enoka highlights a moment he caught Mealamu sitting around with a few of his younger All Blacks teammates cleaning the Bledisloe Cup after recognising it was looking a touch untidy. He used the moment as an example of the Test centurion\u2019s humble character.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d give him my world,\u201d Enoka told the Between Two Beers Podcast<\/a> when reflecting on the great hooker\u2019s career.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is the most respected individual I\u2019ve ever seen inside the All Black environment. He holds more mana than anyone else I\u2019ve seen inside the All Black environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd as he moved through it, his presence even grew. It was a different sort of presence to an outstanding athlete like a Richie (McCaw) or a Dan Carter; he was still brilliant.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut why was he so good? Because he was honest. He was strong. He was governed by the principles of never having an off day. He was governed by a mindset that no matter whether he was in the 15, or in the 23, or outside the 23, if the team wasn\u2019t successful, the first thing he\u2019d do is look in the mirror and say, \u2018What could I have done today to help that team be successful?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cOthers would say, \u2018Well, I wasn\u2019t in the 15, it wasn\u2019t up to me.\u2019 But he never did that. It was all personal with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere wasn\u2019t an ounce of take with him, although he was a mongrel on the field. He could be a hard bastard, and he was. But it was that determined humility, being the example that he was.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you ask him what was important to him, it would start with faith, then family, and then football, in that order. Those three combining together just created a wonderful human being who played over 100 Tests for the most successful international sporting team of all time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former All Blacks mental skills coach Gilbert Enoka made room in his recent book, \u2018Become Unstoppable\u2019, for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-188071","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-newzealand","10":"tag-nz","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}