{"id":396583,"date":"2026-04-25T05:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T05:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/396583\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T05:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T05:48:09","slug":"sean-fitzpatrick-honours-first-all-blacks-captain-dave-gallaher-in-anzac-doco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/396583\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean Fitzpatrick honours first All Blacks captain Dave Gallaher in Anzac doco"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt was very emotional and I loved that I was able to be part of it,\u201d says Sean, 62. \u201cIt was something I\u2019ll always remember.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SeanSean had gone to Dave\u2019s grave to deposit soil dug up from Eden Park. Photo \/ Eric Compernolle, Homegrown TV<\/p>\n

The poignant process of transferring soil to and from places of significance to the man considered the father of the All Blacks is the focus of an Anzac Day documentary, From Field to Front, produced by TV presenter-turned-documentary-maker Jude Dobson. Sean, who has lived in London for the past 20 years, was delighted to be able to pay tribute to Dave.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve known Jude for a long time, right back to her early days on Sale of the Century and she told me about what she\u2019d previously done with her other documentaries,\u201d says Sean, referring to three earlier shows Jude, 59, made about New Zealanders involved in war. <\/p>\n

\"SeanSean and Jude at Eden Park. Photo \/ Jack Mensah, Homegrown TV<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought this was a story that needed to be told in terms of the history of New Zealand rugby. Dave Gallaher was a big part of that history and all of us, from young kids coming through to current All Blacks, need to remember where it all started.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jude says asking Sean to be involved was a no-brainer. \u201cHe has such mana, he knows Dave\u2019s story and he is an elder statesman of rugby now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sean knew a fair amount about Irish-born Dave, who captained the first New Zealand rugby team to be called the All Blacks<\/a> on their epic tour of Britain, Ireland, France and the United States in 1905-06. He\u2019d previously been to Dave\u2019s final resting place. <\/p>\n

Sean says, \u201cMy wife Bronwyn and I had done a trip around Passchendaele and visited Dave\u2019s grave. So I did know a bit about him, but to have this experience of finding out more\u2026 it\u2019s just meant so much to me.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"SeanSean with his wife, Bronwyn. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

When he\u2019s not involved in projects like this documentary, much of Sean\u2019s time is taken up as chairman of the international organisation Laureus. It celebrates sporting excellence by presenting awards to the world\u2019s top sportspeople, and has a charity that uses the power of sport to transform the lives of children and young people.<\/p>\n

In 2000, Sean and fellow Kiwi Sir Peter Blake were invited to join the Laureus World Sport Academy, whose members include some of the greatest sportspeople in history, such as Boris Becker, Ian Botham, Nadia Comaneci, Martina Navratilova, Jack Nicklaus, Mark Spitz and Sachin Tendulkar.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went over to Monaco when Laureus started,\u201d recalls Sean. \u201cThere we were, these two Kiwis from the other side of the world and all these people I\u2019d idolised for years. I was like a kid in a candy shop.<\/p>\n

\u201cNelson Mandela was our founding patron and he said, \u2018You guys have some of the biggest voices in terms of making a difference, so use sport as a mechanism for change.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cWe now have 300 projects in 45 countries and we\u2019ve helped to change the lives of seven million children globally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Past projects include boxing programmes in NZ<\/a>, which have been \u201cphenomenal,\u201d says Sean, who has been Laureus\u2019 chairman for 10 years.<\/p>\n

He tries to watch as many sporting Kiwis in action as he can \u2013 he woke up early to watch a Blues match before chatting with the Weekly \u2013 and is delighted when we do well. If he had his way, there\u2019d be a lot more investment in sport globally.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at what\u2019s going on in the world at the moment, the one thing that makes people smile, that brings them together, is sport,\u201d says Sean. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing quite like it for helping to change lives.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt was very emotional and I loved that I was able to be part of it,\u201d says Sean,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[5263,78459,1558,8136,13381,9635,28353,8142,1888,46610,204891,7560,78,9062,111,139,69,8143,1439,3546,544,1962,213,303],"class_list":["post-396583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-all","tag-anzac","tag-been","tag-blacks","tag-captain","tag-dave","tag-doco","tag-eden","tag-first","tag-fitzpatrick","tag-gallaher","tag-honours","tag-in","tag-moments","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-park","tag-scene","tag-sean","tag-some","tag-special","tag-sports","tag-very"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396583","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=396583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}