{"id":502173,"date":"2026-06-30T05:15:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T05:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/502173\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T05:15:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T05:15:09","slug":"real-life-rugby-commentating-legend-grant-nisbett-on-loss-and-his-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/502173\/","title":{"rendered":"Real Life: Rugby commentating legend Grant Nisbett on loss and his career"},"content":{"rendered":"Nisbett said he struggled to come to terms with what had happened and how to deal with it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s absolutely no script whatsoever, and there\u2019s no length of time to grieve either. It\u2019s something you don\u2019t practise for.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou just surround yourself with people who love you, and life moves on. But you never forget.\u201d<\/p>\n
While navigating life without his wife was challenging, Nisbett told John Cowan about his pride in the family he rebuilt following the loss.<\/p>\n
Despite having an illustrious career, he believed nothing compared to the joy of raising his children.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople often say to me, \u2018What\u2019s your greatest achievement in life?\u2019 and it\u2019s certainly not doing 350 test matches. It\u2019s bringing up two daughters.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 75-year-old also reflected on his extensive time behind a microphone at rugby games and the lessons learned throughout the years.<\/p>\n
He explained the biggest lesson was the art of saying less, and his tendency to want to fill the silence as much as possible.<\/p>\n
After many years, he came to find \u201ca little bit of silence is golden\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201c[When you are] sitting at home, 10 seconds of silence actually doesn\u2019t feel like 10 seconds. When you\u2019re sitting in a commentary box, it feels like an age, and you feel like you\u2019ve got to fill in the gaps.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWorking with so many ex-All Blacks over the years, that\u2019s probably the hardest thing they find [commentating]. They feel they\u2019ve got to justify their existence by continuously talking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite having spent much of his life in the commentary box, he is still not tired of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d hate the thought of waking up in the morning and having no real purpose. I almost don\u2019t consider it a job; it\u2019s a passion.\u201d<\/p>\n
After more than 40 years, the game of rugby has changed dramatically, and Nisbett explained to John Cowan that there was a need to keep up.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe tackled-ball rule has changed a million times. Once upon a time, you could ruck with your feet; now you can\u2019t do that. All sorts of things have changed over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n
While calling a game, he feels a tension between avoiding talking down to viewers and explaining the game for those who need it.<\/p>\n
Sport remains a huge part of his life, even just for leisure, and he still enjoys watching any Kiwi team competing on the international stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny Kiwi playing anywhere, any sport, anywhere in the world, and it\u2019s on the telly, I\u2019m going to watch,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Nisbett has also developed a love for lawn bowls.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the last 20 years or so, I\u2019ve really got stuck into it. I really enjoy it. It\u2019s one of the few sports that, on a given day, if everything\u2019s going your way, you can beat some really good players.<\/p>\n
\u201cI certainly couldn\u2019t beat Bj\u00f6rn Borg at tennis. I\u2019d never beat Muhammad Ali in the boxing ring. But on a given day, one set out of 100, I might beat Peter Belliss. Probably not, but I might!\u201d<\/p>\n
Even in his 70s, Nisbett is still commentating. He is set to call the All Blacks\u2019 game against Italy at Wellington\u2019s Sky Stadium on July 11.<\/p>\n
Real Life is a weekly interview show where John Cowan speaks with prominent guests about their life, upbringing, and the way they see the world. Tune in Sundays from 7.30pm on Newstalk ZB or listen to the latest full interview here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nisbett said he struggled to come to terms with what had happened and how to deal with it.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[95,1558,2046,11549,9060,2347,293,3223,424,2225,111,139,250698,250699,69,90,6115,6327,213,11548,80],"class_list":["post-502173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-and","tag-been","tag-career","tag-commentating","tag-decades","tag-grant","tag-his","tag-legend","tag-life","tag-loss","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nisbett","tag-nisbo","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-real","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-voice","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502173","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=502173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}