\u201cI was a bit awkward to say the least,\u201d Fitzpatrick tells Planet Rugby. \u201cTo be there with the team beside Ardie, standing on the pitch at the national anthems, I didn\u2019t feel right.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mind-blowing experience<\/p>\n
The legendary hooker is no stranger to challenging environments in South Africa<\/a>. In his role as chairman of the Laureus Academy he visited the Bonnytoun secure care facility on the Cape Flats.<\/p>\n \u201cThat area has more murders there than anywhere else in the world per capita and a lot of those are carried out by kids,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cMany of them have little teardrop tattoos for how many they\u2019ve killed, which is just mind-blowing, and end up at that detention centre. We run boxing and rugby projects in there.\u201d<\/p>\n The music started up and as Matiu Walters began singing Fitzpatrick thought to himself, \u2018What on earth do I do now?\u2019. Then Savea intervened.<\/p>\n \u201cArdie put his arm around me and I was like, \u2018My God\u2019,\u201d the 92-cap great says. \u201cI felt so honoured. What a moment it was, in terms of passing on the baton and the legacy of the All Black jersey.\u201d<\/p>\n Legacy is everything to New Zealand rugby. The Greatest Rivalry<\/a> series was devised as much to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Fitzpatrick\u2019s \u2018Incomparables\u2019 as it was to generate commercial income.<\/p>\n Rugby\u2019s Greatest Rivalry prediction: Springboks to level the series with ugly win as spoiled fly-half plan puts All Blacks scrum in the spotlight<\/a><\/p>\n The Auckland-born legend is in no doubt that the biennial series, controversial as it is with the Rugby Championship being canned to make room for it, is an absolute godsend for the sport.<\/p>\n \u201cI take my hat off to the New Zealand and South Africa rugby unions for creating this Greatest Rivalry series,\u201d he says. \u201cA lot of people are saying it\u2019s not fair on Australia, it\u2019s not fair on Argentina, in terms of the southern hemisphere championship.<\/p>\n \u201cBut, honestly, the time has come that we need to create meaningful tours and meaningful games, like the Nations Championship over the summer.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought that was a brilliant three weeks we had in July, with the Nations Championship creating meaningful games. And now everyone\u2019s looking forward to November when it resumes.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, as much as it\u2019s Argentina thinking, \u2018we\u2019ve been left out\u2019, it\u2019s a case of saying we have to do this, in terms of engaging fans.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fan engagement out here is just off the charts. I was at a function last night for Laureus, and everyone was talking about this series. And that\u2019s what we need.\u201d<\/p>\n Making rugby sustainable<\/p>\n Fitzpatrick continues: \u201cTo make our game sustainable going forward we need this engagement. It\u2019s just a matter of finding the windows to be able to create this.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe other other tournaments are going to suffer. Maybe the Rugby Championship is going to suffer. Maybe the URC is going to suffer, but it\u2019s about making sure the game is sustainable.<\/p>\n \u201cI think World Rugby realises this, that we need to create windows that we can have these meaningful games in.<\/p>\n \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say it\u2019s survival of the fittest,\u201d adds a man who captained the All Blacks 51 times from 1992 through to his retirement in 1997. \u201cIt\u2019s just a matter of everyone giving a bit, and making tough decisions.<\/p>\n \u201cNot everyone\u2019s going to be happy. But like any good businessman, you make the right decisions, you make the hard calls. Honestly, to be here is to appreciate what this is doing for rugby.\u201d<\/p>\n And so to the Mother City where New Zealand have arrived feeling a whole lot more welcome than they did at Ellis Park when they lined up alongside their celebrated flag holder.<\/p>\n Springboks hero: Returning Siya Kolisi \u2018has that Madiba touch\u2019 as South Africa could do \u2018something spectacular\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Cape Town is well populated with All Black fans, or \u2018Cape Crusaders\u2019 as they have been known since the apartheid era when many mixed-race and non-white communities in the Western Cape felt alienated by the predominantly white Springboks sides.<\/p>\n Siya Kolisi\u2019s appointment as Boks captain in 2018, when he made history as the first black player to lead South Africa in a Test match, dramatically changed that perception.<\/p>\n And Rassie Erasmus will hope restoring his iconic skipper to colours this weekend after injury will also transform the team\u2019s fortunes.<\/p>\n \u201cSiya\u2019s got a good rugby brain and obviously the emotion he brings and the way he can bond a team is important,\u201d Fitzpatrick concedes.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is his town and him returning takes a bit of pressure off Pieter-Steph on his 100th cap. But Siya hasn\u2019t played for a while. Whether he\u2019s fresh enough, I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n Dave Rennie praise<\/p>\n Fitzpatrick needs no reminding the job is not done, even if he is a good deal happier being one-up than one-down. He knows, from his own experience in 1996, the psychological boost winning the first game can have.<\/p>\n He feels, too, that in Dave Rennie the NZ Rugby Union has made a shrewd appointment, choosing a man who has already done a \u201cphenomenal job of building the culture\u201d of the environment.<\/p>\n Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat David Kirk [NZ Rugby chair] and the NZRU did at the start of this year is unheard of in New Zealand rugby \u2013 getting rid of the coach [Scott Robertson] mid-cycle,\u201d says Fitzpatrick.<\/p>\n \u201cI take my hat off to David and the board for making that tough decision because, two years out from the World Cup, the question was, \u2018are we going to win the World Cup the way we\u2019re going?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cThe answer was \u2018no\u2019 so we needed to make changes.<\/p>\n \u201cI go back to what I said earlier in terms of big boys making big decisions. New Zealand Rugby had to make a decision that a lot of people didn\u2019t like at the time. We\u2019re seeing the benefits of it now.\u201d<\/p>\n Sean Fitzpatrick is chairman of Laureus<\/a>, a global movement that celebrates the transformational power of sport.<\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Sean-Fitzpatrick-Bryan-Habana-and-Hugo-Porta-Laureus-Academy-Members.jpg\")
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