Riki Flutey is making the most of his rare presence in England, reconnecting with his former team-mates Filo Tiatia and Dave Walder. His daughter, Madison, will soon spend a few months with Exeter Chiefs women, under the supervision of Walder, which could give Flutey more cause to travel to the UK.
Flutey, 45, is on the New Zealand coaching staff for the women’s World Cup. As a player, he qualified for England on residency and won 14 caps, and went on the British & Irish Lions tour to South Africa in 2009. It was during his stints at London Irish and Wasps that Madison was born; prime material for a national tug of war.
“She’s playing in the Farah Palmer Cup [FPC] for Otago Spirit at the moment,” Flutey says. “She’s only just turned 18 and loving the experience of going from first XV rugby to the FPC competition, which is cool, and she’s nervous but excited about also coming over here in a few weeks’ time.”
Flutey, 45, won 14 caps for England and here goes over for the second try in the 26-12 win against Scotland during the 2009 Six Nations
PAUL GILHAM/GETTY IMAGES
The Exeter connection came about through John Mitchell, the Red Roses head coach, during WXV in 2023. The plan is to return to New Zealand to study law while trying to become a professional rugby player. “Only a year ago she said to me, ‘I want to play for England and I want to play [for the] British & Irish Lions.’
“That’s when they’d just started talking about British & Irish Lions women,” Flutey says. “I said, ‘Oh, OK sweetie, that’s all good.’ ‘Well, you did.’ I said, ‘Yeah, awesome, cool.’ But now that Dad’s a coach of the Black Ferns, she’s like, ‘Oh, hang on.’ ”
That is a tug of war for another day. Her father knows all about being on both sides of the divide, having played for Wellington against the Lions in 2005 and then for the Lions in South Africa, emulating Tom Reid: a 1955 Lion who opposed them in Canada in 1959.
Flutey wore No12 in the third Test against the Springboks. He ensured his place in Lions folklore with his assist for Shane Williams in the 28-9 win, chipping ahead and flicking the ball away from Zane Kirchner. “I have posted that to my kids,” Flutey says. “ ‘I did play.’ It’s just the way I used to play. Don’t think, just do. See space, take space. That’s how I encourage others as a coach to see the game as well.”
The subject of residency Lions was prominent on this summer’s tour, with five tourists having qualified by such means. “There’s a number of questions, I suppose, getting put to those guys, just like I did,” Flutey says. “There wasn’t as many then, it was just me, so it probably wasn’t as big a thing when I was playing.”
Flutey wasn’t able to confirm it, but he was looking into the English heritage of his maternal grandfather. “My mother was coming over for my first Test, flying her over,” he says. “Leading up to that I actually had a private investigator on the go to try to find her birth father. We had a name and he was a Navy seaman that came into Wellington, 1949, and met my grandmother. My mother never knew who her birth father was, but she did know he was English, and she did know this and that, and there were a couple of matches.
“My thing was actually, how cool would it be, my mother comes over to watch me play my first Test for England and, by the way, here’s your family from Kent? But it didn’t come of it.
“That would have been cool because at the time I was getting heaps of questions around, ‘So, you’re a Kiwi playing for England?’ ‘Yeah, I am. Yeah.’ And blah, blah, blah.
“I knew my purpose and my mission around representing England and giving it my absolute best for the jersey, and I was really proud to sing the national anthem, really proud to wear the jersey all the times I did.”
A versatile player, Flutey demonstrates his strength against Scotland’s Max Evans
MIKE WILKINSON – THE SUNDAY TIMES GLASGOW
Flutey left New Zealand for London Irish in 2005 for a “clean slate” away from the established view that he was a utility-back substitute. He had played scrum half (he replaced Piri Weepu against the Lions), was the fly half in a New Zealand Under-19 side with Jerry Collins, Aaron Mauger and Richie McCaw, and covered full back too. He found his niche in England as an inside centre.
After his Lions experience, Flutey had a season in Brive in which he spent a lot of time in England, recuperating from a shoulder injury or playing international rugby, and returned to Wasps. Ten years before the club went bust, they were in financial distress and Flutey took up an opportunity in Japan. He worked with Highlanders and Japan before joining the Black Ferns in April.
Flutey is also in the process of a personal running challenge: more than 280 days and counting of at least five kilometres a day, occasionally roping in colleagues and ramping it up to a half-marathon.
“I was just getting a little bit mentally weak, not turning up on a few things and doing a few chores at home and whatnot, and I thought, ‘What’s something that’s hard that I probably don’t like doing and haven’t done for years?’ ” Flutey says.
Flutey, left, drills his players having been appointed backs and skills coach for the Black Ferns in April
HAGEN HOPKINS/GETTY IMAGES
“When you tap into something and you commit to something, and you’re disciplined to it — my running journey, it’s actually made me a better person, made me a better coach off the back of it.”
As the backs and skills coach, Flutey is involved with the aspect of Black Ferns play that put the world on alert in a 40-0 victory over Ireland. Their handling and running was a reminder that New Zealand will always pose a threat to Canada and England, the two sides ranked above them.
“I want these players to be really free,” Flutey says. “I don’t want them thinking too much come game time, they’ll see the space and attack the space with their triple-threat skill sets that they’ve got, and we keep growing those parts and keep growing the understanding around what some of the different pictures look like for them to be attacking threats.”
New Zealand v South Africa
Women’s Rugby World Cup quarter-final
Saturday, kick-off 1pm
TV BBC2