{"id":123879,"date":"2025-09-08T23:27:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T23:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/123879\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T23:27:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T23:27:12","slug":"i-hired-private-investigator-to-prove-my-english-heritage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/123879\/","title":{"rendered":"I hired private investigator to prove my English heritage"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

Flutey, 45, is on the New Zealand coaching staff for the women\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s playing in the Farah Palmer Cup [FPC] for Otago Spirit at the moment,\u201d Flutey says. \u201cShe\u2019s only just turned 18 and loving the experience of going from first XV rugby to the FPC competition, which is cool, and she\u2019s nervous but excited about also coming over here in a few weeks\u2019 time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rugby<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

PAUL GILHAM\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

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. \u201cOnly a year ago she said to me, \u2018I want to play for England and I want to play [for the] British & Irish Lions.\u2019 <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s when they\u2019d just started talking about British & Irish Lions women,\u201d Flutey says. \u201cI said, \u2018Oh, OK sweetie, that\u2019s all good.\u2019 \u2018Well, you did.\u2019 I said, \u2018Yeah, awesome, cool.\u2019 But now that Dad\u2019s a coach of the Black Ferns, she\u2019s like, \u2018Oh, hang on.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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. \u201cI have posted that to my kids,\u201d Flutey says. \u201c \u2018I did play.\u2019 It\u2019s just the way I used to play. Don\u2019t think, just do. See space, take space. That\u2019s how I encourage others as a coach to see the game as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The subject of residency Lions was prominent on this summer\u2019s tour, with five tourists having qualified by such means<\/a>. \u201cThere\u2019s a number of questions, I suppose, getting put to those guys, just like I did,\u201d Flutey says. \u201cThere wasn\u2019t as many then, it was just me, so it probably wasn\u2019t as big a thing when I was playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flutey wasn\u2019t able to confirm it, but he was looking into the English heritage of his maternal grandfather. \u201cMy mother was coming over for my first Test, flying her over,\u201d he says. \u201cLeading 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. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy 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\u2019s your family from Kent? But it didn\u2019t come of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat would have been cool because at the time I was getting heaps of questions around, \u2018So, you\u2019re a Kiwi playing for England?\u2019 \u2018Yeah, I am. Yeah.\u2019 And blah, blah, blah.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NINTCHDBPICT000004361266\"<\/p>\n

A versatile player, Flutey demonstrates his strength against Scotland\u2019s Max Evans<\/p>\n

MIKE WILKINSON \u2013 THE SUNDAY TIMES GLASGOW<\/p>\n

Flutey left New Zealand for London Irish in 2005 for a \u201cclean slate\u201d 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. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

\u201cI 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, \u2018What\u2019s something that\u2019s hard that I probably don\u2019t like doing and haven\u2019t done for years?\u2019 \u201d Flutey says. <\/p>\n

\"New<\/p>\n

Flutey, left, drills his players having been appointed backs and skills coach for the Black Ferns in April<\/p>\n

HAGEN HOPKINS\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you tap into something and you commit to something, and you\u2019re disciplined to it \u2014 my running journey, it\u2019s actually made me a better person, made me a better coach off the back of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

\u201cI want these players to be really free,\u201d Flutey says. \u201cI don\u2019t want them thinking too much come game time, they\u2019ll see the space and attack the space with their triple-threat skill sets that they\u2019ve 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Zealand v South Africa<\/p>\n

Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup quarter-final
Saturday, kick-off 1pm
TV BBC2<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Riki Flutey is making the most of his rare presence in England, reconnecting with his former team-mates Filo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-123879","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}