Captain of The All Blacks
In 1992 Fitzpatrick was awarded the captaincy of the All Blacks, a position he held until his retirement from Test Rugby. A first Test match win against the Springboks since their return from isolation, plus series victories over a World XV and Ireland were dampened by the loss of the Bledisloe Cup in Australia.
The biggest event of the rugby calendar in 1993 was the British Lions tour to New Zealand. The first test went narrowly to the All Blacks, with Grant Fox kicking a last minute 50-metre penalty to steal a win. This was avenged in the Second Test by the Lions with their highest-scoring Test win in New Zealand. In the third test, with Fitzpatrick faced the prospect of becoming only the second ever All Blacks captain to lead his team to a series defeat against the Lions. The side were 10–0 down at one point, but recovered to take the match convincingly and with it the series.
Unwanted history could not be avoided on the end of season tour to Britain however, as England picked up a win over New Zealand at Twickenham. 1994 was another up and down season for the All Blacks. South Africa were defeated 2–0 with one game drawn. However, France caused a major upset by winning their series in New Zealand 2–0, the first and only European team so far to achieve this.
By the time of the 1995 World Cup New Zealand had assembled a more formidable side. Ian Jones, Jeff Wilson, Andrew Mehrtens and Zinzan Brooke had proved themselves as world-class players, and Jonah Lomu would spectacularly announce himself during the tournament. New Zealand were most pundit's pre-tournament favourites. They duly reached the final against South Africa, who had stuttered through the early stages, while the All Blacks had convincingly defeated all opponents, the most remarkable being a semi-final against England, in which Lomu scored four tries. However Francois Pienaar’s side rose to the occasion, and won a close game in extra time with a Joel Stransky drop goal. It was a crushing disappointment for the All Blacks, although they would not have to wait long to exact revenge.
After storming through the first Tri Nations Series unbeaten, the All Blacks embarked upon a further three-match series in South Africa. No New Zealand side had ever won a series in South African before, but under Fitzpatrick in 1996 they won the first two tests of the three match series. The 1996 All Blacks were one of the great teams in the history of the game, and the series win cemented their captain’s place among the true greats. Continued success with Auckland in the NPC and the Auckland Blues in the new Super 12 continued in the following seasons, but it was clear that Fitzpatrick’s days in the game were numbered. He was carrying an injury in the autumn of 1997, yet such was his status that coach John Hart thought it would be good for the other players to include him in the party. He made his 92nd and final test appearance on 29 November 1997 as a substitute in the 42–7 victory against Wales at Wembley.
Read more about this topic: Sean Fitzpatrick
Famous quotes containing the words captain and/or blacks:
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—W.E.B. (William Edward Burghardt)