All Blacks legend Zinzan Brooke today and in action at the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa.
Legendary New Zealand number eight Zinzan Brooke has revisited the All Blacks’ food poisoning saga in the build up of the 1995 Rugby World Cup final against their arch-rivals the Springboks.
The incident hit the headlines in the aftermath of the Springboks’ narrow 15-12 extra-time victory at Ellis Park in Johannesburg with All Blacks’ head coach at the time Laurie Mains blaming a waitress called Suzie for the food poisoning.
Former All Blacks hooker Sean Fitzpatrick, who was the team’s captain at the 1995 World Cup, has said in the past that the food poisoning was not the reason for his side’s defeat.
Brooke agrees saying New Zealand had chances to win the game but is adamant there was foul play in the All Blacks camp in the build-up to the highly anticipated encounter.
Speaking on The Good, The Bad and The Rugby ANZ podcast, Brooke was asked by the show’s host Andy Rowe whether it was a level playing field for the two teams going into the final and replied: “No. So I’ll say no, (it) definitely wasn’t a level playing field.
“Yeah, it was just one of those things and yes, we could have won that game but I think you know, maybe it happened for the right reasons, but it definitely wasn’t a level playing field.”
Brooke represented New Zealand in 58 Tests and made his international debut against Argentina during the All Blacks’ triumphant 1987 Rugby World Cup campaign on home soil.
27 out of 35 members of the All Blacks’ touring party (including players and management) were sick in the build-up to the 1995 final and Brooke, who was among those who were ill, revealed when the food poisoning happened.
“I think it was the Thursday afternoon at the lunch that we had. It was nice,” he said. “Well, it’s not when it came out. It was not good. Yeah, it filled our boots but it came out quickly.”
The following year the All Blacks returned to South Africa and made history when they won the three-Test series 2–1 against the Springboks and became known as “the Incomparables” for their feat of winning a series in South Africa for the first time.
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Brooke said their loss to the Boks in the 1995 World Cup final and the All Blacks’ food poisoning in the build-up to that epic clash made their 1996 series triumph much sweeter.
“Doing the Test series winning, it was just beautiful and that sort of appeases me to you know (say) ‘okay equal’,” said the 59-year-old.
The All Blacks beat the Springboks in the opening Test of the series in Durban before heading to Pretoria for the second Test and the final match was played in Johannesburg.
Another All Blacks great, former scrum-half Justin Marshall, was also on that tour and said he remembers the senior players in the squad insisting that they have to win the clash in Pretoria to make history.
After the final whistle at Loftus Versfeld, the celebrations in the All Blacks camp were wild and Brooke looks back on that time fondly, particularly for the magnitude of the All Blacks’ achievement.
“That’s absolutely, exactly what you do (the celebrations) absolutely,” he said. “I was absolutely knackered on the bloody ground but I was just thinking and that’s just what everyone else is doing is just thinking ‘Sh*t! We’ve done it’.
“And that was a moment in time where you sort of think ‘Sh*t!’ And I look back, you know when you sort of see on the ground here and I think it was Mark Andrews (ex-Springboks lock) who was actually on the ground and he was quite upset and he actually pushed one of the All Blacks!
“And you just sit there and you think ‘Right we’ve done it!’ and that for me it just closes a massive door in life and you’ve gone down that journey and you’ve done it
“That’s fantastic. I loved it beautiful time.”
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