Sean Fitzpatrick knows a thing or two about winning. The most successful captain of the most successful team of all time, he was part of a culture in which winning was the norm, failure was unacceptable, and every member of the team was striving to fulfil their potential.

92 internationals, 64 victories, 51 of which were as captain, the facts on Fitzpatrick’s playing CV speak for themselves.

Speaking at a conference for Winning Scotland Foundation’s ‘Winning Mentors’ programme, Fitzpatrick gave an insight into his lengthy and successful career and what it takes to progress from a ‘little fat kid growing up in New Zealand’ to becoming the best hooker on the planet.

In The Winning Zone was lucky enough to be amongst some of Scotland’s current rugby internationalists and greats from the past, to hear the man himself on what winning really means. We’ve picked out a number of crucial turning points throughout Fitzpatrick’s life which helped him on his successful quest to be the best...

March 1977: Sacred Heart High School, Auckland, New Zealand.

As is the case with most young aspiring athletes, sport for Fitzpatrick began at school. However, his introduction to rugby wasn’t the norm. “I was a little fat kid, I dreamed of playing for the All Blacks but I never thought I’d play for them,” he said. Fitzpatrick attended a strong rugby school, Sacred Heart College in Auckland. His early memories of school-age rugby remain crystal-clear, if not career defining.

Instead of walking confidently into the school’s first team, Fitzpatrick was made to walk all the way past the first fifteen school rugby teams to take his place on the 16th team.

“We had fifteen pitches at Sacred Heart College, field number sixteen was our baseball diamond, our hockey pitch, our football pitch, cricket oval in the summer and it’s where I first trained. We turned up there to be greeted by our accounting teacher, Guy Davies, who was a Fijian.  He had a big afro, he knew hardly anything about rugby union and he could hardly speak English, but he said to us three things that changed our lives.

“First thing, he said ‘everyone on this team is equal, from me right through, everyone is equal.’ Second thing, ‘all I want when you turn up at field number 16, is to turn up with a big attitude; thirdly all I want is for you individually to be as successful as you can be. Be as successful as you can be.’”

Fitzpatrick believes that this advice, and the attitude which he invested in after this comment, helped him to work his way up from the 16th team at Sacred Heart High School to become the most successful All Blacks captain of all time.

Summer 1983: San Diego, USA.

Fitzpatrick played his first game for club side Auckland in 1983 during a world tour. “I thought I played OK, but my lineout throwing was terrible,” he recalls. He was selected to play against the USA Eagles in San Diego, but he was petrified to go lineout training. “In our lineout we had the great Andy Hayden, Gary and Alan Whetton, they expected everything to exactly as it should be.”

“GET IT RIGHT,” barked Andy Hayden after Fitzpatrick had made two inaccurate deliveries. The third was also wrong, and this marked a turning point in Fitzpatrick’s career. He didn’t play for Auckland for another three years. Instead, he took himself away from the limelight and mastered the art of throwing the ball into a lineout. He approached the best hooker in the country, Kevin Boyle, and asked him if he could teach him how to throw the ball in.

Night after night, for 6 months, Fitzpatrick would practice his lineout throwing, with whoever he could persuade to join him. His hard work paid off when Hayden approached him, and having heard of the hard work he had been putting into his game, decided that he wanted to help him. This, in turn, led to Fitzpatrick being called up to the All Blacks, where he became a mainstay in the side.

Winter 1991: Sydney, Australia.

In 1991, an All Black team which Fitzpatrick conceded ‘had their heads in the sand’, became slightly complacent and lost to Australia in the World Cup semi-final. Fitzpatrick admitted that he thought he was better than Australian hooker Phil Kearns, he didn’t respect him.

Later that year, Fitzpatrick was in Italy for fellow All Black, John Kirwan’s wedding in Treviso. En-route back to New Zealand, he stopped in Sydney. Fitzpatrick had achieved everything he wanted to as an All Black and was seriously considering retiring from international rugby, that was until he picked up the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper...

“There was a picture on the back page of big fat Phil Kearns in one hand he had the Rugby World Cup and in the other hand he had the Sailing Americas Cup.  The heading was: ‘The best hooker in the world now becomes the best sailor in the world.’ I looked and I thought, ‘No, I’m the best hooker in the world’, and it dawned on me that he actually was so much better than me.”

Reading the article, Fitzpatrick was hit by the realization that he had become complacent, perhaps slightly arrogant, everything that an All Black shouldn’t be. From that day, he got himself back on the rails and started to respect not only himself but the All Black’s jersey. In six weeks, he had changed his attitude and started the most successful chapter of his career, as captain of the All Blacks.

Summer 1993: Athletic Park, Wellington, New Zealand.

Although he has had more than a handful of highs in his career, winning over 70% of the internationals he played in, perhaps the greatest example of his professionalism comes when Sean Fitzpatrick mentions his most memorable moment as an All Black...

New Zealand have just lost the second test against the British and Irish Lions. Fifteen dejected All Blacks trudge into the changing room to be addressed by their captain, Sean Fitzpatrick.

“Make a mental note of the way you feel right now,” he says “and make sure you never ever, ever feel that way again.”  The words ring around the room, reminding the players of the winning culture which exists within the team. “As All Blacks, you’re told under no uncertain terms to remember your losses more than your wins,” he commented. “Remember your losses more than your wins.”

They won the third test 30-13 and with it, the series. 

These various defining turning points throughout Fitzpatrick’s long and successful career underline that with the right attitude and determination, it is possible to achieve any ambitions. 

Sean Fitzpatrick grew as an athlete in a culture in which winning was the norm, winning was expected and every player that pulled on the black shirt held a belief that they would not leave the field without victory.

His hard work and determination helped him progress  from running past the top teams onto the 16th field at Sacred high School to leading his country to a record number of victories on the international field.

IC
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