John Kirwan

Kia ora te whānau and welcome to Kiwi Yarns.

Today I'm bringing back an old favourite friend of the show, Sir John Kirwan.

JK is, in my opinion, an extremely exceptional New Zealander.

While he has earned legendary status as an All Black and for his commitment to the game long after pulling on or off that last jersey, It's his work and dogged fight to improve mental health here and across the world.

That is really quite special.

There's also like his Waz era, his love for ensuring people drink great wine, building a giant surf park, many more things.

Sir John Kirwan, aka JK, welcome back to Kiwi Yarns.

Oh, it's lovely to see you.

I don't often think of sports books to put in, but rugby, of course, is hugely popular.

And if you just type in the word rugby on the catalog into the search bar, you'll come up with every book that has-- mentions rugby, including The Centenary of the Greatest Game Under the Sun, One Hundred Years of Rugby League in Queensland, John Kirwan's Rugby World, The Game of Our Lives, The Story of Rugby and New Zealand and How They've Shaped Each Other, Running With the Ball, The Birth of Rugby Football.

So just come up with some huge ones.

Another one by ever, ever popular Peter Fitzsimons, Rugby Stories, Some Rucking Good Yarns.

All right.

So we had, um, uh, John Kirwan, JK.

Sorry, watch out for that name I just dropped.

[laughs]

"Hey, mate, my son's gonna drop you off some Aqua di Cedro limoncello.

So look after.

Uh, I'll get him to text you so he can tell you how to drink and mix it." John Kirwan-

Yeah

So when I was at boarding school, the Warriors turned up and had a training session on the gully.

And I went down there and I got Mark Ellis and John Kirwan's signatures on a T-shirt I was wearing while I was skating.

It was a Mike Villali T-shirt, the big elephant logo.

Which is pretty iconic.

go and wipe leaves of plants.

Well, it's funny because I feel like that was exactly what Sir John Kirwan tried to tell us years and years and years ago about, remember those ads where he said, I'm an active relaxer? Yes.

And now I understand that as I've hit 43.

I understand that I am also active.

I mean, she's obviously at the top of the charts in Instagram or whatever.

And so is that fucking idiot Pollock.

But that means fuck all, I think, to people who actually want to go and watch a game and have some pride.

Because fucking England men's, if you're...

Anyway, the BBC Sports Wales writer Chris Kirwan says...

A-I-R-W-A-N? Yeah.

I hope he's not the son of that idiot John Kirwan.

With the fucking glasses?

People don't want to watch Australian teams.

Isn't John Kirwan right then? If what you want is tribalism, you get rid of Super Rugby, you go back to an Australasian competition.

Well, I don't know that

you necessarily get rid of Super Rugby.