David Kirk

David Kirk

Player information
Full name	David Edward Kirk
birthday	5th October 1960
place of birth	Wellington , New Zealand
society
society	Career ended
position	Half of the crowd
Clubs as active
Years	society	Games (points)
1982-1985 1985-1987	Otago Auckland
National team
Years	National team	Games (points)
1983-1987	New Zealand	17 (24)
As of July 25, 1987

David Edward Kirk (born October 5, 1960 in Wellington ) is a former New Zealand rugby union player on the scrum half position . He was the captain of the New Zealand national team , which won the title at the first World Cup .

Life

Kirk grew up in Palmerston North on New Zealand's North Island. He went to Wanganui Collegiate School, later he received his doctorate in medicine from the University of Otago .

Kirk began playing rugby for the Otago Provincial Association in the 1980s . For his first use for the national team All Blacks he came on October 26, 1983 in the game against Edinburgh , which is not counted as an official international game. He played his first game against a national selection in 1985 against England . At that time he was already playing for Auckland Province .

Kirk became internationally known for not taking part in a tour of the New Zealanders to South Africa . At that time, any sporting contact with the apartheid regime was forbidden. Many players who referred to themselves as The Cavaliers ("the cavaliers"), however, did not adhere to it and played against the South African Springboks . Kirk was one of two internationals who did not join this group. The other players were banned for two games, so that a completely new squad had to be formed, which went down in history as "Baby Blacks".

After the actual captain of the national team Andy Dalton injured himself before the opening game of the 1987 World Cup against Italy , Kirk was named captain of New Zealand and remained so until the end of the tournament. The team won all games confidently with at least 20 points difference. After beating France in the final , it was Kirk who became the first player in history to receive the Webb Ellis Cup .

Kirk's rugby career ended abruptly after the World Cup tournament. He played one game for the Bledisloe Cup against Australia , before he put an end to his career since he was a Rhodes Scholar at Worcester College at the University of Oxford had received. He returned to New Zealand in the 1990s, where he coached Wellington's regional selection from 1993 to 1994 and later worked as an expert on print and TV media. He was also a member of the staff of Jim Bolger , the then Prime Minister of New Zealand.

In 1999, Kirk moved to Australia with his wife Brigit and their three sons Hugo, Barnaby and Harry to work as an entrepreneur there. He initially worked for the Australian office of the paper manufacturer Norske Skog before taking over the management of competitor PMP in 2003. In November 2005 he became CEO of Fairfax , a media company that publishes newspapers, magazines and websites in Australia and New Zealand. So include, among others The Sydney Morning Herald to offer the company.

Because of his media influence and his position as captain of the only New Zealand national team to win a World Cup tournament in rugby union, Kirk is in demand as an expert and opinion maker. After the quarter-final against France at the 2007 World Cup , he commented on the renewed elimination of the favored New Zealanders as follows:

“Unfortunately we are a dumb rugby nation. We miss the important games. (...) We fail because of the great challenges. "

On Australia's national holiday, Australia Day , David Kirk became an Australian citizen in 2009. As a justification for this step, he said that he has been living in Australia for 10 years and that his children have spent much of their childhood in that country and that he sees it as the right time. In March of that year it was announced that he had been appointed an independent director of the financial services company Forsyth Barr.

Web links

• All blacks profile

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Whole new ball game. The Sydney Morning Herald, August 27, 2005, accessed March 23, 2009 . 
2. ^ David Kirk kisses the Webb Ellis Cup, 1987. New Zealand History Online, October 23, 2007, accessed March 23, 2009 . 
3. ↑ France in rugby fever. taz, October 7, 2007, accessed March 23, 2009 . 
4. ^ Brendan Gallagher: Former All Black David Kirk becomes Australian citizen. Daily Telegraph, January 26, 2009; accessed March 23, 2009 . 
5. ↑ Chris Keall: David Kirk appointed Forsyth Barr director. (No longer available online.) The National Business Review, March 19, 2009, archived from the original on March 22, 2009 ; accessed on March 23, 2009 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.