A day seared in memory
Book extract
The bell sounded as the ATR 72 rolled to a complete stop on the tarmac at Momona Airport. As it did, the Air New Zealand hostess waited patiently for passengers to rise from their seats and begin disembarkation. Normally there is a race to the exits, especially when a sports team is involved. Not this time. Most of the passengers remained seated, heads bowed, staring at their phones. At least a minute elapsed, and a further reminder from the hostess that it was time to get off was required before the passengers began to rise, many still staring intently at their phone screens as they did so. It was 15 March 2019, and the most heinous of hate crimes in New Zealand history had been perpetrated in Christchurch just hours earlier, shortly before the Crusaders had departed for Dunedin. The shootings at the city’s Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre claimed 51 lives. The incident had far-reaching consequences, for the country, and for the Crusaders, but that was still unknown as the players disembarked; the facts relating to the terror attack were still drip-feeding into the public domain. Sam Whitelock was due to play his first match of the year, having previously been stood down due to All Blacks player management requirements. Given the opposition was younger brother Luke Whitelock’s Highlanders, the skipper was especially looking forward to his return. He was driving home from Rugby Park to pick up his bags, before heading out to the airport, when first alerted to the incident by a message from his cousin [Crusaders hooker] Ben Funnell. ‘The early reports were quite confused, in terms of what had actually happened,’ Whitelock said. ‘Even by the time we all assembled out at the airport, and more information was starting to come out, the full extent wasn’t clear. ‘A few of the boys had kids who were in lockdown at school. I at least knew Hannah [his wife] was safe at home with my son Fred.’ Matt Todd was among the dads. One of his children was at Paparoa Primary in Papanui, not too far from the Northlands Mall. Both facilities were in lockdown due to reports of activity by an armed man nearby. Tim Bateman was another.
He had daughters at Cobham Intermediate and Burnside Primary.
After a quick meeting of the player leadership and management in the airport lounge before the team boarded its flight, it was decided to gather again as a team, once they had arrived in Dunedin, and the situation back in Christchurch was a little clearer. By the time the team landed, and the players had all consulted their phones, it was obvious that the incident was far bigger than could have been imagined an hour and a half earlier when they had left. The players and management staff met once the team bus had driven the 40 minutes in from the airport and they had made their accommodation.
By then, the full extent of what had taken place was becoming grimly clear, although all family members had been accounted for, and were safe.
It was decided to wait until the morning, when more information was available, before determining what, if any, action the team could take.
‘It was all a bit surreal,’ Todd said, ‘even for the guys who had been together through the earthquake. At least we’d been in Christchurch and close to our families then. This was different.’
‘I can remember during our first team meeting, Tom Sanders saying: ‘‘This doesn’t feel right. This is Christchurch. It’s our home, it’s not New York or anywhere like that’’,’ Whitelock said.
‘He pretty much spoke for everyone in the room.’
Just how shocked the players were was reflected by how they spent that night.
Most lingered around the team room, which is normally sparsely populated on the eve of games. Not many wanted to be alone in their rooms, Whitelock remembered.
By 10am, when the team assembled again, a decision had to be made on what to do next. ‘Do we play, or not?’
‘The majority didn’t really want to play, the meeting brought that out, but they were initially uncomfortable saying it.
‘No one wants to be the one to say he doesn’t want to play a game they are all trying to prepare for mentally.
‘If you say that, then the game goes ahead anyway, how do your teammates feel about you, both then and after?’
The discussion within the team room was earnest.
It was important that whatever outcome was arrived at, it was decided as a team.
‘There was a lot of emotion,’ Whitelock recalled, ‘the emotion of wanting to play, of not letting him [the shooter] win. But there was also the question of what was exactly the right thing to do in the circumstances.’
While what is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ in any emotive situation is a matter of opinion, with there being no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answer, the team eventually found its way to a common position.
Bateman suggested that while ‘we wouldn’t ever regret not playing, some, if not all of us, might regret it later, if we did.’
‘Everyone agreed with that, so the decision was made,’ Whitelock said, ‘and once we’d decided not to play, you could feel the relief in the room.’
‘It was a terrible situation. How could you put to one side something that had happened less than 24 hours earlier in your home, in order to concentrate on playing a game?’ Bateman said.
Whitelock was [later] ‘moved’ by the mosque scene, the fencing draped in flowers, as he, Hannah and Fred went to the mosque, and added their own to the thousands of bouquets laid outside the gate.
‘I was able to talk to Sonny Bill [Williams] and Ofa [Tu’ungafasi] about it a little bit [both are Muslim] as they understood the custom,’ Whitelock said.
‘Later on, when we were assembled with the All Blacks, Sonny, Ofa, Richie [Mo’unga] and I were able to visit the mosque, as well as meeting emergency staff, police and hospital staff who were on duty, to be able to say thanks for all they did that day and in the aftermath. It was just a chance to do the right thing by our community and say thanks.
‘I didn’t want it out in the public and the media because that was not why we went.’
While the Highlanders game had been abandoned, the Crusaders returned a week later, opposing the NSW Waratahs – ironically also their first opponents after the Christchurch earthquake – on a wet night at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
They lost, but the Crusaders were beaten just once across the final 13 games. ‘We had to go through that game to understand that while it’s great that we care, we still had to be rugby players and concentrate on our job,’ Whitelock said.
‘‘It was all a bit surreal — even for the guys who had been together through the earthquake.’’
Crusaders flanker Matt Todd