Sunday News: George Nepia's son has revealed the legendary fullback carried to his grave a feeling of sadness at being banned from playing rugby in South Africa.
The NZRU refused to select George – along with fellow Maori member of the 1924-25 Invincibles, Jimmy Mill – for the All Blacks' 1928 tour of the republic, to appease racist South African officials.
Eldest son Oma Nepia, said his dad, who died in 1986 in the East Coast township of Ruatoria at 81, never got over the snub.
He had been desperate to unleash his ferocious tackling on the Springboks.
"Dad was known in the 1924 team as the "Prince of Tacklers". I was told by his teammates that he would have... knocked quite a few of them [Springboks] out head-on," Oma said. "He wasn't scared on the field – he was fearless.
"It [being banned for being Maori] disappointed him – and Jimmy Mill."
Oma said the race ban was still resented by the Nepia family. He applauded South Africa's Sport and Recreation Minister Makhenkesi Stofile for issuing an official apology. He said the NZRU should follow suit.
"Half of the blame should have been put onto the New Zealand Rugby Union for being dictated to by the South Africans, who said: `You tour under our conditions or don't come'," Oma said. "Our rugby union [shouldn't] have backed down. Maybe it [Stofile's apology] will wake our rugby union up."
Oma's son, George Nepia jnr, said recently: "We had an NZRU administration that saw fit to fall into line with another country's political agenda. That is a sad indictment of the obvious naivete and lack of what Maori would call kaha [courage].
"The team that my grandfather toured with in 1924 was unbeaten. I think that's a pretty telling indication as to why the South African Rugby Union didn't want any Maori playing in the team.
"Because to be beaten by white All Blacks, they could probably swallow that; but to be beaten by, in their eyes, the same skin as the people they were oppressing – I don't think that would have gone down too well. "Who is it [an apology] going to hurt?"
12 May, 2010
