Matt Lord - a Rugby Journey

By Ashley Potter
July 17 2009

This article appeared in the Chron a few weeks ago. To reach a wider audience, we publish it here with thanks to both the Chronicle & Echo,and to the author, Ashley Potter, who managed to get more words out of Matt in one interview than the popular lock had uttered in his whole time with the club.

It seems almost cruel that the moment the driving maul is brought back to rugby, Saints lose one of its most enthusiastic exponents of the art. Matt Lord's wild mop of hair seesawing manically as he urged the Saints pack converged around him for more effort to drive the opposition back was a sight that always gladdened the hearts of the Franklin's Gardens faithful.

The big Kiwi, affectionately known by fans thanks to his hair and tallness as Wookiee (Chewbaca from Star Wars is one of them), has headed back to the farm in Owhango this summer, bringing to an end six years at the Gardens. Lord was only meant to be here for six months when he arrived at Christmas 2002 to cover an injury crisis in the second row, but quickly cemented his place in the fans' hearts and hung around a lot longer.

A badly broken foot has finally ended not only his Saints career but his rugby career, but it is a career rich in understated bravery and heart that saw a man that could barely mumble an answer in his first interview for the club, go on to captain the side and be probably the only lock to be voted by fans as the Chronicle & Echo player of the year.

For such a humble man, it was perhaps appropriate that there was no big fanfare for his departure. The injury came as he gave his all for the Wanderers, so there was no swansong in a Saints shirt. Instead, Lord hesitantly got to his feet and waved to fans from the dugout at Tom Smith's testimonial game as it was announced he was retiring over the sound system - ignoring players beckoning him on to the pitch.

No fuss, that's how Lord likes it. He was just doing his job, as he puts it.

He even tried to shake off his career ending injury, trying to walk with four broken metatarsals in his foot and not telling anybody for weeks he had dislocated his shoulder. "It was against Bath," says Lord. "I made a tackle and went to compete on the ball, but another person came to clear me out and he sort of got my shoulder. As I stood up to get out of it my foot snapped. I tried to walk afterwards, but I couldn't get up. "My shoulder was sore as well, but I thought if I kept quiet it might disappear after two or three weeks." Funnily enough it didn't, and after using crutches for five weeks, Lord thought he better mention it to the physio.

They found he had a slight dislocation and a fracture, which would mean a second operation after wires were put in to mend his foot. With his foot in a mess, doctors advised Lord he should concentrate on walking properly again rather than playing rugby. "It is disappointing, it is not something you want to hear," says Lord. "I was thinking another two or three years playing rugby. But you have to get on with it. The big thing is to get my foot sorted out before I move on."

Chances are Lord might have been moving on anyway. After 154 appearances for the club he had found himself in the Wanderers for much of the season. "There were a few options back at home," says Lord. "I hadn't really got to that stage, but when this came along it changed things. "I wasn't in the starting line-up as much as I would have liked, but fair play to the boys they had been playing well all season and you have those young fellas coming through in Courtney Lawes and James Cannon, who has done well. It might have been time to move on anyway."

For the time being, Lord is heading back to little Owhango on the north island of New Zealand to work on his dad's dairy farm. "It's nice," says Lord. "The farm is surrounded by the bush, the mountains are 20 minutes away. It is quite quiet, with not many people to talk to, so the boys will probably say I am in my element."

The quiet man of the second row got a ringing endorsement from the quiet man of the front row, with Tom Smith saying Lord was one the best scrummagers he ever had behind him, which from somebody with 62 Scotland caps and six Lions Test jerseys is quite an accolade.

Lord, aptly, had humble beginnings, playing football until he was 10 because of his English father, who came in pretty handy further down the line. Then he started playing rugby at school in Taumarunui - a 20-minute bus ride away. He made little impact on the representative teams as a youngster, moving to Thames after school to play rugby and work in a slaughterhouse. Lord was saving money to visit his father's family in Lancaster when his first big break came in typically reticent fashion. "The physio at Thames, said ‘would you consider playing for Takapuna in Auckland', and I just said ‘yes', being polite," said Lord. "Two weeks later I got a phone call saying would I like to play for Takapuna? so I said ‘yes, sweet as'."

Takapuna were a step up, with Milan Yelavich, a future assistant coach at top kiwi club North Harbour, in charge. They found Lord a job putting retainer walls in on motorways and it was ‘happy days' for the then 20-year-old, who walked in on another lifechanging decision on his first day at the club. Lord had played all his career up until then in the back row, but says: "The first day I turned up at training and the coach (Yelavich), he just looked at me and said ‘you're playing lock', and I never quite managed to get out of it. "That was one of the better decisions he made for me."

Takapuna had All Blacks Eric Rush and Glen Osborne in their side, but it wasn't until the following season that Lord joined them in the National Provincial Championship (NPC) with North Harbour. Their coach back then was one Wayne ‘Buck' Shelford. The former All Blacks skipper took over coaching his old provincial side after finishing his playing days with Saints in 1997. And Lord remembers it was quite a moment to get the phone call from one of his boyhood heroes. "Buck gave me the old phone call when I was driving off to work," says Lord. "I thought it was one of the boys being smart and I said ‘I won't be there'. He said ‘you better be boy, I've got some boots you can use'. "Because he knew I was at work, he had all the kit there when I turned up. "He was a hero of mine, when I was playing as a kid I was given a book signed by Buck Shelford, so it was a big buzz. "They had All Blacks Troy Flavell, (future Saint) Mark Robinson, Walter Little and Frano Botica playing for them.

That was quite a big thing to walk into the changing room and these fellas were there, you want to take your autograph book with you. "I probably didn't speak to anybody for a few months as normal." Lord went on to play for three seasons for Harbour, but neglected to mention that he was the club's player's player of the year in 2001.

He also made one appearance for Auckland Blues in the Super 12 alongside Carlos Spencer. Sean Fitzpatrick presented Lord with a jersey afterwards, which was ‘quite a buzz', but it seems his one game against Canterbury Crusaders was blighted by the try that never was. "I got an interception and I was going for the line," says Lord. "But I was stopped two or three metres short. Apparently on TV they were saying if it was Troy Flavell he would have scored!"

In 2002 Lord was getting some shut-eye for another day on the motorways when he was awoken in the middle of the night by a phone call that would change his life. "It was Wayne Smith and he said: ‘Can you get a on a plane and be in Northampton by Thursday? It was a bit of a shock. I had two or three days to sort it out, and left the family behind." Quicker than you could say ‘sweet as', Lord was a professional rugby player and no longer training twice a week in the evenings after hammering great big slabs of concrete into position.

"It was a shock," says Lord. "Usually I would get up and go to work and suddenly I was going to training. I hadn't really classed rugby as work,it was something I enjoyed. "That phone call made a big difference to my life. Johan Ackerman had an injury and a couple of other niggles, so they needed somebody to come in straight away. "It was only meant to be until the end of the season, but it lasted a bit longer than that.

"I got here on the Thursday and then went up to Leeds on the Friday and I was on the bench and got on for 20 minutes on the Saturday. "Smithy wouldn't let me go to sleep when I first arrived. "He took me to the club to meet everyone and filled me full of coffee, then I had to learn all the lineouts. "I always thought I would want to play a bit of rugby on the other side of the world. "I had heard of Ben Cohen, Steve Thompson, AB (Andrew Blowers) was here and Bruce (Reihana) had just signed from New Zealand. That was big news back home, but I don't think my signing made the news."

Smith had spotted Lord when the big lock was called up to the New Zealand Academy, where the future Saints boss was coaching. Lord was part of a side that Smith wrung every ounce out of as they finished third twice, but bowed out of the Premiership play-offs at the semi-final stage each time. Wookiee became an integral part of a side drenched in internationals and in 2004/05 his hair-shaking commitment earned Lord the Chronicle & Echo player of the year gong.

"Smithy always made sure you knew what was going on," said Lord. "That is what made him quite special. He gave me an induction on the history of the club and the players who represented it. He was big on you earn your jersey, it is only yours for that game. "The game over here was more forward orientated. You play 30-odd games and different styles. In the summer when the pitches are hard it is running rugby and then atChristmas it is a different style of rugby. "In the NPC we play 10 or 11

games then go back to work and play club rugby. "I will always be grateful to Smithy for bringing me here, I thoroughly enjoyed my time under him. Everything was repeated, he would tell you exactly what you wanted you to do and we had some pretty decent backs "I was surprised to be player of the year, there was a lot of class players about at the time. That was quite a buzz. I always try to do the basics right and work hard. I was just doing my job. You just give everything and see what happens, if it pays off, it pays off."

Lord picks out Danny Grewcock and Simon Shaw as his most fearsome opponents in the premiership. "Grewcock was always in your face in his day," said Lord. "When I first come over, Shaw was playing for England. He was running through backs left, right and centre and he ran through me in the semi-final we had with Wasps, Smithy reminded me of that afterwards."

Highlights for Lord were his first start for the club when Saints beat Leicester at Welford Road, beating Biarritz in the Heineken Cup quarterfinal in San Sebastian and the 2003 Powergen Cup final against Gloucester. Lord adds: "We lost, but for me it was a buzz to run out at Twickenham, you hear so much about Twickenham."

Mostly, though, Lord will remember the mates he has made in Northampton, and of course the fans. "They've been pretty special, especially when we got relegated. For so many to turn out every week in division one was awesome," says Lord, who rated that as his biggest low at the club. Lord feels the club is in good hands now under Jim Mallinder and despite being 1,000s of miles away in the remote Owhango, the power of the internet will keep him in touch with Saints. "I hope they have the internet anyway..." adds Lord.

Matt Lord - a Rugby Journey

Posted by: ComeOnYouSaints.com (IP Logged)

Date: 17/07/2009 16:15

What do you think? You can have your say by posting below.
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.