All Blacks bench gifted to community

Tasman Mako legends, All Blacks Shannon Frizell, Finlay Christie and Leicester Fainga’anuku, were back in town over the weekend as part of a special ceremony to bless a hand-crafted bench gifted to our community from the All Blacks.

Nelson was one of 26 communities selected from around the country to be a recipient of a bench, gifted from the All Blacks to thank Kiwi’s for their support ahead of the Rugby World Cup in France this September.

New Zealand Rugby Project Director Lauren Vosper spoke at the ceremony about the significance of All Blacks supporters being the ‘bench’ that extends well beyond the eight subs sitting on the field. 

“The bench is all of you, everybody that gets this team to the field wherever in the world the team are going.”

The ceremony, which took place on Sunday in Nelson’s historic Botanics Sports Field, aptly the site of the New Zealand’s first Rugby game in 1870, was attended by representatives from NZ Rugby, Nelson College and Junior Nelson Rugby Club, Nelson Mayor Nick Smith, Councillor Kahu Paki Paki and local kaumātua. 

Intended to provide a safe space for a moment of contemplation, celebration, or a place to sit down and have a chat, Mayor Nick acknowledged the gift as a reminder that the ‘bench’ is a place that unites and brings us together. 

“Now it’s our turn to have the backs of our All Blacks as they take on arch-rivals the Wallabies in the 2023 Bledisloe Cup, which is set to kick off on 29 July at the MCG in Melbourne followed by the second game at Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin on 5 August. Then it’s on to the Rugby World Cup 2023 in France. Go ABs,” Mayor Nick says.

Following the karakia and formalities, players from the Junior Nelson Rugby Club and Nelson College were given the opportunity to ask questions of the All Blacks, who spoke about how much the Nelson community means to them. 

The bench, carved from native timber features an exclusive All Blacks Tohu (symbol) designed by noted artist Tim Worrall (Ngāi Tūhoe) and message from the All Blacks team ‘Me Eke Mai’ meaning to ‘land/come and take/rest here’ which is a part of NZ Rugby’s whakapapa.
 
The outer segments of the design are Taniwha which represent teams, at the centre sit two kākanō (seeds of potential) in the shape of eyes of a bird (Manu). The Taniwha have been repositioned for this design to appear as wings (Parirau) so those sitting on the bench will have the All Blacks team wings wrapped around them, further symbolising that we are all in this together.