WATCH: Belinda Henley talks with former All Black captain Sean Fitzpatrick who is in lockdown with his wife and daughter at their home in London.
In the first in a series of video interviews with prominent New Zealanders, Belinda Henley asks Sean Fitzpatrick what positives he sees emerging from the the current crisis.
The former All Black captain and member of the World Cup winning 1987 team says he has been reconnecting with former team mates and colleagues he had lost touch with.
He says the current crisis has made him more caring towards people, especially those in his own London neighbourhood and more appreciative of those who are at the forefront of the fight against Covid-19.
“The people that we are talking about now are not the sports stars, not the celebrities, they are the people at the front line -the health workers – the Jenny’s from Invercargill, they are the special people.”
He says it has hit home to him that it will take a co-ordinated effort at international level to beat the virus.
“It is so important that we are united as one – this is not one New Zealand or one England – this is a global fight. We will fight as one. The world is so connected now that if one country goes rogue the virus will start again.”
Fitzpatrick, who is involved with the Harlequins rugby club in London, thinks that the current crisis will create an opportunity for many sports to re-shape their offerings.
“It will be interesting to see who survives….there will be a realignment of how we operate, which in rugby is not a bad thing- in terms of where we were going pre-coronavirus, to where we need to get to make our game more sustainable, because the way it was it wasn’t sustainable.”
Fitzpatrick says the lockdown has given him time to watch replays of rugby matches, including the 87 World Cup and games his All Blacks team played in South Africa.
“Obviously, all the games we won. I haven’t watched any games that we lost yet!”
