Sean Fitzpatrick was a very special guest alongside Keith Wood for Wednesday Night Rugby on Off The Ball as the All Blacks legend looked back on his incredible career.

Fitzpatrick is remembered as one of the greats of the game and was a member of the 1987 World Cup-winning side.

However, the following tournament in 1991 was a tough one for Fitzpatrick and became a career crossroads for the hooker.

As is so often the case ahead of a major tournament, New Zealand were the favorites for the 1991 Rugby World Cup as reigning champions.

In what would become a habit until 2007, the All Blacks did not justify the favourites' tag losing a semi-final to eventual champions Australia at Lansdowne Road.

While the hooker would go on to become one of the All Blacks' greatest-ever captains, in the wake of that tournament, he was considering retiring from the game aged just 27.

"No, you're a fat bugger"

Having taken the World Cup elimination hard and anticipating a hostile reception upon returning home, Fitzpatrick decided to decamp to Sydney to let the dust settle, before making the final leg of his homeward journey.

There was no refuge to be found in Sydney though. "On the back page of the Sydney Morning Herald," recalls the Kiwi hooker, "there was my opposite number, Phil Kearns, with the Americas' Cup in one hand and the Rugby World Cup in the other. It said 'the world's best hooker and now the world's best sailor.'

"I said to my wife, 'darling I'm the best hooker in the world,' and she said 'no, you're a fat bugger.'

"We went home and I decided I wanted to be an All Black again. I don't want to finish like this."

All Blacks trials

It would not be a completely straightforward way back into the fold for Fitzpatrick though.

"Laurie Mains called me up in March 1992," remembers Fitzpatrick, "and he said 'Would you like to be an All Black again, Sean?'

"I said 'Laurie, I'd love to be an All Black again.' He said 'Well you're probably not going to be.'

"Firstly, you're too fat, secondly you're too slow, thirdly, you're bloody arrogant.' And the thing that hurt me most of all, he said 'you've lost respect for the All Black jersey.'

"With that was almost a changing of the guard, really. I stripped everything back to the bare boards. He agreed to give me an opportunity in the All Black trials if I changed.

"I was as fit as I had ever been and with that, I was selected for the trials. Mike Brewer was going to be the captain but, unfortunately, he got injured in the trials.

"There was literally no-one else, a lot of my mates who had played in the previous years had been dropped because they didn't change."

All Blacks captaincy

Not the finest background for a captain to be given the armband.

"And with that, there was literally nobody else to be captain, and that's how I became captain.

"I didn't really want to be captain, I was quite selfish,  I just did my own job really well. I didn't really transcend ages, I didn't really know about different cultures.

"As captain, you had to learn all those things. I always say my career is in two blocks, the first six years and the second six years.

"Without question, the second six years, when I was captain, I was a much better player, fitter, faster, stronger than I had ever been, analysed the game better than I ever had.

"Most importantly though, and this is what Laurie was talking about, I was a much better person. That's what Laurie had done. He had changed the way All Blacks were selected.

"Laurie wanted to select good people and then turn them into great All Blacks."

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