KEY POINTS:
Frank Endacott, the former Kiwi and Warriors coach, lives with his wife Joan on what might be termed a lifestyle block at Clarkville, on the outskirts of Christchurch.
Twenty cows graze away. But Endacott has not become "Farmer Frank" and is still heavily involved as a player manager
in league, the game he has loved for half a century. He also pops up on radio, commenting on issues.
Endacott has been recognised for his services to league by being appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
He is delighted and jokes, "I walk a little straighter now".
In terms of profile, the 58-year-old Endacott has moved off centre stage since his coaching career ended with the relegation of English club Widnes last year.
That completed a 25-year career that included coaching the national side from 1994-2000 and the Warriors for one and a half seasons in the late 1990s, jobs which often made him the jovial face of the game in New Zealand.
Endacott first made his name as coach of the Canterbury side that strung together victories over Auckland in Christchurch, and he then moved to the fledgling Warriors as reserve grade boss.
When John Monie was sacked, Endacott took over the first grade side, only to be removed soon afterwards when the club was sold.
Endacott is best remembered as the Kiwis coach, his 35 tests bringing 22 wins and two draws. The Kiwis trampled over Great Britain in that time, and his sides beat three Australian teams without winning a series.
The blood-and-guts 22-16 win at North Harbour Stadium in 1998 remains his favourite memory.
Australia fielded a team including greats Andrew Johns, Laurie Daley, Brad Fittler, Steve Renouf, Wendell Sailor, Glenn Lazarus and Darren Lockyer. A battered Kiwi side, which had lost prop John Lomax in the first two minutes, won with a 79th-minute try. "That was the best Australian side of the last three decades," says Endacott.
"We were down to one man on the bench. To win under those circumstances ... the pride and courage the Kiwis showed that night will remain with me always."
There is one major low in the Endacott career: he would have liked a longer stint at the Warriors.
There might have been another, in 1995, when the Kiwis had to mount a comeback to beat Tonga in a World Cup game at Warrington.
"I'd replaced Gary Freeman with Stacey Jones and Gary was our runner," says Endacott, recounting his favourite story from the match.
"We needed 13 points in the last seven minutes and I sent Gary on with a message for our captain, Matthew Ridge. I saw Gary shake his head as he came off. He got on the phone and said, 'Ridgey says not to worry - everything is under control'.
"That's Ridgey. Gary Kemble [the assistant coach] and I started laughing ... if only people had seen us.
Ridge kicked two sideline conversions and a left-footed drop goal to win the game."
The great near-miss of Endacott's career also came in the 1995 tournament and was partly due to the worst goal attempt of Ridge's career as the Kiwis failed in a brilliant semifinal comeback bid against Australia at Huddersfield.
Apart from the small farm venture, Endacott has a property development at Kaikoura with his son Shane, a brief Warrior. And Endacott is in partnership with former Kiwi prop Peter Brown as a league player manager. It is a seven-day-a-week job, and the pair spend most of June in England where most of their 100 players are based.
"You win some, you lose some," says Endacott, as he recalled a Warriors backflip that cost them a big-money deal for Stacey Jones at Wigan.
England may not have brought Endacott his greatest coaching success, as he was sacked as Wigan boss, then fell short with the Widnes rescue bid. But it is providing a rewarding postscript to one of the most high-profile New Zealand league careers of the past two decades.
