The 1980 Waikato Ranfurly Shield-winning squad. Ron Lockwood is middle row third from right.
The 1980 Waikato Ranfurly Shield-winning squad. Ron Lockwood is middle row third from right.
In the early days of his rugby career, former Māori All Black Ron Lockwood remembers facing Ron Peters, brother of Auckland Māori Rugby team captain Winston Peters - before his political career began - in a 1970s Prince of Wales rugby match.
Tolaga Bay-born Lockwood has led a storied life and rugby career, but several events stand out as iconic.
“My parents had a farm inland from Tolaga Bay, then we moved to Reporoa. I went to school there, and then I moved to Gisborne before I came up to Hamilton Boys’ High for a year before heading south,” Lockwood said.
He attended Reporoa District High School (now Reporoa College), Gisborne Boys’ High School and Hamilton Boys’ High School before studying at Christchurch’s Lincoln College (now Lincoln University) in the late 1960s.
He represented the Hamilton Boys’ High School First XV and recalls training almost every lunchtime and night.
At Lincoln, he played rugby alongside John Sisley - a player he would later lock with at Hamilton Old Boys and Waikato Rugby.
Between 1970 and 1972 Lockwood represented his adopted province, Canterbury, on 28 occasions.
The 1972 Canterbury Ranfurly Shield-winning side. Ron Lockwood is back row fourth from right.
In that time he was called into many representative sides. His first season in the black and red stripes saw Māori All Blacks and New Zealand Universities call-ups twice each, while also trialling for the Junior All Blacks.
Lockwood said that “he damn near got in” the baby blacks squad and if he had, he thinks he would have been the only player in history to represent the Junior All Blacks, New Zealand Universities and the Māori All Blacks all at once.
He enjoyed three years with the New Zealand Universities side as well as 1971-1972 with South Island Universities, a sole appearance for South Island in the 1972 North v South clash, a 1973 match for Cantabrians and six Prince of Wales Cup matches.
“In 1972 I played in the Prince of Wales Cup match - North Māori versus South Māori - and the second five-eighth for the North was Winston Peters’ brother Ron.”
Lockwood became a Māori All Blacks stalwart, appearing an impressive 21 times between 1970 and 1977.
While at Lincoln, he completed a Diploma in Agriculture and a Diploma in Property Valuation and Agricultural Consultancy.
This led him to a job with the State Advances Corporation in in Christchurch - a rural farm lending organisation that became the Rural Bank & Finance Corporation.
In 1973, Lockwood was transferred to work in the Waikato.
The 1972 South Island team. Ron Lockwood is back row third from left.
He hadn’t expected to continue being selected for representative rugby after his return north.
Joining Hamilton Old Boys Rugby Club, he was selected for the Waikato Rugby squad the following season and became a regular at both club and provincial level while holding his own for the Māori All Blacks.
Waikato #696 Lockwood appeared 60 times for the Mooloo men between 1974 and 1981.
He played on most provincial rugby grounds in New Zealand, including Auckland’s Eden Park, Ruatoria and Greymouth.
Across a vast 12-year career of 129 first-class games, he only scored four tries.
Iconically, two of these were for Waikato in 1977 - one against the touring British and Irish Lions - and the other two were in a match for the Wasps invitational side the following season.
Lockwood played against the British and Irish Lions on five occasions across two tours, 1971 - for Canterbury (as a reserve), New Zealand Universities and the Māori All Blacks - and 1977 for the Māori All Blacks and Waikato.
The Māori All Blacks game was on a Wednesday at Eden Park and the Waikato game on Saturday, just three days later at Hamilton.
Three All Blacks trials also came his way, one in 1972 and two in 1974.
After 1978, injury limited his representative appearances other than a few invitational games.
In those days, if you got injured, it was hard to push your way back into the starting team and reserves didn’t often get to take the field.
His swan song came with a final appearance for Waikato in 1981 before hanging up the boots.
The 1977 Māori All Blacks side that faced the British & Irish Lions. Ron Lockwood is middle row third from right.
After retiring, he spent more than 15 years with the New Zealand Harlequins Rugby Club as treasurer, vice president and president helping develop young players before stepping away to spend more time with his wife and three children.
Once the Rural Bank & Finance Corporation was absorbed by the National Bank, Lockwood became an AMP Society lending manager for the Taranaki, Waikato and Gisborne areas, before venturing out on his own in a partnership with two others as a registered valuer and agricultural consultant.
Many Waikato locals will know Lockwood for his decades of service to the area, valuing everything at first before concentrating mainly on farms and rural blocks.
Lockwood is based near Hamilton and in his downtime, he ventures to the beach to relax.
“My beach house is part of a block of units at Waihi Beach. The guy living in the unit next to mine is Wayne Smith. You go to Waihi Beach and there’s Sir Wayne Smith, Warren Gatland, Sir John Kirwan, Sir Grant Fox, Mils Muliaina - it’s like a ‘who’s who’ of rugby,” Lockwood said with a laugh.
“One of my neighbours went over to Waihi Beach and they decided they’d have a look at my beach house. They drove past, and here’s Wayne Smith.
“He mows his lawn and he mows my lawn in the front, which I really appreciate. I’m the only guy in the country who has a knight mowing his lawns. I have promised him a few wines for doing this.”
Sir Wayne Smith. Photo / Photosport
The pair have figured out they would have played Waikato Club Rugby against each other before Smith left for Canterbury in 1979 - Lockwood at lock for Hamilton Old Boys and Smith at centre for Putāruru.
Rugby has been a big part of Lockwood’s life and he’s thankful for the mates, memories, laughs and travel experiences that have all come from the oval-shaped ball.
