Richard Loe: Former All Black and nephew of Alex 'Grizz' Wyllie on his uncle's death and his impact on New Zealand rugby

New Zealand rugby has lost one of its all-time greats. 

Alex "Grizz" Wyllie MBE has died at the age of 80 after excelling as both a player and coach. 

Wyllie made 210 appearances for Canterbury as well as 40 matches for New Zealand, 11 of them tests.  

He coached Canterbury through a three-year Ranfurly Shield reign, famously ended by Auckland at Lancaster Park in 1985. 

Wyllie worked as an All Blacks assistant under Sir Brian Lochore before his own 86.2 percent winning tenure with them from 1988 to 1991. 

Former All Black and Wyllie’s nephew, Richard Loe told Mike Hosking he’s left his mark on the sport, and his history will continue for many decades to come. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Alex Wiley, as I'm well aware, one of rugby's greats
passed away yesterday. He was eighty. He had a ninety
one percent success rates as an All Blacks coach, played
eleven tests for the All Blacks in the early seventies.
Former All Black and his nephew, Richard Lowe, is what
this Richard, Very good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Good morning, Mike.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
I guess you're on that tricky business of sort of
private grief as a family having to sort of share
it with the nation, aren't you.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, I suppose you are the family, close family are
I think anyone tied up with rugby will be remembering
him for what he did.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
He was a time well I always saw him anyway
as a time and a place sort of bloke, hugely influential,
but in that old fashioned New Zealand not a lot
of words kind of with it way.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Yeah, I probably remember him this war was an uncle
that played for the All Blacks. But then it was
quite quite interesting. I departed score at Tairly early age
and ended up by playing Demark where he was captain
number eight, and along with him the Graham Higginsons and

(01:08):
the Andy Jeffords, another couple of all blacks, and you know,
you grow up from being a schoolboy to a young
man very quickly under that sort of leadership.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Was he likable beyond the gruffness?

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yeah, I think over the years he's mellowed, which a
lot will say. But you know, I heard Don Hayes
say about him last night. You know, yeah, he came
across as gruff and hard and everything, and which he
was in his playing days and probably coaching days two
But as Don said, he was a big, softy under thing.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Do you reckon? He transcends the ere. I always think
about people, I mean, twenty five year olds listening to
this game, griz who do you think he's bigger than
the era in which he was around specifically?

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah, probably probably is in a lot of ways. He
he coached and played with a hell of a lot
of people and left his mark, and I would suggest,
you know, that sort of thing we'll go down in history.
And I know up at the Glenmark Club he's held
right up high on the pedestal, so you know his

(02:17):
history will continue for many, many decades to come.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
Good good insight, Richard appreciator, Richard Low, who's nephew and
I'll tell this story later, but I played pool with
them once in Timrou and somebody just came up to me.
I happened to be in Timoru and they said, do
you want to play a game of pool with Gris Wiley?
Which is not what you expect because I wasn't in Timrou.
It wasn't like a professional circuit that we were traveling

(02:43):
in the Paul tournament circuit. I was in Timaru for
other reasons. They said, you want to play Gris Wiley,
and Paul I said why not.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
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