Tom Wyatt

Wyatt Crockett does not seem the most obvious man to set a new Super Rugby appearance record. But on Friday night, against the Sunwolves at AMI Stadium – his 176th game for the Crusaders – he will do just that. Scotty Stevenson has shared summer beers with Crockett through the lows and the highs. Here he reflects on rugby’s reluctant record-breaker.* Golden Bay is the kind of place that gives a compass a headache. It cradles the eastern side of the north-western edge of the South Island, a great arc of hill-ringed coastline that stretches from Separation Point to Farewell Spit. Separation to Farewell: it feels like one long goodbye.

by Scotty Stevenson