Going Going Gone: Willie Jackson’s tribute to Sid Going

I thought Sid Going was the greatest Māori rugby player I had ever seen when I was growing up.

He was a match-winner supreme. I remember when he was dropped from the All Blacks in 1977, and in his very next game for the Māori All Blacks he caught Lions halfback Douglas Morgan twice behind the scrum and scored two tries.

Eden Park went crazy and everyone just loved him. Sadly, the Māori side still lost 22-19 that day, but Super Sid, as he was known, was just incredible.

We all watched him and his two brothers, Ken and Brian, do their triple scissors for the great North Auckland team and the “Going, going, gone” commentary still resonates in my head from all those years ago.

I never thought he was treated respectfully enough by All Blacks selectors, so it was great in 1974 when he stood his ground after being dropped earlier in the year and made it clear he wouldn’t play for the All Blacks on the Irish tour unless they picked his 32-year-old fullback brother Ken.

They obliged and Sid played magnificently on that tour where they beat Ireland and Wales, and drew with a virtual Lions team in only a seven-day window.

He outplayed Wales’ Gareth Edwards, rated by most experts as the greatest halfback of the 20th century, nearly every time they met. In fact, Gareth confessed he just didn’t know how to handle Sid, so it was an honour to meet him over the years and spend a little time with him at Māori television; he will forever be one of my greatest rugby heroes.

Moe mai ra e te rangatira.

Willie Jackson is a Labour MP and was a former Māori sports broadcaster whose grandfather, Everard Jackson, was an All Black from 1936 to 1938 and a Māori All Black.