Ask Arnold Newell what it was like to watch his son debut for the All Blacks in front of 60-odd thousand at Ellis Park in South Africa, his reply; "the most excellent thing I could ever do to be quite honest".
It goes without saying that Arnold is a proud dad. He put a banner up in their small hometown of Leithfield, North of Canterbury letting the world know his son, Fletcher Newell, was an All Black.
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For a rugby-mad dad, you can imagine his reaction when after the game he was allowed onto the field to have a photo with Fletcher and the Freedom Trophy. Only, the All Blacks management went one step further.
"One of the training staff came over and said 'here ya go, would you like a ball?'".
"It was absolutely crazy," said Arnold.
Yes, he was given one of the official match balls from famous win over the Springboks.
Arnold Newell flew to South Africa to watch his son Fletcher run out in black for the first time and got a special memento to remember it. (Source: 1 Sport)
At this point it seemed too good to be true, then the following happened.
"Just about to get on the plane and they said it couldn't go on as hand luggage, so they put it in the hold with a tag attached."
Only it didn't arrive, somewhere between Johannesburg and Christchurch, it had gone AWOL.
"I had a couple of sleepless nights; I was a bit lost to be honest.. thinking all sorts of things," he said.
Then the best call one could wish for came, well second to hearing from his son Fletcher that he would in fact make his debut.
"Two days later I got a call from the airport, they couriered it out Thursday evening and yeah na I was pretty stoked," said Arnold.
He said it's "another piece of pride and joy" he plans to add to a collection which includes special Crusaders jerseys from Fletcher's title wins.
The Newell family is hoping Fletcher will be named in the 23 to play the Pumas on Saturday in the first All Blacks' Test in Christchurch in six years.
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