'I'm their confidante' - George Duncan's 20 years with All Blacks

Rugby has been a big part of George Duncan's life for almost 40 years now with the "manual therapist" highly regarded from grassroots to Test level but after a long stint at the All Blacks, he'll be stepping away from the black jersey after this World Cup. He spoke to Andrew Saville as part of 1News Sports' "Behind Black" series.

Sitting down with Duncan, it becomes apparent quickly that he is a man that truly loves his sport and his craft.

As a muscle therapist, he started out at grassroots with Ōtāhuhu, then doing provincial work with Auckland before Super Rugby came calling via the Blues.

All the while, he took pride in every player he saw.

“It's one of those things where you get very attached to the players, to the environment, the job,” he said before letting his emotions show.

“It's a different relationship — I'm kind of their confidante, they can talk to me about stuff and I don't repeat anything if I don't think it's right.

“I've always had a rule that you keep the coaches out, you don't want them getting coaching while they're getting treatment or strapping cos that's their domain to relax.

"Whatever happens in there stay in there.”

Despite his growing recognition, a certain rugby coach didn’t want a bar of him in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

“It was a tour to Argentina in 1990,” Duncan recalled.

“I met Graham Henry, who didn't want me because I wasn't a physiotherapist.”

But despite his obvious resentment, Henry included Duncan in their tour to South America where either sheer coincidence or fate intervened.

“Who got injured first playing touch when we got off the plane? Graham Henry,” Duncan laughed. “Pulled his hamstring.

"To his credit, after about a week he took me out for a few beers and said, 'I think I've been wrong about you’ and we came back best mates.”

The rest is history with Duncan now having been to five World Cups with the All Blacks in 20 years with the team.

In 20 years at the peak of rugby, and working in the manner that he does, Duncan has come across a wide range of players and staff in his time.

In fact, early on there were a certain bunch who Duncan admitted could be intimidating.

“When you go back to the late '80s, early '90s, the likes of Sean Fitzpatrick, Zinzan Brooke — all of those guys, they were a hard crew,” he said.

“They told you what to do, where to be and they tested you because they wanted to see how they could crack you.”

Duncan said times have definitely changed since but the rapport remains the same.

“The rugby player hasn't changed — they still laugh at the same things, the front row laughs at same things, the front row has same banter.

“That's just people, what's changed is the demands.”

In the thick of his All Blacks tenure though, a certain player and their injury stands out — Richie McCaw and his infamous foot at the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

Ahead of captaining the All Blacks on home soil as they looked to win their first World Cup since 1987, McCaw suffered a stress fracture in his right foot early in the Super Rugby season.

The skipper didn’t get it x-rayed so it couldn’t be confirmed, and instead played through the pain on the way to World Cup glory at Eden Park at the end of the year.

All the while, Duncan was there helping manage the situation.

“I worked on that foot every day for that World Cup,” he said.

“There's a saying in rugby — ‘leave it out on the field’. He left it out on the field, he left everything.”

But McCaw’s story is just one of hundreds Duncan can tell although this chapter of his rugby career is coming to an end in France.

Duncan will depart the team after the World Cup and will do so without a single doubt in his mind.

“I've enjoyed every minute, every second,” he said. “I’ve learned a lot about teams and how they cope with situations.

“I've been the luckiest man in the world, really, to have all this time.”

And his players would say the same thing about that time being invested in them.