George Dreadon Simpkin (22 May 1943 – 7 May 2020) was a

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

coach, known for working with the national teams of Fiji,

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

and Sri Lanka. He made a great contribution to the development of

and rugby sevens in those countries.

Biography

Early coaching career

A native of Northland, he taught at

Matamata College Matamata College is a co-educational state secondary school located in Matamata, New Zealand. History The college was declared open on 11 February 1924 by the Minister for Education, James Parr. In July 2012, a student was killed by a tra ...

, where he began his coaching career in 1966 as a physical education teacher and Rugby coach, leading the Matamata College 1st XV on a groundbreaking (for a schoolboys team) tour of Wales at the end of 1974. At the time, the team was the holder of the Tricolour Trophy. Between 1976 and 1984. Simpkin coached

Waikato Waikato () is a local government region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato District, Waipa District, Matamata-Piako District, South Waikato District and Hamilton City, as well as Hauraki, Coromandel Peninsul ...

and achieved 56 victories in a row. As part of the Waikato team, he advanced to the first division of the

National Provincial Championship The National Provincial Championship may refer to: * National Provincial Championship (1976–2005), original competition before reform into 14 sides * National Provincial Championship (2006–present) The National Provincial Championship, o ...

, winning in 1980 the

Ranfurly Shield The Ranfurly Shield, colloquially known as the Log o' Wood, is a trophy in New Zealand's domestic rugby union competition. First played for in 1904, the Shield is based on a challenge system. The holding union must defend the shield in challeng ...

, beating the

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...

team. In aggregate, under his leadership, Waikato played 152 matches in the provincial championship, winning 95 matches, drawing 3 and losing 54, among these, Waikato won a match against the French national team. Simpkin dreamed of one day becoming the head of

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987, ...

Fiji

Between 1987 and 1991, Simpkin coached the Fiji national team: in 1987 he took the team to the quarterfinals of the first world championship in tandem with Jo Sovau; in 1991 he coached alongside Samisoni Viriviri, however, the team did not get past the group stage. Simpkin also coached the Fiji Sevens team between 1984 and 1990, with which he won the annual

Hong Kong Sevens The Hong Kong Sevens () is an rugby sevens tournament held annually in Hong Kong on a weekend in late March or early April. Considered the premier tournament on the World Rugby Sevens Series competition, the Hong Kong Sevens is currently the s ...

in 1984 and 1990. It is believed that it was Simpkin who saw the talent of the future world star

Waisale Serevi Waisale Tikoisolomoni Serevi (born 20 May 1968) is a Fijian former rugby union football player and coach, and is a member of the World Rugby Hall of Fame. Serevi is renowned for his achievements in rugby sevens, while also enjoying a long car ...

Hong Kong and China

In 1988–1999, he permanently worked in the

Hong Kong Rugby Football Union Hong Kong Rugby Union (HKRU) is the governing body for rugby union in Hong Kong. It was founded in 1952 and became affiliated to World Rugby (then known as the International Rugby Board) in 1988.Bath, Richard (ed.) ''The Complete Book of Rugby'' ...

, developing rugby in China and organizing the first matches among the PLA military personnel in Hong Kong after the British transfer of Hong Kong to China in 1997. His contribution to the development of Hong Kong rugby is highly regarded in the country: Simpkin helped the Hong Kong tournament acquire the status of the most prestigious, creating a number of rugby clubs (Hong Kong Dragons, Gai Wu, Tigers, Bulls, Nomads, Typhoons).

Sri Lanka

For some time, Simpkin also worked with the national teams of Sri Lanka, raising the level of development of sports in the country. The rugby union team under his leadership won for the first time in a test match played away against

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

. In 2003, thanks to his efforts, the first Carlton Super Sevens tournament was held in Sri Lanka.

End of career

Later, Simpkin coached the German club

SC Frankfurt 1880 The Sport-Club Frankfurt 1880 e.V. (or SC 1880 Frankfurt) is a German sports club from Frankfurt am Main. The club is mainly known for its rugby union team, which currently plays in the Rugby-Bundesliga, the highest level of the league system for ...

in the 2006–07 season. In 2010, he led the Germany sevens team, which he was preparing for the

2016 Olympic Games ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro d ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

Contribution to the development of world rugby

It is believed that George Simpkin developed a plastic

kicking tee A tee is a stand used in sport to support and elevate a stationary ball prior to striking with a foot, club or bat. Tees are used extensively in golf, tee-ball, baseball, American football, and rugby. Etymology The word tee is derived from the ...

(influenced by the Canadians) on which the ball is placed before a conversion or free kick. These tees were later used in rugby by top kickers such as

Andrew Mehrtens Andrew Philip Mehrtens (born 28 April 1973) is a New Zealand former rugby union player. He was regarded as a top first five-eighth, having played first for Canterbury in 1993, before being selected for the All Blacks (New Zealand's national te ...

, Joel Stransky,

John Eales John Eales AM (born 27 June 1970) is an Australian former rugby union player and the most successful captain in the history of Australian rugby. In 1999, he became one of the first players to win multiple Rugby World Cups. Early life Eales ...

and

Dan Carter Daniel William Carter (born 5 March 1982) is a retired New Zealand rugby union player. Carter played for Crusaders (Super Rugby) in New Zealand and played for New Zealand's national team, the All Blacks. He is the highest point scorer in ...

. He also introduced a number of new rules to rugby sevens. For example, a team that scored a try in a rugby sevens match must kick the ball from the center of the field after a conversion kick to restart the game; on his own initiative, the players were allowed to drop the ball with their hands before kicking a conversion; the play of the lineout was simplified and the hookers had to grab onto the props with their hands during the

scrum Scrum may refer to: Sport * Scrum (rugby), a method of restarting play in rugby union and rugby league ** Scrum (rugby union), scrum in rugby union * Scrum, an offensive melee formation in Japanese game Bo-taoshi Media and popular culture * M ...

Personal life

He was married to Pip, he had two daughters, Leigh and Greer, two grandsons, Carter and Curtis, who live in Sydney and a granddaughter, Holly, who lives in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

. During the quarantine, his daughter Greer wrote to him the poem ''Ode to George'', dedicated to her father. Throughout his life, Simpkin fought against arthritis with

Traditional Chinese medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. It has been described as "fraught with pseudoscience", with the majority of its treatments having no logical mechanism of acti ...

to strengthen his health. Simpkin died of cancer in Hamilton, on 7 May 2020.

References

External links

George Simpkin
at New Zealand Rugby History {{DEFAULTSORT:Simpkin, George 1943 births 2020 deaths New Zealand rugby union coaches Fiji national rugby union team coaches New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in Hong Kong New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in Fiji New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in Sri Lanka New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in Germany New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in China Deaths from cancer in New Zealand Sportspeople from the Northland Region