Best known as a Sports Journalist who reported on 250 All Black games. The last of his kind.
Wynne Gray began his journalism career during the seventies at the Auckland Star and 8 O’clock before heading to travel and work in Europe and Australia. On his return he wrote about cricket for the NZ Herald and became their senior rugby writer, attending more than 250 All Black tests around the globe and numerous other internationals at World Cups as he filed for the company newspapers and online productions.
He was a foundation Press Box panelist for Sky television, has written several books, is a life member of the NZ Sports Journalists Association and continues to write as a freelance contributor. Wynne has been married to Erin for 34 years and has three children, Tim, Emma and Sam.
Wynne asked the club if they remembered the first ‘live rugby test in 1975?
He then went on to talk about the changes in how we watch rugby and the speed of those changes in the last 50 years. TV is now the God of Rugby. He called it the ‘world of mediacy’. He also talked about how the game has changed with more replays and how referees are called up to explain their decisions.
Wynne began his career with a typewriter, copy paper and a phone on his desk. Newspapers were king and there only two TV channels. He began writing about crime when the Crew Murders, dawn raids and ‘over stayers’ were the ‘exclusive’ stories in the daily newspapers. In 1992 he went to France with the All Blacks and this was the first time he filed his stories on a laptop.
Wynne regaled the club with a number of very funny incidents on his travels with the All Blacks and he also spoke about the ‘unwritten’ rule that when the journalists finished their work and filed their stories they would then socialise with the players. Unlike today they never wrote about the socialising side of the tours. Wynne then asked the members for questions.
Barry Ross thanked Wynne for his presentation.