In 1982 the All Black flanker and captain Graham Mourie retired from playing rugby and wrote an autobiography with the journalist and historian Ron Palenski. He openly accepted royalties from sales of the book because he considered the rules about amateurism in rugby needed to be challenged. Many rugby players had illicitly accepted money for such autobiographies, but Mourie, like fellow All Black Stu Wilson, refused to lie. They declared themselves ‘professional’ and both were banned for 10 years from playing, coaching or administering rugby. Mourie went back to his Taranaki farm, and only when the ban was over did he return to rugby, as coach of the Ōpunake senior team.
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Hachette New Zealand
Reference:
Graham Mourie with Ron Palenski, Graham Mourie, captain: an autobiography. Auckland: Moa, 1982.
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