Library home > Special Collections > Exhibitions > Rhodes Scholars >

Print version (PDF 65 KB)

All Black captain, doctor, political adviser, businessman

David Kirk has made his mark in diverse fields. But to many New Zealanders he will always be the first – and so far, only – All Black captain to hold up the Rugby World Cup in triumph.

He took up his scholarship with a sense of relief, exchanging the devotion of his Kiwi fans for the anonymity of a 16th century campus on the other side of the world.

But Kirk could not completely escape his celebrity status at Oxford. It annoyed him when journalists called on him, asking him to pose next to his dilapidated car or with his bicycle outside one of the university’s picturesque colleges. ‘They all want me to be the quintessential Oxford student, which is the quintessential wank as far as I’m concerned. There’s no such thing.’

All Black captain, David Kirk, kisses the William Webb Ellis trophy at Eden Park, Auckland, 22 June 1987. Photographer: The Evening Post chromogenic (colour) photograph, 2004 Dominion Post Collection Photographic Archive, Ref: EP/1987/2998/22 Alexander Turnbull Library

A medical graduate from Otago, Kirk studied for the PPE degree (politics, philosophy, economics) at Oxford. The change of direction served him well, propelling him first into the political arena as advisor to National Prime Minister Jim Bolger, and more recently into a business career in Australia.

Kirk is one of four All Blacks to have been awarded a Rhodes scholarship. The other three are Colin Gilray (1907), George Aitken (1922) and Chris Laidlaw (1968).

He is now based in Sydney, as Regional Director for Norse Skogg Australia.

Special Collections
De Beer Gallery

1st Floor, Central Library, University of Otago
Hours: 8:30am - 5:00pm, Monday to Friday

20 September - 10 December 2004