All-Black winger Caleb Clarke revealed that the one and only Paddy G riled the fellas up before they went to battle against the Wallabies at Eden Park in 2020.
The test was the first big sporting outing post-initial Covid-19 restrictions and NZ was hungry for a win after we drew with Aussie the week before. Full house and the Bledisloe teetering, Paddy ‘THE GOAT’ Gower delivered.
“Paddy came in and spoke to us and it was quite inspirational,” Clarke shared on The Project. “It stuck with me.”
“Paddy said that we - as an All Black team - had the ability to finally give something back after a year that so many people in lockdown had stuff taken away from them."
And give back they did. Gower’s sermon galvanized the ABs to a 27 - 7 victory over Australia, giving the 46,000 freshly free Kiwis something to cheer about.
Patrick Gower: Journalist, library bad boy, and now, motivational speaker to our sporting heroes.
After Clarke shared the speech story, Gower seemed taken aback but quickly delivered one of those slick one-liners that have led to him holding such a high place in NZ culture.
“Just uh, you know, put a good word in with Fozzy and maybe I’ll be on the plane with you to [France for the 2023 Rugby World Cup],” he said.
Last year Paddy made headlines during the biggest news story of the year, Queen Elizabeth kicking the bucket. Gower was in London for the big goodbye and dropped an F-bomb during the funeral’s live stream.
The bomb was dropped after he was done interviewing now-former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Barely caught on the hot-mic, once Cindy walked away from the interview the British crowd cheered for her which surprised Paddy and led him to say:
“Fuck, they do know her.”
No one's doing it like Paddy G man.
