Carry Me Back case study

Sport Review #232

Apr 20, 2023

You can watch excerpts of iconic and also forgotten 1982 New Zealand ripper Carry Me Back on NZ On Screen’s website.

A dry-as-weetbix caper that starts with Marlborough’s shield challenge in Wellington, focused on blokes and their suppressed emotions, it’s also a time capsule of a rugby and booze culture that’s no longer with us, mainly for the better. Sport Review presents close analysis of some cultural details the untrained eye may miss.

In 1982 it was illegal for New Zealand men to leave their premises without a droopy towelling hat and cigarette.

You can tell this is from the mists of time due to the cotton jerseys, that brown, almost oval ball with the black tips and the game being played in broad daylight.

In these days, supporter merch was mostly knitted by your mum, set off superbly by your best tweed.

Flat cap from before Peaky Blinders rendered them impossibly uncool and freshly-Tomotei-d hair everywhere.

Open vessels in the street and shearling jackets, take me back.

Interior design that brings a ship’s hull to mind and about 23 ash trays.

Actual glass jugs, what a time to be alive.

Waistcoats, ties, Double Brown, black and white photos of Colin Meads and walls that are visibly filthy, those were the days.

Adult entertainment in non-official All Blacks supporter merch that would likely earn a cease and desist in 2023.

Dad finishing the night with bread and butter and Lea and Perrins at a Green Parrot competitor.

Thanks for reading - Richard

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