Page 39 - Hereford Magazine 2022

Picturesque views and curious cows with the Biddles family: Sam and wife Kate with Conor, Brock and Cressida.

as Chappy, his father was Charles, known as Jim, and his Rural rugby romances
brother and nephew are also officially Charles.
Rugby is in the genes. Brother Charlie, now farming next Just like Andrew and Frankie, rugby played a part in how Sam
door, played first-five-eighth for the Highlanders and has also and Kate Biddles met.
played in Italy, Ireland and Scotland. Sam was a front row forward with the Chiefs when Kate
Andrew started his Super Rugby career with the Crusaders caught his eye behind the bar in a Durban club. They stayed
and then made 106 appearances in a Hurricanes No. 2 jersey in contact; she visited him and then he visited her, and she
(plus 63 for Taranaki), before finishing with 29 games for the moved to New Zealand at the end of 2007.
Highlanders. He pulled on the black jersey Four years later, they took over the
83 times, scoring 40 points for the All family farm – 470 hectares of coastal
Blacks between 2002 and 2013. He won the “Once you get off farmland on Northland’s Pouto
Kel Tremain Trophy for player of the year in the All Black bus, Peninsula, 25 minutes south of Dargaville,
2008 and was named in a World XV in 2015. life changes ...The with the Tasman Sea on one side and
Upon returning to farming, Andrew the Kaipara Harbour on the other – and
continued to play club rugby, serving best thing about restarted the Kaipara Hereford Stud.
as player–coach for the local Maniototo coming home after The couple have three young children
Maggots, later moving on to coach junior the rugby season – Brock, Cressida and Conor. Brock
rugby for his son’s team. was just being the loves his rugby, Cressida has just started
While he’s the farmer, his wife Francine netball, and Conor, according to Sam, will
(Frankie) manages the business side. same guy you were definitely play rugby. “He’s built like me,
English-born Frankie was a university when you left.” he’ll be a prop or a hooker, no doubt,” he
lecturer and then a business management says, laughing.
consultant before moving to rural Central Kate grew up in Durban and studied a
Otago. She met Andrew when he was on a plane travelling with Bachelor of Sports Science with honours in biokinetics (sports
the Hurricanes. rehabilitation), which is probably handy when you’re married
“I wondered why there were a lot of men on the plane to a retired rugby prop.
wearing the same clothes,” she recalls “I didn’t know any of Sam’s always loved rugby. He spent three years playing
them; I used to race motorbikes and didn’t follow rugby at all. loosehead prop for the King’s College 1 XV in Auckland. In
st
He told me he was a farmer.” 1997, the team won the Moascar Cup, the oldest and most
He invited her to a charity boxing match the next weekend prestigious nationwide trophy in First XV rugby. In 1998 the
and the rest, as they say, is history. They now have two primary team included future All Blacks Daniel Braid and Angus
school-aged children, Tyrell and Esme. McDonald, and Hurricanes’ hooker Laurence Corlett, who
“Once you get off the All Black bus, life changes,” Andrew went on to become CEO of Taranaki Rugby. In 1999 it also had
says. “The best thing about coming home after the rugby Ali Williams at lock. A highlight from that time was beating
season was just being the same guy you were when you left. Auckland Grammar twice.
Shit, starting to get emotional now,” he adds, laughing. A sports scholarship to Lincoln University led him to the
“But this place is special. It wasn’t until I brought Frankie Christchurch Rugby Club, where he also played for Canterbury
home that I really started looking at the views. They’re amazing. ” U19 and U21, Canterbury B and Crusaders Development.

Year 2022 HEREFORD MAGAZINE 37