Tributes flow to Kiwi icon Colin Meads

Thousands of mourners, including a who’s who of past All Blacks, gathered yesterday to remember the legendary Colin Meads, hailed as one of New Zealand’s greatest ever rugby players.

A vintage hearse took Meads’ casket for one last lap of the rugby field at Te Kuiti, the tiny North Island town where he grew up and lived until his death from cancer last week at the age of 81.

Most of the town’s 4,000 residents lined the streets to pay respects to the man affectionately known as Pinetree.