Chapter 1: What was Marc Ellis's journey to becoming an All Black?
Hey guys, welcome to another episode of the Waterlad podcast presented to you by Betcha. And here's a little sample of what's about to come in this episode.
They have a consistent comment that is in all my reports is Mark is a constant distraction. They told me I'd never go to university, which is the reason I went to university. And one of the boys stuck on a bloody bike helmet, tried to run through a wall. He got through the wall, no problem, but he hit the hot water cylinder. So he had to hold the peach of his old fella against the ice-cold wall.
And after about five minutes, he was just blue and just shaking. And that was the only way we could shut the bastard up. This pig's head jumped out of my skin. And it had jumped up on my desk and eaten a chocolate cake and shat all over my room. And we used to have days where you had to wear a floppy hat and do painting in the nude in your flat. So... It used to make us laugh.
Why don't you try and encourage it? But I reckon you could have Shaq the cat and Fat Rat and Shaq the cat and a dwarf in a rat suit. Drag it behind on water skis, a quad bike at half time or send a police dog after it or make it jump off the tower board into a shallow pool. It'd be funny shit.
Chapter 2: What outrageous stories does Marc share from his university days?
You know, what's the worst that can happen? You're standing at the plate, you've got three swings of the bat, try and hit the fucking thing out of the park.
Well, lad, when it comes to all-time most requested guests, today's guest has always been on top of the list. He's a man with the reputation of being the best lad in the country.
He's had the nation admiring his speed, his footwork and skills during his time with Otago, the Highlanders, North Harbour and the Blues, as well as representing the All Blacks where he scored a record eight tries in one game. He's also had a successful stint in league.
You've actually cocked that up, but you've added a couple of tries, you know. So I now know to divide by 10 everything that you say. How many was it? Six? It was six. Eight. I mean, I thought six was going to be hard to beat, but eight's impossible.
You're telling the story, mate.
I'll go with that.
We'll run with eight. He's also had a successful stint with the Warriors and even international even with the Kiwis. On top of that, he successfully transitioned into business with Charlie's Orange Juice and became the country's favourite TV personality. He's also a legendary father of four and seems to nail every part of his life. He is the GOAT when it comes to lads.
It is, of course, the great Mark Ellis. Welcome, mate. It's a pretty tough act to follow there. It's one hell of an introduction.
Eight tries. Yeah, it was extraordinary. But I read in the program that the record was five. Oh, before the game. Before the game. And I got to three at halftime and I went, there's no fucking way I'm passing that. And so... I'll die with that record. Hard to beat these days. Japan was an easy beat back then. Now they beat South Africa.
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Chapter 3: How did buying a fire engine lead to chaos during university life?
My son saw South Africa lose to Japan. He said, shit, you must have been good. Just one of those days. Yeah. Everything went in my face.
I think this World Cup, there is a few massive wins. mismatches I think the All Blacks are playing Hong Kong or something so this year might be the first year it could come under trouble but six it's gotta be eight would have been let's run with eight it's like one of those ones with GST the more you the more you say it the more people believe exactly the benefit of time
Well, I'm stoked to have you on the podcast. You're someone that I feel like I've known for a long time. Funny thing is we just met five minutes ago.
I suppose that's a good thing. Yeah. I do recall, you know, back in the day when, because it all sort of kicks off when you do TV, right? Yeah. That was the big thing. change, you know, doing rugby, people who are playing rugby, people who watch rugby sort of know you from it. But then I started doing TV with Matthew Ridge and doing Sports Cafe.
And then you'd walk along the street, you'd sort of see people look and you'd go, ah. And so there's no real price you can put on anonymity. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But fortunately, all of the TV shows and roles that I've done have been being myself. Yeah.
When I go to the pub later in my career, you know, with the Otago team, everyone would go up to Jeff Wilson and say, hey, Jeff, Jeff, Jeff, because they want to know what he's like. Hey, Mac, how you going? Yeah. So I've been very lucky in that regard. True. I kind of feel that most people do either know you and stare at you or know you and go, g'day.
The ones that are coming up to you, they love your work anyway.
Well, I haven't been given too much shit from people, so I don't know, touch wood.
Yeah. Interesting. So when did it all sort of start for you? I always like to go through the full journey from the start. You're born in Wellington. Yep. Only child.
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Chapter 4: What mindset does Marc have about taking risks and seizing opportunities?
Only child, yeah. Cheeky? Well, no. I mean, everyone's got this impression that I must have been a real larrikin at school. I mean, I do have a consistent comment that is in all my reports is Mark is a constant distraction. Which probably, you know, led to a pretty... predictable, you know, academic career.
Although they told me I'd never go to university, which is the reason I went to university. It was a bit of a fuck you, I'll show you. And although that took another year at school to get university entrance and five years at university to get a three-year degree. So there's a bit to be said for perseverance and tenacity, I suppose. Yeah.
And cheating back then, because you could go into the library and have a look at a marketing textbook and basically photocopy it, highlight it, and then hand it to the typist. And then you hide the book in biology on the top shelf. There's no way of tracing it. These days, you've got three words in the wrong order and you're bloody shot.
We had a very fortunate time and a good cohort of fellas and, you know, a few people who were pretty keen to rock the boat a bit. A bit of skill and a bit of management and a bit of luck got us through.
Yeah. We're always a confident kid. Like, you've always... sort of oozed confidence throughout your playing career, your TV career. Were you always like that as a young fella?
I don't know. I just, I was lucky. Like my dad was my hero when I was a kid growing up, right? So I always thought he was Batman because he was bigger than me and stronger than me and he was a cool dude and he had a moustache like Magnum P.I. All of these. But I guess the thing, the one thing he gave me is if you believe it, you can do it. And so he gave me the permission to dream. Yeah.
So I've always been a bit of a dreamer. Oh, that's cool. And always been of the belief that, you know, what's the worst that can happen? You're standing at the plate, you've got three swings of the bat, try and hit the fucking thing out of the park. Yeah.
And if, worst case scenario, you get a top edge and it goes into the crowd and takes somebody's teeth out, at least it's going to entertain the crowd.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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Chapter 5: What memorable experiences does Marc recall from his time with the All Blacks?
Part of your nature. Yeah. How did the old man teach you that or sort of exude that? Look, in many ways, he was incredibly fallible, you know, by Kiwi standards. Like I'd see him cry, you know, watching Oliver Twist, which I thought was an absolute massive strength of his, you know.
I'm the blubber watching any movie in front of the kids and they sort of look at me and go, well, give them permission to feel emotions. So he was incredibly empathetic.
And I think that empathy allows you to want to walk in other people's shoes, to have an interest in diving down the rabbit hole, to get to know more people from the various backgrounds, as many as you can, to give you more of an understanding as to who the average guy or average girl, and average is who you want to know, the top end of the bell curve and the bottom end, probably not your favoured chase.
But, you know, I guess... Curiosity and the desire to swing the bat was what was sort of taught.
Yeah. Was he sort of the life of the party at sort of social events, or was that more your main side?
Oh, look, we had a few after-match functions when I got into the first 15 at our place, and I can't recall him being overly flamboyant. He had a very flamboyant dress sense, you know, I recall. He came back from some bloody trip to Europe, and he'd never skied in his life, but he came back with a full French après ski suit.
with moon boots which were for the 80s pretty pretty sexy things you know and it made him six foot right so that you know two inch heels on them and that big puffy things and like i'd be saying to my best mate at center in the willing college games you know yeah i'd be calling the moves from first five and he'd say i don't know how to fucking move look at your old man
So I turned around to the sideline. It was like a beacon, you know, like some guys come off a fucking ship with one of those orange bloody waterproofs on. So I guess that was my first experience of playing under pressure. Don't worry about the crowds.
It's just, oh, mate, really? Can't you sit in the car? Did you mention your first five then? Were you the first five coming through the grades?
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Chapter 6: How does Marc compare the culture of rugby and league?
Yeah. But he had these gloves and I put them on one day when I was like six or something and they were like that much too long and you're just standing there trying to catch the ball with these frozen floppy fingers. So his bad dress sense made its way under the field every now and again too. When did you realize you were potentially quite good at the sport?
Oh, we had these coaches back when we played for West. I can't remember their name, but they were really strict and they'd literally boot you in the ass if you made a mistake. So they inbred this sort of belief that We could go and do some pretty good things as a team if we stuck together. And we had some cool players.
We had a guy, Rob Guinea, and a guy, David Adamson, who each of us would get 100 tries a season or 100 points a season. I can't recall. But there'd be three or four of us who would get lots of tries. So that, and everyone was probably pretty greedy back then. It was like the kids following the honeypot, you know what I mean? Want to get it and run to the sideline, tear down the sideline.
Like you versus Japan. Yeah. It was, you know, some things never change. So I guess at that stage, you know, with the top prize scorers, maybe, maybe I enjoyed it. That was the main thing. I didn't really have any grand endeavors at that stage. And then when you got to school, you sort of, At first five, you can kind of dictate the game a wee bit. Yeah.
And when things are going well, it's a nice feeling and you feel like maybe you've got a bit of a hand and sometimes it's working, sometimes it isn't. But if we played the Catholics, it didn't seem to work so well. Did you love watching the game? Um, yeah, love going to Athletic Park. Oh, yeah, yeah.
We had, I mean, it was Jock Hobbs and Bernie Fraser and Stu Wilson and Murray Mextead, who was New Zealand's Tom Selleck. Yeah. I was on, kicking a ball at the park one day across from the road, just, we had a tree and that was my goalpost and I was booting it and the window came down and said, oh, good kick, lad. And I looked around, it was Murray Mextead.
Oh, true.
My feet didn't touch the ground. I ran home and... You know, sent the old man, oh, Murray Mix, he's just told me it was a good kick, you know. Oh, that's great. And that was, you know, the Ranfurly, I think, Too Wiley was playing and who else? It was the Ranfurly Shield era. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sold out games. Amazing. The atmosphere.
They had Lilani Coco on the wing and it was just incredible stuff. Yeah. The Mallard stand was packed and the old, the other, the big tall thing that used to get blown over, maybe that was a Mallard, where you get the southerly, you could just see it coming in and you had to hold it in your seat so you didn't get blown off. But they were good times in Wellington that ran fully shield era.
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Chapter 7: What led Marc to transition into business after his sports career?
So you'd get to roll, roll a wicket. Yeah. And then, I mean, the rugby was great. We had, you know, incredible inter-school rivalries with Rongatai, who were our sort of brother school. Yeah, yeah. Then the mix, you see. Then you've got the St. Pat's Town and Silverstream. And Silverstream were always very good. Earl Curtin, I think, had a hand in shaping them.
And he later became a great mate, obviously, with the All Blacks and so forth. Yeah, yeah. Nah, good fond memories. And then the tournament, the big one, was quadrangular. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's 150th this year too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, the big, I think the longest standing inter-school match is Wellington versus Nelson. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Played. I think we were on the right side of the ledger slightly. Yeah, I lost both my games to Wellington College in the final my year. Oh, really? What was Wellington College like when you were there? Oh, mate, we were all right.
I think we won in Nelson. Oh, did you? Yeah, we won here and then we got pipped the next year where we probably should have taken it out by collegiate or Christ or something.
Was that your second year? Yeah. You just had to get that in there, didn't you? May have been. Very well may have been. But you were good at school at that point of your career. You were starting to become a bit of a schoolboy star. I think so.
I mean, I made the New Zealand in the 19s in New Zealand secondary schools. Oh, did you?
Oh, yeah.
And Jock Hobbs, bless him, who was all black captain, he gave me a Mizuno sponsorship at school. Oh, wow. So I got boots, which were the best boots in the world. Yeah. And a couple of bucks, you know. Oh, you got paid to wear them. Yeah. Let's not go into specifics. They were amateur days, but it gave me a bit of a head start when I went to university. I could shout the odd jug, you know.
Oh, far out. You must have been the king. Like, I don't know anyone who's ever been sponsored, maybe the Sevier brothers, but you have to be a bit of a free to this.
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Chapter 8: What advice does Marc give about dreaming and pursuing opportunities?
I think that was probably not something that was, you know, overly stated, but it was pretty categoric that, as I said to my cousin's son, it just gives you a ticket to a bus, you know, and that bus goes to a different area than the other buses, right? So if you want to climb the ladder, get the ticket on the bus. You don't have to stay on it. You can jump off it, but...
that bus will take you out of this area and give you a propulsion to another area. Not necessarily the case. Lots of people leave school at 15 and go on to do amazing things. But I think there's probably a higher proportion of people who go out with a university degree who end up getting the success that comes with it. I mean, I look at all my cohort of students
absolute fucking retrobates from Otago University and these guys now I won't mention names but running you know everything from the bloody financial sectors to the banks to you know almost airlines you know but it's all over the world yeah and I go wow shit we were We had a lucky cohort, but if you look at it statistically, we didn't.
If you come out with a degree, you're in the top 1% internationally of learned folk, apparently. Not that I've ever put myself in that category. I've learned from the school of hard knocks and fuck-ups more than I've learned from what I've done.
Well, one thing I do like about your story is how close you are with all your uni mates. So you went down there. I'm not sure if you knew many people going down, but geez, you came tight quickly and long-term friends.
We had Billy Bathgate from school and Johnny the Greek. And so they were the two sort of main mates that I had down there. And I ended up getting put into Cumberland House into the nurse's wing because they'd oversubscribed Cumberland. And I thought, well, look, you know, glass half full, it's the nurse's wing. You know, so I might be the only guy in it.
But I'd just broken up for a long-term first love relationship. Oh, yeah. So I was a bit sort of melancholic. Was that all through school? Well, you know, last couple of years of school. Oh, yeah. When the Mizuno's came. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Because you'd wear them out on the town. Yeah.
Um, and so I went down there with a, you know, excited, full of beans, but a little bit glum, you know, and then I got into the nurses ward. It was like being in an insane asylum. It was fucking empty. There were no nurses and I was locked away from the actual students. And so I thought I'd better go and. go and knock on the door at Unicole and see why I didn't get accepted there. Yeah.
And so I went there and spoke to the guy who was running Unicole. And as fortune had it, somebody had just got glandular fever. Fortune for me, not for them. So they'd moved out and I moved in. But he said, oh, I said, why didn't you accept my, and he said, oh, your headmaster wrote you a bad report. Oh, true. Backstabbing bastard, right?
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