Where are they now? Rugby legend Wyatt Crockett on his move into real estate, lowest rugby moment, and lifelong love for the Crusaders
Sunday, 19 April 2026
Front rowers don’t come more dependable than Wyatt Crockett.
Crockett was a rock up front during his 13 seasons with the Crusaders, playing a team-record 202 Super Rugby games.
He was the competition’s most capped player until Brumbies prop James Slipper nudged past him last month.
A four-time Super Rugby champion, Crockett also appeared in 71 tests for the All Blacks between 2009-17. A groin injury took him out of the final part of the All Blacks’ 2015 Rugby World Cup triumph, having to sit out the semifinal and final.
Post-retirement, Nelson-based Crockett ran a Stirling Sports store before moving into real estate, joining Harcourts Nelson in January last year.
The 43-year-old speaks to Brendon Egan in this week’s ‘Where are they now?’.
How have you found the move into real estate?
With anything new there’s a big learning curve and you’re learning on the run. That’s probably been the biggest challenge, but also having been around for a while, I’m in my 40s now, bought and sold a few houses, done a few builds and developments and those bits and pieces, so I’ve got some good life experience around real estate. A lot of the lingo I understood all of that, but then learning all the real estate specific regulations was quite a steep learning curve, so that’s been the biggest challenge.
What do you love most about the job?
Every situation is different and sometimes the more challenging sales, that’s really rewarding when there’s a property that has been hard to sell, or potentially maybe it’s had an issue and you persevere through a building report that wasn’t ideal or an offer that has fallen over, but you’ve persevered, worked hard and you’ve found a solution and you get the job done. That’s been really rewarding. There’s some pretty cool moments where you get a chance to reflect and celebrate, getting a sale or listing a property where you went up against three or four agents and you got selected to do that. That’s a really cool thing to do.
Which sale has the been most meaningful to you so far?
74 Tresillian Ave [in Nelson] was a special one for me. It was one of my first listings and my father in law knew the home owner and recommended me, which was cool. I was up against three or four agents, experienced agents, and went and did that interview and she said your presentation was more thorough than the other guys and we can see how much you really care and want to do a great job for us and selected us. That was really early on. It was a challenging sale. It didn’t sell in the first three or four weeks, liked we’d hoped, but we persevered, we changed things up and we ended up getting an awesome result in the end, even though it was a bit of a slower sale.
Sold it to a lovely family, a lovely couple moving back to Nelson and they were really happy. Just an awesome experience and on the back of that, the owners were really happy and ended up referring me onto their daughter who we sold a house for as well. That’s one I’m really proud of early on.
What do you remember about being selected in the All Blacks for the first time in 2009?
That was back in the good old days where the first time you hear it is on the news. We were down on holiday in Queenstown – my wife and I and our little baby. We had a wee one and were down there on holiday and got a head’s up from my manager at the time. He said, ‘What are you doing on Sunday morning?’ and I’m like, ‘I’m in Queenstown’. He said, ‘Maybe just keep an eye on the All Blacks team’. I’d felt like I was playing good rugby, but I hadn’t made it previously for the three previous years. I’d had a few comments from the coaches that I was close in 2008, but they went in a different direction.
It’s a massive thing to be named in the All Blacks for the first time. It’s a dream come true and I never ever expected I’d get the privilege or honour to do it, a little boy from Collingwood. I was never a star through my schoolboy rugby days. I was a bit of a battler. Rugby didn’t really become a career option until I left school and was fortunate enough to be in the Canterbury academy, which is world-class, and I put everything back to that academy and the coaching I got there.
What do you remember most fondly from your debut against Italy in Christchurch in 2009?
Myself, Owen Franks, and George Whitelock, we all debuted on the same day, all Crusaders and Canterbury players at the time as well. Mum and dad came down and watched and family in the stadium. Very special. It was a cold winter’s night. The game was a pretty ugly one against Italy, but recollections were playing with the best players in the world and you just had to go out there and do your job. I never forget the messaging from the coaches at the time. You’ve earned the right to be here. You’re an All Black now, you’ve just got to go out there and do your role because everyone else is the best in their position in the country, and some of them in the world. You’ve just got to go and nail your role. Just a real simple message, but at the time when you’re making your test debut and it can be a little bit overwhelming it’s just good to hear those sorts of things.
In your third game for the All Blacks you had a brutal time against Italy tighthead Martin Castrogiovanni in Milan. How much did that low moment shape your test career?
I remember that night going back to the hotel and just being absolutely devastated. I’d been penalised off the park and felt like I probably won’t get another crack in the black jersey and I had an opportunity and now I’ve lost it. Fortunately, my father is very much a growth mindset guy and he’s been amazing for me in terms of just realising it’s one moment, one day, and it’s how you respond to a setback like that, that counts. I didn’t get selected in the All Blacks that next year and I understood that and got through that.
What it did was lit a massive fire inside me to want to try and get back there. I went away, worked harder than I’d ever worked before, trained harder, ate better, did everything I possibly could to try and get back in that black jersey and it took me a couple of years, but I got there. It was an embarrassing night for me. I was really determined to not let that ever happen again and to really make the most of my second opportunity. From that moment, 2011, I got re-selected and almost right through to 2017 I was part of that team, mainly off the bench, but I had a role to play.
What makes a world-class loosehead prop in your eyes?
It was changing when I was playing. It wasn’t just about the set piece. It was about the all-round game and especially for me as a bench player coming on and being able to help lift the tempo of the game. Nowadays what you see right from the first minute, the front rowers are so heavily involved in the attack side of the game. You look at two good Crusader men, Tamaiti Williams and Fletcher Newell, with ball in hand, those guys are so dynamic. They’re actually real attacking threats. Obviously, their core set piece is world-class as well, but the expectation is that front rowers do more than just their set piece role now.
The world-class ones are well-rounded and have a major part to play in that attack side of the game as well. I think that’s probably the biggest thing that’s changed. The other thing is the sheer size and physical capability of the guys. When I started playing Super Rugby a big prop was 114kg and now most of them are around that 130kg.
What tightheads gave you the most grief over your career?
Obviously I had a bloody tough time with [Italy’s] Martin Castrogiovanni. He was a helluva tough man to come up against. I was fortunate enough and this is probably one of the other reasons I ended up playing as long as I did in the All Blacks, every training I was either propping against Nepo Laulala or Owen Franks. Trainings were bloody tough. Sometimes tougher than the game on the Saturday. You’re propping down against some of the best guys in the world and that’s your training run. I had that. If I look around the world as well I had some great battles with the South African tighthead Jannie du Plessis – had some great encounters with him for a long time as well. Lots of others, but they’re a couple who come to mind.
You started in the quarterfinal of the 2015 Rugby World Cup against France, but missed the semifinal and final with a groin injury. How did you get through that challenging patch?
Until that point in time I’d never had a muscle injury. I don’t think I was fast-twitched enough to have muscle injuries. I picked up a groin injury in one of the pool games, against Georgia and it was niggling away for a couple of weeks. I got to the quarterfinal and started that game against the French and about 10 minutes into it I had to really sprint hard to make a tackle and tore my groin. I went through all sorts of medical treatment to try and get that groin tear healed up in time for two weeks’ later. There was one process that was probably one of the most painful things I’d ever had in my life. They basically got this stick needle, like a knitting needle and they were burying it into my groin, into the muscle, to try and stimulate healing.
I got named to come off the bench in the final, but at the last training on the Thursday before the game we were doing a drill, a pretty monotonous sort of drill when it tore again. I was out and had to watch. It was heart-breaking because I wanted to play, but when I look back now, I was there and I was apart of it. I didn’t get to take the field in the semi or the final, but that doesn’t take anything away from me. I was part of that team that won the World Cup. Again the messaging from all the coaches and management involved in the team, just because I didn’t take the field it didn’t take anything away from the fact I’d been there and been part of that group for the four years leading up to it and during the World Cup.
You played a club record 202 games for the Crusaders. What did it mean to you to wear that jersey hailing from the region?
When the Crusaders just started I was this massive fan. I was a boarder at Nelson College and I’d get up and watch all the South African games. I’d watch everything. Back in the days where you had compact discs and CDs in the car, I’d play the Crusaders’ theme music to every high school game we had. Some of the boys remember I basically had it on repeat from Nelson, right across we had a club game in Collingwood and played it pretty much the whole way across the Takaka Hill for a couple of hours leading up to the game. I was a massive Crusaders fan. When I moved down to Christchurch after school that was the goal, but far out I dared to dream I’d become a Crusader. To then go on and play for as long as I was able to and become the most capped Crusader, I still hardly believe it’s true, to be honest. It seems like crazy talk.
Did you ever come close to leaving the Crusaders and taking up a big contract overseas?
There was a couple of times I came close in the middle of my career around 2011. Vern Cotter was actually the coach in Clermont [in France] and they’d had an injury to one of their looseheads and had an opportunity to go over there. I looked at it pretty closely. Being in and out of the All Blacks at that point in time and wasn’t sure if I was going to get back in there. That opportunity came, but I ended up deciding I wanted to really chase the All Black dream and wanted to go out and win a World Cup. Towards the end of my career I looked at the option of going overseas, but just decided I think I had a seven and five-year-old at home in school and we just decided as a family we really wanted our kids to have that Kiwi lifestyle growing up and wanted to really put time and effort into their childhood, so made the call to call it quits at the end of my playing days here in New Zealand.
What did you say to James Slipper when you travelled over to Canberra to watch him surpass your record as the most capped Super Rugby player?
It was a real honour to do that. Super Rugby chief executive [Jack Mesley] asked me to do it. For me in my mind it’s like a lifetime achievement. Slips had spent 17 years playing Super Rugby over a couple of teams. He started out as a boy, a very young man, and he’s spent his whole adult life working towards that. To take over that mantle is a special moment for him and his family. Great man, a family man, and it’s awesome to pass that baton on. My words to Slips was, ‘It’s your time and you’ve earned every second of it’. That was it really. I just said, ‘It’s been a real privilege for me and my family to have this mantle. Probably more so for my family, and now it’s his opportunity for his family to enjoy. It couldn’t have gone to a better bloke.