Project: Documentary
Role: Producer
Client: TVNZ
Company: Homegrown Television
From Field to Front is a 45 minute documentary for TVNZ 1 playing on Anzac Day (25 April 2026) and TVNZ+.
It follows the story of Dave Gallaher, captain of New Zealand’s 1905 ‘Originals’ All Black team. Considered the ‘father of the All Blacks’, Dave was not only a leader on the rugby field, but also on the battlefield. It was the later role that prematurely took his life in World War I. Presented by former All Black Captain Sean Fitzpatrick From Field to Front explores these two defining parts of Dave Gallaher’s life, and more, through a global soil exchange. Fellow former All Black Andrew Mehrtens assists in France.
With the blessing of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei as kaitiaki of the whenua, the documentary follows the emotive removal of soil from Eden Park in New Zealand for gifting to three poignant places:
- Ramelton, County Donegal in the Republic of Ireland where Dave was born in 1873.
- Parc des Princes, the Paris venue where Dave played his last All Black test in 1906 against the French (in France’s first ever test).
- His grave at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s Nine Elms British Cemetery in Belgium, nearby to where Dave was killed in battle in 1917.
In return, soil is gifted from these three places of significance to take back to New Zealand, as Sean symbolically 'brings Dave Gallaher home' to Eden Park. It is here that the soil is ceremonially interred under the turf in the centre of the field. It is put back into the same place that the soil was removed from a few months earlier.
It follows the story of Dave Gallaher, captain of New Zealand’s 1905 ‘Originals’ All Black team. Considered the ‘father of the All Blacks’, Dave was not only a leader on the rugby field, but also on the battlefield. It was the later role that prematurely took his life in World War I. Presented by former All Black Captain Sean Fitzpatrick From Field to Front explores these two defining parts of Dave Gallaher’s life, and more, through a global soil exchange. Fellow former All Black Andrew Mehrtens assists in France.
With the blessing of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei as kaitiaki of the whenua, the documentary follows the emotive removal of soil from Eden Park in New Zealand for gifting to three poignant places:
- Ramelton, County Donegal in the Republic of Ireland where Dave was born in 1873.
- Parc des Princes, the Paris venue where Dave played his last All Black test in 1906 against the French (in France’s first ever test).
- His grave at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s Nine Elms British Cemetery in Belgium, nearby to where Dave was killed in battle in 1917.
In return, soil is gifted from these three places of significance to take back to New Zealand, as Sean symbolically 'brings Dave Gallaher home' to Eden Park. It is here that the soil is ceremonially interred under the turf in the centre of the field. It is put back into the same place that the soil was removed from a few months earlier.