New Zealand have only ever reached two World Cup Finals.
Ricki Herbert, a defender at Wolves between 1984 and 1986, played at the one, and was the Head Coach at the other. Anointing him as a member of a fairly exclusive club to have both played and managed their national team at the Greatest Show on Earth.
To complete the set, 63-year-old Herbert would love to be at the 2026 Finals in North America…as a fan.
And the All Whites, under another former Wolves defender in Darren Bazeley, are in sight of making that happen.
This Friday they will face Fiji in the semi-final of the Oceania qualifiers in Wellington, after which, should they progress, either New Caledonia and Tahiti would stand between them and a third World Cup finals.
With the expanded tournament, qualification this time would be automatic, rather than the play-off system which has seen them eliminated in the last three attempts since Herbert’s class of 2010 made it through to South Africa, and remained unbeaten with three draws in the group stages.
So, history beckons, and Herbert is confident that the Kiwis, under the tutelage of another former Wolves defender who has followed in his footsteps, will make it.
“I don’t want to sound presumptuous, but I think we are going to go to the next World Cup, and I would love to be there as a supporter,” he declares.
“I’ve played at the tournament, and managed, but now I want to be there in the stands to feel what it means to the fans.
“That is something I’ve not had the chance to experience before.”
Herbert and Bazeley are linked not only by their former Wolves connections. As with another former Molineux man, Neil Emblen, their paths have crossed in New Zealand.
“Both Neil and Darren were playing for an Auckland franchise (New Zealand Knights) in the A-league but the club effectively had their ownership taken away,” Herbert explains.
“I was working with New Zealand Football at the time, and was asked if I could take the team to the end of the season.
“It had been a challenging season and very difficult for them but both Darren and Neil stood out, and we finished it strongly with some wins.
“Testament to their abilities is that Neil went on to be assistant for the national team, taking the Olympic team in 2012, and had a role as interim coach for a time.
“Darren came through the youth ranks with his coaching, the Under-17s, the Under-20s and Under-23s, and now he’s the national coach, and I am sure will be stepping onto the world stage next year.”
Herbert’s forays onto the world stage came with those World Cups in 1982 as a player, and 2010 as a coach, and it was in between times that he found his way to Wolverhampton to sign for Wolves.
With a father Clive as a cyclist, and mother Shirley a sprinter, sport was certainly strongly within the Herbert genes, but for him, from a young age, it was always going to be football.
He made his name as a strong-tackling defender in league football back home, particularly with Mt Wellington AFC where he had won two league titles and two cups towards the start of his career, also winning his first senior international cap in a 4-0 win over Mexico when he was just 18.
Ahead of the 1982 World Cup, Herbert actually spent three months training with Wolves’ most recent opponents Southampton, when they had Laurie McMenemy as manager and the likes of Kevin Keegan, Alan Ball and Mick Channon in the squad.
A great spell of learning, it also whetted the appetite to try and test himself in England and, having played for Tommy Docherty at Sydney United, that chance duly arrived in the latter part of 1984.
“That time at Southampton gave me some super memories as it was a real privilege to go to a great club and train with so many talented people, just before the World Cup,” Herbert recalls.
“I’d then played under Tommy Doc at Sydney, who told me he would take me to England if he landed a new role, and that role turned out to be Wolves.
“A friend of his in New Zealand contacted my Dad, and within a few hours a contract was faxed over and the deal was in place.
“By pure co-incidence, the national team were heading over to England for a tour, so we flew into London before travelling up to Newcastle for our first game, and Tommy and his assistant came up and I signed the contract there and then. It all happened very quickly.”
So, too, did Herbert’s debut.
He recalls heavy snow greeting his Winter arrival prompting a first training session in the gym at the Molineux Hotel, before a quickfire debut at home to Brighton.
‘His speed in the tackle and overall urgency were impressive’ wrote Wolves reporter Dave Harrison of Herbert’s bow in the 1-0 defeat, but, while he defied any teething problems or effects of jet lag to settle instantly, Wolves were seriously struggling.
Heavily installed in the second stage of a three-part decline which would see the team relegated from First to Fourth in successive seasons, Wolves were starting a 21-game winless run in league and cup during which they would score just seven goals and concede 35.
“Even coming over from the other side of the world, I knew the complexities of Wolves at the time, with the Bhatti Brothers in charge and talk of the stadium being sold or turned into something else,” Herbert reveals.
“I didn’t have the history of that knowledge, or understand all of the issues that were taking place, and it certainly wasn’t at the forefront of my thinking.
“That’s because I saw this as an opportunity, and, from the moment I turned up on day one, I was so eager to go out and do the very best that I could.
“From the great moment of walking out to make my debut at Molineux, we had the progression of losing, and it became harder and harder.
“Our best players became targets, several were moving on, and I probably didn’t see the complete financial side, as I had arrived as not a very expensive purchase.
“The people that were there were just trying to bring a squad together the best they could during what was such a difficult time for the club.”
Even all these years on – four decades to be precise – Herbert’s recollections of that era are easily remembered.
Team-mates such as Tommy Langley – “a great guy I quickly connected with” – Tim Flowers – “an amazing goalkeeper who I could see was going to have a great career” – David Barnes, Alan Ainscow, John Humphrey, Floyd Streete and Ray Hankin are names which quickly trip off the tongue as Herbert looks back.
Despite the team’s demise covering much of Herbert’s 18 months or so at Molineux, during which he made 49 appearances, the memories he holds are nothing but positive.
And that’s even though he wished it could have been longer, eventually departing after first team opportunities became more limited.
“I have nothing but thanks for my time at Wolves, it was such a big part of my life,” Herbert insists.
“When you have started out as a four-year-old kicking a ball around at a small club in South Auckland, and having a strong connection into English football, you couldn’t really imagine it happening.
“I had all the Shoot magazines, a favourite England team, I’d watch Match of the Day, it was massive for me.
“Then to all of a sudden be walking out at a ground like Molineux, it was mind-blowing, although I needed stitches after having my head cut open in the first half against Brighton – that was my welcome to English football!”
“It has stayed in my heart that I had the opportunity to play for such a prestigious club and I have valued it ever since, a magical moment.
“Could it have been longer? I wish it had.
“There was quite a turnover of coaching staff at that time and sometimes that can bring its challenges.
“But I am one player in a million who has gone through that.”
Herbert returned to finish his career in New Zealand after leaving Wolves, but a new dawn was looming, as he stepped into the world of coaching and management.
Success at club level, including a league championship and two cups with Central United, saw him move into the picture at international level, alongside continuing to coach Wellington Phoenix.
Having coached New Zealand’s Under 23s, including at the Sydney Olympics, and after several years as assistant to the senior team, Herbert became the head coach of his country, 20 years ago last month, in February 2005.
Five years later he was leading them to their second ever World Cup, and one in which, incredibly, they would finish as the only unbeaten team of the 32 that took part.
They drew all three of their group games against Slovakia, reigning champions Italy – and could have won if a then 18-year-old Chris Wood had converted a late chance – and Paraguay.
That wasn’t quite enough to book progress to the knockout stages, but New Zealand were off the mark in terms of points at a World Cup, having lost to Scotland, the Soviet Union and Brazil in 1982 when the young Herbert started the latter two of those fixtures.
“Going to two World Cups, as player and coach, was incredible,” he reflects.
“At 21, I was at the biggest tournament in football as part of a super motivated and dedicated New Zealand team going up against some of the best players in the world.
“And then, as a proud Kiwi, to be appointed as the head coach of the senior national team brings an immense feeling of pride and was an amazing privilege.
“Having not been to a World Cup for 28 years, the responsibility was big, but whilst qualifying for the tournament was a really positive outcome for us, we wanted it to be about far more than that.
“Our motto was ‘Changing a Nation’ – we wanted the country to be proud of this team and we wanted to affect the thinking of our sport in the country by what we achieved.
“We’d enjoyed some fantastic performances and results in the build-up, and I will never forget the night in Wellington when we beat Bahrain 1-0 to qualify in front of a sellout crowd.
“I still talk to a lot of sporting people who say that is the best match and event they have ever been to.
“And at the tournament itself, there were some more brilliant memories operating on that world stage, including drawing with the world champions Italy.
“It was all about fine margins, and, but for one or two decisions, and if the result had gone our way in the other final fixture, we’d have made it through to the knockouts.”
Herbert’s eight-year reign with the national team came to an end in 2013, but his coaching journey has very much continued, on a global scale.
He has managed in the Indian Super League, with Papua New Guinea Under-23s, and as coach of the Maldives national team, before roles back in New Zealand with Cambridge FC and Hamilton Wanderers.
Whilst he still has much to offer and is certainly not ruling out another senior coaching position should the opportunity arise, much of his focus at present is on the long-running RH3 Football Academy, dedicated to developing the next generation of New Zealand talent.
The Academy operates in a number of locations across the country, working with players from age eight to 17, and their latest graduate and exciting prospect Luke Brooke-Smith became the youngest New Zealander to play in the men’s A-League after joining Wellington Phoenix last year.
Herbert’s son Kale is also involved, as technical director of RH3, alongside his own coaching duties with Miramar Rangers in the New Zealand league.
For Herbert senior, whose lengthy list of accolades includes receiving the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM), talk of English football also reminds him of joining the likes of Roy Keane and Brendon Rogers when completing his UEFA Pro Licence, which also featured accompanying Keane to observe the coaching methods at the rugby All Blacks under Graham Henry.
“At the end of that week Ireland were playing New Zealand so Roy got the chance to watch his country play rugby as well,” he says.
“But for me to be about such highly regarded football people and coaches of that calibre was another great learning environment and one which gave me a platform to aspire to.”
It has been an extensive and exhilarating story – which may yet have another chapter or two to run – and a career which helped put football on the map in a country much famed for its rugby and cricketing excellence.
Herbert’s dances with Wolves played such a small part in that story, and had none of the success which has been prevalent elsewhere in his career.
But that takes nothing away from just how much he enjoyed his stay in Wolverhampton, and the learning experience of what life was like at the club at the time.
“A hundred per cent you learn from being involved in situations like that, certainly about finding a depth of resilience in such difficult circumstances,” he admits.
“I was going into my first taste of English football at a club with so much background and pedigree, and I could see what it meant to fans – even as a young Kiwi boy I could feel that connection.
“I could see a dressing room with players who were trying their best, and I was exactly the same, even though we couldn’t necessarily find the performances.
“My experiences at Wolves definitely flowed into my coaching afterwards, in terms of certain dressing room moments and spells, and what was needed within a squad.
“Even with the World Cup in 2010, I picked that squad knowing the importance of having players who would roll their sleeves up and not go into hiding when things got tough.
“Life at Wolves gave me a really good flavour of what was needed, and I still recall it as a really important part of my coaching journey.”
Always a Kiwi, and temporarily a Wolf. Ricki Herbert still remembers, forty years on.
