There aren’t many people who have given Colin Meads a telling-off, but the newly minted Sir Fred Allen is one of them.

Sir Fred, 90, who receives a knighthood in today’s honours list, said his nickname “the Needle” came from the strict disciplinarian methods he used to become the most successful All Blacks coach.

“I wouldn’t stand for any nonsense. I used to pick up on things,” he said.

At one team talk in the late 1960s he noticed Colin Meads yawning.

Though Meads was already a legendary figure in the All Blacks team, Allen singled him out for treatment.

“Am I boring you, Meads?” he asked pointedly.

Pinetree hurriedly apologised and the younger members of the team took note, Allen said. “If I would do that to Meads, what would I do to them?”

That team included rugby greats such as Meads, Brian Lochore, Waka Nathan, Kel Tremain, Sid Going, Grahame Thorne, Earl Kirton, Fergie McCormick, Chris Laidlaw and Ian Kirkpatrick.

Allen said several of those players, who are now knights themselves, used to flatter him by asking why Allen had not been the first to receive the honour.

As All Blacks coach from 1966 to 1968, Allen did not lose one of his 14 tests – the only national coach with a 100 per cent record.

After receiving an OBE in 1990, Allen said he did not expect to receive anything else.

Speaking from his Whangaparaoa home, Allen said the knighthood was “very emotional and very hard to deal with”, particularly as his beloved wife Norma, who died nine months ago, was not around to see it.

“She would have loved it,” Allen said.

Allen was born in Oamaru in 1920 and learned his rugby as a schoolboy in Christchurch, playing at first-five-eighth. Working as a shop boy at Christchurch department store Ballantyne’s in the 1930s taught him the discipline he would later use to become the most successful All Blacks coach.

At Ballantyne’s, as a 17-year-old, he had to wear a hat and a white collar at all times, he said.

“It taught me a lot of things – self-discipline, respect. It helped me in my rugby.”

Allen played for Canterbury before overstating his age by a year so he that could serve in World War II.

His dedication to grooming saved his life when, in Italy, he stopped beside a tank to have a shave.

When a tank commander threw him a shaving kit he missed it – and bent down to pick it up just as a German 88mm shell hit the tank, killing the commander instantly.

Allen received a large piece of shrapnel in the shoulder – which he still keeps as a memento – but survived what otherwise would have been certain death. “I wasn’t meant to die,” he said.

After the war, he played for the All Blacks, becoming captain in 1949.

He coached Auckland in the late 1950s and 1960s before becoming All Blacks coach in 1966.

Allen said current All Black Daniel Carter was the greatest first-five he had seen in his 90 years, and Richie McCaw had recently overtaken Tremain in his estimation. However, in his opinion, Meads remained the greatest all-round player.

And would he now get used to being called Sir Fred?

“I’ve been called worse,” he said. “I’m just Fred Allen, the same as I’ve always been.”

RIGHT SAID FRED

Name: Frederick Richard Allen

Born: February 9, 1920, in Oamaru

Physical: 1.78m, 79kg

Nickname: The Needle

Position: Five-eighth

Province: Auckland

All Blacks tests: 6 (all as captain)

All Blacks games: 15 (all as captain)

All Blacks tries: 7

All Blacks coach: 1966-68, winning all 14 tests