All Blacks Mourn Head of Security Logan Cadwallader After Sudden Death in Edinburgh
New Zealand Rugby confirmed the former NZSAS soldier died on Sunday morning at the team hotel, days before the Nations Championship test against Scotland at Murrayfield.
Tuesday, November 3, 2026/3 min read
The All Blacks arrived in Edinburgh to prepare for Scotland. Instead, the week has begun with the squad grieving one of its own. Logan Cadwallader, the team's head of security for the past ten years, died on Sunday morning following a medical event at the team hotel, New Zealand Rugby said in a statement released on Monday.
Cadwallader was not a name most supporters would recognise, which was rather the point of his job. He travelled with the team throughout the decade he worked for it, and before that he served in the New Zealand Army and the New Zealand Special Air Service Regiment, with deployments to Bosnia, East Timor, Afghanistan and the Solomon Islands. He is survived by his wife, Nannette, and their children, Trey, Brooke and Mia.
What did New Zealand Rugby say about Logan Cadwallader?
Head coach Dave Rennie said the team was devastated and struggling to come to terms with the news, describing Cadwallader as the ultimate team man, loved and trusted by all. Chief executive Steve Lancaster called him a valued and trusted member of the management group over the past decade and extended the union's sympathies to his family and friends. New Zealand Rugby said it is supporting the family as well as the players and staff, asked that the family's privacy be respected, and said it would make no further comment.
Assistant coach Jason Ryan, visibly emotional when he spoke to reporters in Edinburgh, called Cadwallader "our quiet hero", the New Zealand Herald reported. Ryan also said the country had lost a great soldier, and that the squad had prepared well and would be ready for Saturday despite what he called a roadblock, according to ESPN. Sports Minister Mark Mitchell, who knew him from an annual Anzac Day gathering of defence and police veterans in Coatesville, posted a photograph of the two of them together and said next Anzac Day would not be the same without him.
Does the Scotland v New Zealand test still go ahead?
Nothing in the statement or in the reporting out of Edinburgh suggests the fixture is in doubt. Scotland host New Zealand at Murrayfield on Saturday 7 November at 14:10 GMT, the first of the All Blacks' three November rounds in the inaugural Nations Championship, with Wales in Cardiff and England at Twickenham to follow on the next two Saturdays before the finals weekend in London. New Zealand and South Africa are level on 15 points at the top of the southern table after the July rounds, and Scotland sit a point behind France in the north.
Rennie said the team would honour Cadwallader and the legacy he left on the All Blacks. How that looks on Saturday, whether a black armband, a moment of silence at Murrayfield or something private within the squad, has not been announced and no public statement from Scottish Rugby had been reported by Monday evening. The All Blacks have lost a member of staff on tour before, but rarely one so woven into the daily life of the squad over such a long period.
Why the All Blacks' security chief mattered to the team
A touring national side moves through hotels, airports, stadium tunnels and fan zones on a schedule measured in minutes, and the person responsible for making that happen without incident ends up knowing everyone. That is why the reactions from Rennie and Ryan read less like an employer's condolence and more like a family's.
Training continues in Edinburgh this week, and the team is expected to name its side for Scotland in the usual window later in the week. For now the All Blacks have asked for the space to grieve, and the first thing they will do at Murrayfield on Saturday is remember the man who was always standing just out of shot.
Published in The Outspoken Digest
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