Mancanes team for the ages – just stretched a bit
Manawatu¯ Hurricanes XV
15 Christian Cullen 14 Nehe Milnerskudder
13 Mark Ranby 12 Ngani Laumape 11 Andre Taylor 10 Aaron Cruden 9 Joggie Viljoen 8 Karl Williams 7 Callum Gibbins 6 Nick Crosswell 5 Dion Waller 4 Jason Eaton 3 Chris Eves
2 Ged Robinson 1 Mark Allen (captain)
I’m taking a tortuous route back in time to select a Manawatu¯ Hurricanes XV So here goes – the definitive Hurricanes XV made up of Manawatu¯ -badged players. The rules for selecting this team came down from lofty heights, in advance of tomorrow’s Hurricanes-brumbies clash at CET Arena, Palmerston North.
Those rules had to be flexible to select a 15 with Manawatu¯ connections from the 70 who have played Super Rugby. There simply weren’t enough Manawatu¯ born and breds, let alone to add eight reserves.
When Bull Allen played for the All Blacks in Britain in 1997, the English spectators at Ashton Gate, where the Bristol City soccer team plays, could not understand why Bull was booed by the New Zealand supporters whenever he had the ball. It was of course ‘‘Bull’’ being hollered en masse. For this exercise, many Manawatu¯ faithful might boo Bull’s inclusion as the Mancanes dream team’s loosehead prop – and indeed as the captain. The only alternative was Turbo Fraser Armstrong, who is still finding his way in his first fully contracted season.
Hence the rules for selecting the cream team were stretched to include Central Vikings players and even Manawatu¯ boundary hoppers who were wearing alien provincial colours at the time they wore the Hurricanes amber.
To refresh memories, the Vikings were not a combined Manawatu¯ -Hawke’s Bay rugby union in 1997-98 as some still claim. No, they were a combined team affiliated to the two unions, coached by Manawatu¯ ’s Frank Oliver, who had the pulling power to bring in Allen and others.
Allen, Taranaki through and through, is still counted as a Manawatu¯ All Black even though he didn’t play for either union’s team, but was contracted as a Viking through Manawatu¯ . He was assigned nominally to the Massey University Rugby Club, but the only time he pulled on the sky blue was at a promo function in Featherston St. Varsity don’t count him as one of their All Blacks.
Meanwhile, our front row is a dry argument because Manawatu¯ has never had a home-grown hooker with any Super franchise. In 2013, hooker Rob Foreman raced from his farm at Makuri to fly to South Africa with the Hurricanes, but didn’t get on the field. One minute would have been enough for us, Rob.
So Ged Robinson, who was a Wellington loan player for the 2007 Turbos season and who played for the Canes out of the Highlanders, has to be our hooker. At tighthead prop Chris Eves gets the No 3 jersey because we couldn’t find anyone else, aside maybe from Orcades Crawford, who was a Manawatu¯ rep in 1990.
At lock, two players who played club rugby in Manawatu¯ and went on to All Blackhood were Dion Waller and Jason Eaton, even if Eaton had joined the exodus to first-division Taranaki, which always rankled with Manawatu¯ -ites.
So did loose forward Brent Thompson and Andre Taylor, who has to be our pick for the left wing. He is back from Japan and will be turning out for College Old Boys again next month.
Waller played for Marist and the Vikings and now works for Infinity Foundation, while Eaton is coaching at La Rochelle in France.
Nick Crosswell also played for the Highlanders and Chiefs, but his prolonged loyalty to the green and whites since 2006 until today sees him pip Thompson and Chresten Davis for the blindside flank slot.
Marist man Karl Williams, an original Hurricane from 1996 to 1998 who had an All Black trial in 1993, is our No 8. Bruising loosie Bruce Hansen might have claimed a spot, but he played only two and a bit games for the Canes when two Transvaalers gang-tackled him at Napier and caved in his shoulder. Hansen played against all 27 New Zealand provinces and is now a fencing contractor in Roxburgh.
At halfback, Springbok Joggie Viljoen gets in because in 2000 he was a Hurricane out of Northland, later enlisting with the Turbos start-up in 2006. He heads off Jamie Booth, who is now at the Sunwolves in Japan.
All Blacks Aaron Cruden and Ngani Laumape are bolters in the two five-eighths seats, so there’s no room for Stephen Bachop, George Konia or Marty Berry. Other easy selections are Christian Cullen at fullback and Nehe Milner-skudder on the right wing, leaving only centre, where All Black 1001 and Freyberg High School’s star allrounder Mark Ranby comes in ahead of Ohingaiti’s finest Welsh international, Hadleigh Parkes.
In total, 56 men played Super Rugby who appeared for Manawatu¯ or the Vikings and were not loan players. Of them, 29 played for the Hurricanes and 27 for other franchises, but only 16 were with the Canes while playing for Manawatu¯ .