All Blacks hardman: ‘You have to be tough in your head’

Ex-All Blacks captain Buck Shelford springs some surprises when rating his toughest opponents.

Wayne ‘‘Buck’’ Shelford, widely regarded as one of the most rugged individuals to wear an All Blacks jersey, has rewarded an Aussie and a Frenchman with the honour of being the toughest men he’s met on a rugby field.

Former test captain Shelford, who played 22 tests between 1986 and 1990, is still ranked as one of the most uncompromising customers to wear the silver fern.

Even England journalist Stephen Jones, a man who often takes pleasure from poking the borax at New Zealand rugby, paid homage to the former No 8 by this month listing him as his No 1 hard man of all time.

Now it’s Shelford’s turn to reveal which players he admired most – and it might surprise you.

Former Wallabies captain and flanker Simon Poidevin and French No 8 Laurent Rodriguez get the nod. Because they gave as good as they got, says Shelford.

‘‘Poido [Poidevin] was the toughest,’’ Shelford told the Sunday Star-Times.

‘‘As a No 8 you were always running at the openside flanker and he played No 7 a lot.

‘‘If I got past him it would p . . . him off big time. When he caught me at times in games he would just wouldn’t let go. Man, he was tough.’’

Poidevin encountered Shelford in Bledisloe Cup tests, while Rodriguez was at No 8 for the ‘‘Battle of Nantes’’ test in 1986.

The All Blacks lost that match 16-3, with Shelford among those who copped a beating, before having to retire with concussion, broken teeth and a torn scrotum.

Rodriguez was picked by Shelford because he, like Poidevin, didn’t rely on underhand tactics to dominate opponents.

‘‘I supposed myself and Rodriguez were similar types of No 8s,’’ Shelford says. ‘‘We liked running off the back of the scrum with the ball in hand.

‘‘Poidevin and Rodriguez would have been the toughest I have played against.’’

Shelford says the injury that concerned him most was not the concussion from the game in Nantes, which lingered for three to four weeks, but the painful neck injury he suffered against Ireland in Dublin in 1989.

After charging into several opposition players with ball in hand, he suffered a painful neck injury and initially feared the worst.

‘‘I thought I had broken my neck in the first hit of the game,’’ he recollected. ‘‘I ran into about four of them. I have never had such pain go through my body.

‘‘That was probably the scariest of the lot.’’

The All Blacks physio David Abercrombie managed to alleviate the pain by digging his fingers into Shelford’s neck and he continued to play.

But it has come at a cost. The trapezius muscle on his right side has withered, and not even doing weights could help him bulk up that part of his body.

Shelford, now 62, doesn’t believe his pain threshold is higher than most others he played with or encountered during his career — he says he just knew he had to soldier on and do his best to ignore the pain.

In short, the body will go where the mind takes it.

‘‘You have to be tough in your head,’’ Shelford said.

‘‘That was the way I took rugby on. I was tough on myself, tough with other people as well. Because if I am going to go over the hill and fight, and put my body on the line, I expect all the other brothers beside me to do the same thing.’’

A former Auckland and North Harbour rep, Shelford recalled diving into a ruck to kill the ball against Manawatu and being warned by their All Blacks flanker Mark Shaw that he could expect to get ‘‘dealt to’’ if he did it again.

Shelford said that was all part of the game’s self-governing rules in those days. And he liked it.

He offered little mercy to opponents or team-mates. And expected none in return.

‘‘That was the attitude I took into my rugby. We have to fight the fight right until that last whistle goes. Never give up.

‘‘It’s not about throwing punches.

It’s about playing tough football.’’

‘‘I was tough on myself, tough with other people as well. Because if I am going to go over the hill and fight, and put my body on the line, I expect all the other brothers beside me to do the same thing.’’

Buck Shelford, pictured