112 past or present ABs running around the world
Steve Hansen’s bulked-up 51-man squad means there will soon be 112 active All Blacks playing rugby around the world.
Beyond the large party named this week for the end-of-season northern tour, 61 former All Blacks are still plying their trade here or overseas.
Together, they boast 1239 caps – led by Dan Carter’s 112 and Ma’a Nonu’s 103.
Forty-seven ex-All Blacks – with a collective total of 1025 caps – are playing overseas (including 66-cap Israel Dagg, currently playing in Japan but set to return to the Crusaders). That’s a lot of rugby nous lost offshore.
The foreign legion features recent All Blacks Jerome Kaino (Toulouse), Aaron Cruden (Montpellier), Liam Messam (Toulon), Lima Sopoaga (Wasps) and Steven Luatua (Bristol).
France is now home to 23 ex-All Blacks – enough to field a match day squad (despite the dearth of hookers).
Collectively, they boast 584 All Black caps – headed by Kaino’s 83.
Ten – including World Cup winners Carter, Richard Kahui, Stephen Donald, Andy Ellis and Israel Dagg – have said ‘sayonara’ as they left New Zealand for Japan and nine are now with English clubs.
Fourteen former All Blacks are still turning out for Kiwi teams. Some, such as Blues signing Nonu, 2007 Rugby World Cup halfback Brendon Leonard and lock-loose forward Jarrad Hoeata have returned from stints overseas.
Others – notably 71-test Tasman Mako prop Wyatt Crockett and North Harbour hooker and captain James Parsons have never left.
Many of the ex-All Blacks are in the twilight of their careers but are still wringing every last cent from their frames.
The longevity list is headed by 38-year-old Regan King – who won his sole cap in 2002 and still plays for Welsh premier league club Neath and Carter (Japan) and Joe Rokocoko (France), who made their All Blacks’ debuts in 2003.
King – older brother of New Zealand’s Commonwealth Games women’s squash champion Joelle King – has been playing professional rugby for 18 seasons.
Carter, 37, has been earning good coin from the game for 17 years while Rokocoko, 35, has been going around since his Blues debut as a teenager in 2003 – the same year Yamaha (Japan) backrower Mose Tuiali’i made Northland bow.
King, a centre whose only cap came against Wales in Cardiff, first moved to Europe in 2004 with Stade Francais before finding his niche in Wales with Scarlets.
Nine-cap midfielder Sam Tuitupou – now with tier-two Coventry – has been playing in Europe since 2007 while Tuali’i has had a decade in Japan.
The Pau club in south-west France boast five former All Blacks – Colin Slade, Tom Taylor, Jamie Mackintosh, Benson Stanley and Frank Halai – not surprising given three ex-All Blacks – Simon Mannix, Conrad Smith and Carl Hayman on the coaching staff.
Lock Jeremy Thrush (now with the Western Force) is the only ex-All Black playing in Australia while Alby Mathewson (Ireland) and Lelia Masaga (Scotland) are also lone rangers in their adopted lands.
It’s clear, glancing down this lengthy list, that the Ex-All Blacks could field a handy starting XV.
The selectors would be spoiled for choice in some positions.
Six quality five-eighths are playing overseas – Carter, and Stephen Donald (Japan), Cruden, Slade and Taylor (France) and Sopoaga (England).
The list could have been longer, but for decisions by French-based Conrad Smith (Pau), Jason Eaton (La Rochelle) and Chris Masoe and Casey Laulala (both Racing 92) to retire at the end of last season and join their former clubs’ coaching staffs. Luke McAlister also hung up his boots at Clermont.
Anthony Tuitavake, 36, also left Racing 92 and Stuff has been unable to ascertain if he is still playing rugby elsewhere – so the tally could be as high as 61 active ex-All Blacks, outside Hansen’s half-century squad.
The list also doesn’t include sporadic club rugby appearances by veteran ex-All Blacks, such as hooker Andrew Hore, 40, who has been known to help out the Maniototo club he coaches in the Central Otago competition.