So near but yet so far for All Black sub Bono

THE World Cup Sevens this weekend calls to mind the strange tale of Benjamin Bono, the Uruguayan who found himself drafted into the gold medal winning All Blacks squad the last time the tournament was played on the American continent.

It was in 2001 when Bono got called up by the All Blacks from the pool of reserve players provided by Los Torros who had narrowly failed to qualify for the tournament.

Bono, from the British School Old Boys’ Club in Montevideo, had initially been asked to help out with Japan but that proved a false alarm before his big moment came.

He recalls: “In the last game of the second day, Eric Rush broke a bone in his leg and All Blacks Sevens coach Gordon Tietjens asked his friend Pedro Bordaberry, from the Punta del Este Sevens which my club organised, to recommend someone from the pool of reserves and he told him about me. I was lucky.

“That same night I moved to the team hotel and slept in the same room as Eric Rush who already had his leg in a cast. I was very shy at first but, fortunately, I knew him from his visits to Punta del Este. Straightaway, I was very well treated.”

Rush flew home the next morning and Bono, now fully kitted out in All Blacks Sevens gear, become part of the squad.

“That morning we did a short session so that I was up to speed with their calls and we went to the stadium,” says the former Los Teros back row, right.

New Zealand had beaten Japan, Chile, Zimbabwe and England in pool play and soon accounted for Samoa in the quarter-finals. Well-supported hosts Argentina lay in wait in the semi-final but New Zealand cruised through 31-7.

“Just as I was about to step onto the field, the game finished,” says Bono ruefully. No free gifts from the All Blacks!