My Favourite Player
Chris Barclay waxes lyrical on his favourite player, the 1980s Canterbury crowd favourite Dale Atkins.
Chris Barclay loved watching No 8 Dale Atkins do the damage for Canterbury in the 1980s.
Ihad just turned 14 and, unusually for a Cantabrian, my disdain for all things Auckland had not yet fully matured.
not that I had a skerrick of sympathy for Lindsay Harris that sunny september afternoon at Lancaster Park in 1983, as Dale Atkins barrelled towards him after the portly though deceptively quick no 8 took a pass from a line-breaking Victor simpson.
Atkins had accelerated to cruising speed by the time he collided with Auckland’s brave though bumped-off fullback, who experienced an uncomfortable sense of deja vu when patrolling his right-hand corner.
A few minutes earlier Harris found himself in the same position – and predicament – as Craig green took the same route to the line in front of the no 3 stand.
Harris was no match for the left wing so, and I might be exaggerating here, the crowd had risen before Auckland’s last line of defence got buried. Atkins wasn’t much for sidestepping when weighing that move up against sheer brute force.
That try, Canterbury’s final flourish in a thumping 31-9 triumph – the last NPC victory over Auckland until 1997 – is my first vivid memory of Dale Patrick Atkins.
gerard wilson, of course, was taken with the moustachioed ball carrier at the back of a university scrum somewhat earlier, handing Atkins a provincial debut in 1980.
He retained his place when wilson and neil Cornelius combined for an ill-fated campaign a season later and the indomitable Alex wyllie – well schooled in the art of loose forward play as an abrasive no 8 himself – was also impressed with the aspiring teacher.
The zenith of Atkins’ rugby career dovetailed with Canterbury’s ranfurly shield reign from 1982-85, which in turn coincided with my awakening as a one-eyed Cantabrian, and about time too after remembering my first favourite player as newport and wales wing gareth evans.
yes, the gareth evans who scored AGAINST Canterbury for the british (and now Irish) Lions in 1977 before they snuck home 14-13 because Doug Heffernan couldn’t slot a last-minute penalty.
The second favourite player, chronologically, was rob Louw, the head-banded openside flanker for the springboks on their tumultuous 1981 new Zealand tour. I had no concept of, or interest in, the societal upheaval and family fallouts prompted by the south Africans.
My grandfather also couldn’t understand why I was anti-all blacks and was unimpressed by Allan Hewson’s series-clinching penalty at eden Park.
He was happier the following winter/ spring, when I shamelessly jumped on the red and black bandwagon for the first defence of the Log O’ wood: september 25, against Counties.
robbie Deans saved the day, the shield and salvaged a draw with a late penalty. Another abiding memory was being within range of John Ashworth as he scuffed the ball over the sideline, the final act – with the benefit of hindsight and Kevin Mcmenamin’s Glory Days – of a low-quality thriller.
As Canterbury’s tenure developed from that early scare, there was no shortage of heroes in that team for an impressionable youth, a budding utility back with concussion issues who played everywhere but halfback.
‘give it a boot’ robbie, and wayne smith, who started the ball rolling by haring to bernie’s Corner at Athletic Park.
The steadiness of a warwick Taylor, an ebullient Victor simpson… Craig green on the left flank, Andrew Mcmaster fleetingly on the right.
The loosies, particularly the no 7, was a glamour position long before the likes of Mccaw, though Jock Hobbs did leave eventually for wellington.
Don Hayes, the skipper, was ruggedness personified on the blindside; and for the ‘hard edge’, Ashworth appealed, or Murray ‘rocky’ Davie, who helpfully broke the jaw of Murray Pierce to solve a lineout crisis against wellington in ’83.
yet it was Atkins who had a presence about him, whether it be off the back of a scrum five metres out, at the tail of a lineout or, to great effect, working in tandem with bruce Deans. Their rapport underpinned Canterbury’s success, particularly when exploiting the short side.
‘Atkins wasn’t much for sidestepping when weighing that move up against sheer brute force.’