HOW THEY RATE

The five best All Blacks looseheads of the past 25 years:

1 Tony Woodcock (North Harbour) 99 tests (2002-present) 1.84m, 120kg

2 Steve McDowall (Bay of Plenty/ Auckland) 46 tests (1985-1992) 1.82m, 102kg

A national judo representative, McDowall wasn’t as big as many of the props who would come into the game in the professional era, but he was a beast all the same and for a time the best prop in world rugby. Not only adept and strong at the set piece, McDowall had an explosive turn of pace and a high workrate.

3 Craig Dowd (Auckland) 60 tests (1993-2000) 1.91m, 114kg

After serving his apprenticeship behind class acts like Olo Brown, Steve McDowell and Peter Fatialofa with Auckland, Dowd was a polished product by the time he made his test debut. A tall man, he was mobile and athletic for the time and by the 1995 World Cup he was the All Blacks’ first-choice loosehead.

4 Richard Loe (Canterbury/ Waikato) 49 tests (1987-1995) 1.88m, 116kg

The Canterbury farmer was one of the more colourful All Blacks of his era. He remains infamous for dropping his elbow into Wallabies wing Paul Carozza’s nose in 1992 and for eye gouging Greg Cooper, but Loe was more than just a hard man. Capable of playing either side of the scrum he was technically sound and held his spot through one of the All Blacks’ great eras.

5 Carl Hoeft (Otago) 30 tests (1998-2003) 1.84m, 115kg

An Auckland plumbing apprentice who started in Thames Valley, Carl Hoeft made a big impact after shifting to Otago in 1996 where he would form a combination with hooker Anton Oliver and fellow prop Kees Meeuws. Hoeft was a bullocking figure in his prime, mobile, aggressive and capable of wrecking his opponents at scrum time.