Bangkok--Sep 7--Thana Burin Asia Pacific
The talented New Zealand former “All Black” rugby team arrived Bangkok last night on Qantas Airways flight from New Zealand. New Zealand former All Black team comprising Mr Stu Wilson (2nd left), Mr Bernie Fraser (centre) and Mr Steve McDowell (2nd right) will compete for the first time on the elephants during the 4th King’s Cup Elephant Polo tournament at Hua Hin, Pravhuab Kirikhan province scheduled until 12 September 2004.
The King’s Cup Elephant Polo tournament is aimed at raising fund for the National Elephant Institute’s Thai Elephant Conservation Centre in Lampang province.
Former All Black team
Bernie Fraser
Starting as a schoolboy star at Auckland’s St Paul’s College, Bernie debuted with the Wellington team in 1973. However, it was not until 1979, at the relatively advanced age of 26, that he made his All Blacks debut, playing in two unofficial tests against Argentina and then playing his first full international on a tour to England and Scotland.
Rugby fans will remember Bernie as part of a find Wellington quartet, with fellow three quarter Stu Wilson, fullback Allan Hewson and No8 Murray Mexted. A cult figure in Wellington, he and Wilson were a lethal duo; Wilson fair and light, Bernie, of Fijian ancestry, dark and dusky: a physical contrast which gave them the title of their joint 1984 biography ‘Ebony and Ivory.’
Bernie retired from top rugby in 1986 having scored 105 tries in 124 Wellington appearances. In his international All Black career, which ended in 1984, he finished with 55 matches including 23 tests.
Stu Wilson
Stu Wilson was a powerful 1.83 metre, 86 kg centre or wing and first appeared for the All Blacks for their tour of Argentina in 1976. In a distinguished Rugby career he scored more than fifty for the All Blacks. Two in his first match wearing the black jersey. For several years his nineteen test tries were an All Black record. He was only the twelfth man in NZ Rugby history to score more than one hundred first class tries — 104 in total — many of them brilliant, exciting efforts.
Noted for his sense of humour and light hearted attitude Stu carried this into his play making scoring tries in top Rugby look much easier than it is. Stu wore the All Black jersey 85 times and appeared in 34 tests. He made nine overseas tours including that with the 1978 Grand Slam team which beat all four Home Unions. He was captain in all eight matches of the 1983 tour or England and Scotland. He retired from all Rugby, still in his prime in 1984.
Today, a real estate agent Stu Wilson also works as a radio and television rugby commentator.
Steve McDowell
At his best in the late 1980s, Steve McDowell as a loosehead prop ranked among the world’s best and among the finest in the position produced by New Zealand. Though not tall (under 1.83 m) McDowell was an extremely powerful man with his physique honed from his other sport, judo, in which he also won national honours, and his constant workouts with weights in gyms. He was an excellent scrummager, a superb mauler and explosive when he burst frequently into the open, especially in his halcyon years between 1985 and 1990.
Having started out with the Bay of Plenty in 1982, the bulk of McDowell’s representative career was with Auckland, which he joined in 1985. He played his first full international in 1986 and formed a mighty front row with fellow Aucklanders Sean Fitzpatrick and John Drake during the 1987 World Cup. In 1992, having had 81 All Black matches including 46 tests, McDowell suddenly disappeared from the national side.
In 1993, McDowell also faded from Auckland sides and moved to Wellington in 1994 where he had 10 games for that union. He then had a lengthy period overseas returning in 1998 at the age of 37 and with little regular play behind him to make three appearances for Auckland bring his tally for the union to 109. In all first class rugby he played 294 matches.
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