The Star: September 26, 2019

The Star Thursday September 26 2019
44
SPORT
in brief
McLean, Kobori off to
US with NZ golf team
Canterbury golfers Matt
McLean and Momoka Kobori
have been named in the
New Zealand team for The
Spirit International at the
Whispering Pines Golf Club in
Texas later this year. They will
join Tyler Wood, of Palmerston
North, and Auckland’s
Wenyung Keh in the four
strong team to travel to the
United States. The tournament
consists of an individual men’s
and women’s competition
as well as an overall teams
standing.
Young driver makes
headway in Italy
Teen racer Jacob Douglas
finished the FIA Academy
Trophy Series with a solid
result in Italy over the
weekend. The 14-year-old
finished ninth in the final
round at Lonato. The result saw
him finish 11th overall in the
51-driver series, which
was competed over three
rounds.
Country v Metro to
open cricket season
Canterbury Country will
face Canterbury Metro in the
opening fixture of the rep
cricket season on Saturday. The
match at Mainpower Oval in
Rangiora will include many
players pushing their case for
selection in the Canterbury
squad for their first domestic
season Plunket Shield match
against Northern Districts on
October 21.
Netball festival starts
in Chch on Saturday
Christchurch will host the
International Netball Festival
which starts this weekend. The
tournament will see 25 teams
from New Zealand, Australia
and Malaysia compete across
an open division and three
age group divisions at Hagley
Park from September 28 to
October 1.
Chch United cap off
year with promotion
Christchurch United have
successfully won promotion
to the Mainland Premier
League after defeating FC
Nelson 9-2 on aggregate over
two legs. United met Nelson
– winners of the Nelson Bays
competition – to decide which
team would replace relegated
FC Twenty 11 in next year’s
MPL. A 6-0 win in the second
leg at the weekend brought an
end to an impressive season for
United, which saw them win
the Canterbury Championship
League, McFarlane Cup, and
reach the English Cup final as
well as the quarter-finals of the
Chatham Cup. Coach Danny
Halligan is also a nominee
for coach of the year at the
Mainland Football awards
tomorrow night.
With the Rugby World Cup under way, The Star continues its
Canterbury sporting icon series with a member of the original
1987 World Cup team. Gordon Findlater caught up with
Canterbury legend and six-test All Blacks lock Albert Anderson
Beer-fuelled World Cup antics
ALBERT ANDERSON is the
first to admit he spent more time
drinking Steinlager than on
the field during the All Blacks
successful 1987 Rugby World
Cup campaign.
The lock played just one game
in the tournament – a 74-13
demolition of Fiji at Lancaster
Park. He spent much of the
campaign as a member of the
‘dirty dirties’ – a name coined
for the World Cup squad
members playing no part in the
matches.
“I was a dirty dirty a fair bit of
the time . . . we had to go to the
functions and drink all of the
Steinlager,” he said.
Anderson, now 58 and living
on the family farm where he
grew up in Southbridge, was a
key cog in the Canterbury side
of the 1980s which famously
held the Ranfurly Shield for
24 successive defences from
1982-1985. In total he played 143
times for Canterbury between
1981 and 1990.
He played for Southbridge as
a junior before boarding at St
Andrew’s College where he went
on to make the first XV.
“The two years I was in the
first XV we lost to Christ’s College
– that’s my biggest rugby
disappointment,” he said.
The Christ’s College team
which eluded him contained
many players he would go on to
play with at Canterbury and in
the All Blacks, including Jock
Hobbs, Robbie Deans, Bruce
Deans and Joe Leota.
Anderson spent many of his
years in red and black under the
guidance of Alex Wyllie, whose
training sessions he does not
miss.
“He did it his way, which was
fine, we got the results . . . I can’t
say I’d go back and do it all
over again if I knew what was
coming. I’m very glad I had him,
though, that’s for sure.
“We used to play rugby to get
fit for his training runs.”
One of Wyllie’s more intense
sessions involved Anderson and
the team doing multiple laps
around Rugby Park while leapfrogging
– which even managed
to break Leota, a former New
Zealand sprint champion.
“Joe [Leota] fell over on the
ground, he was absolutely
stuffed, he couldn’t move. He
just wasn’t used to it . . . we kept
leapfrogging and Murray Davie
looked across to me and said ‘we
just beat the New Zealand sprint
champion’.”
Anderson was involved in
Canterbury’s famous 23-28
Ranfurly Shield loss to Auckland
at Lancaster Park in 1985.
Anderson scored Canterbury’s
last try in a spirited second half
comeback.
An image of the try went on
to inspire the ‘Albert Anderson
Player of the Year’ shield which
is presented annually to the top
Southbridge player.
LIFESTYLE: Former All Blacks lock Albert Anderson
runs a one-man band on his family cropping farm in
Southbridge.
“It was a good photo in the
paper of Foxy [Grant Fox]
trying to hold me up, so the
Southbridge publican made up
a leather shield with the photo
on it.”
Each year the shield, now
in wooden form, is presented
on ‘Alby Anderson Day’. The
annual event raises money for
different causes in the Southbridge
community and has been
hosted at a number of venues in
the area. It is estimated to have
raised about $500,000 for the local
community over the years.
The day also has a reputation
for unexpected events. Events on
Alby Anderson Day include the
death of Princess Diana, a major
snow event and the Southbridge
7 MARCH
LINCOLN
Hotel being held up at gun
point.
Outside of the 1987 World
Cup, Anderson was involved in
All Blacks tours to Australia and
the United Kingdom. However,
one of his favourites was the
1985 tour to Argentina.
“Steinlager were sponsoring
us then and they put a pallet
of beer on the plane with us
when we left. We drank the
last of it just before we left to
come back, but actually Argentinian
beer is really nice so we
wouldn’t have needed it. I don’t
like the Aussie beers and hate
Pommy beer, but the Argentinians
made some good beer,” said
Anderson.
Free drinks were one of the
Tickets
On Sale Now
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‘If you told me 30 years
ago I’d be wearing
lycra and riding a bike
I’d probably smack you’
– Albert Anderson
few perks in the days of playing
for the national side before
rugby went professional, but
Anderson has no qualms over
the lack of six figure contracts
like those received by players
now.
“We got a £12 sterling a day
player allowance. So when you’re
on tour that was seven days a
week. That was just about a bit
more than what I was earning
here, so that wasn’t bad for a
little country fellow like me. All
the yuppie Aucklanders would
go and spend it on a new pair of
fancy shoes and it’d be gone,”
said Anderson.
His last stint with the All
Blacks included six tour games
in 1988, in which he captained
the side in four. After his final
season with Canterbury in 1989,
Anderson played a handful of
seasons for Southbridge before
dislocating his knee.
The injury paved the way for
his current sporting passion –
cycling.
“If you told me 30 years ago
I’d be wearing lycra and riding
a bike I’d probably smack you,”
he said.
Anderson can be found riding
around the Port Hills most
weekends and has even cycled
in Vietnam, France, Croatia,
Austria and Germany with his
wife Sandy.
His claim to fame with cycling
– which he reinforces that he is
“actually bloody good” at – is
keeping pace with Hamish Bond
and George Bennett during a
downhill section in the Abel
Tasman Cycle Challenge.
PEDAL: Albert Anderson
acting as a great draft for
professional cyclist George
Bennett during the Abel
Tasman Cycle Challenge.
Left – Anderson jostles
with England’s Colin
‘Chalky’ White during the
All Blacks tour of Scotland
and England in 1983.
England won the match at
Twickenham 15-9.