Andrew Blowers

Andrew Blowers’ career offers a striking illustration of some of the aspects in the new professional era of the mid 1990s which may not be to everyone’s liking.

Earmarked at an early age, when he made the national secondary schools side from Auckland’s Mt Albert Grammar in 1993, for All Black honours, Blowers received plenty of chances. But despite these and considerable natural ability he never quite fulfilled his potential.

Blowers as a schoolboy played as a lock and at 1.93m (6ft 4) and at more than 105kg (nearly 17st) he had a superb physique. But all of his representative career was as a flanker and it never became established whether he was better suited to the blindside or the openside.

Auckland born of Samoan heritage, Blowers first appeared at international level on a tour of South Africa with Manu Samoa. But he did not appear in tests and the loose international eligibilty regulations still operating at the time enabled him to become available for New Zealand by 1996.

And despite his appearances for Samoa Blowers was very much a product of the New Zealand system. At 20 he first appeared for Auckland in 1995 and that year and in 1996 he was in the New Zealand colts side. In 1996 he was also part of the Blues side which took out the inaugural Super 12 title.

Blowers was plainly seen by then All Black coach John Hart as a strong contender for the 1999 World Cup squad. For he was taken in the 36-man All Black side which toured South Africa in 1996 and later that year under Hart’s coaching made the short tour to Britain with the New Zealand Barbarians.

Blowers made two brief appearances in the 1996 series against the Springboks, coming on as a substitute in the Cape Town test for Josh Kronfeld and again for Kronfeld for the last eight minutes of the Pretoria test.

Injuries affected Blowers for both the Super 12 and NPC of 1997, but he was still chosen for the tour of Ireland, Wales and England. Again the intention of developing Blowers for the World Cup was evident and he was surprisingly preferred to Kronfeld to start in the international against Ireland. Kronfeld only came on for the last 20 minutes.

Kronfeld was then restored for the remaining internationals and Blowers was returned to the bench, coming on as second spell injury replacements for Zinzan Brooke in the first England international and for Taine Randell against Wales.

But even though he was still not 23 and remained a regular player for Auckland in the NPC and for the Blues in the Super 12 Blowers was not required for the All Blacks again after the 1999 Rugby World Cup. Increasingly stiffer international eligibility regulations also precluded him from resuming a test career with Samoa.

At the end of the 2000 season, after 44 Super 12 games and 45 matches for Auckland, Blowers was lost to New Zealand rugby, at just 26 joining the exodus of second tier players or discarded All Blacks to an overseas contract. He was one of those left who still had more to offer the game in this country, even if only as a provincial or Super 12 player.