John Timu

It would be inaccurate and unfair to suggest that the career in top rugby of John Timu had been a disappointment. After all, Timu finished his first class career of seven seasons between 1988 and 1994 with 108 tries and he played 50 matches for the All Blacks, including 26 tests.He also reached a century of matches for Otago, scoring 68 tries in his 101 games.

But there must always be a slight twinge of regret associated with Timu in that he never quite realised his considerable potential. There were two main factors contributing to this.

At the age of 25, when he still had many productive seasons ahead, Timu switched to rugby league, joining the Bulldogs club in Sydney. Thus his All Black career ended prematurely and he missed the 1995 World Cup tournament in South Africa, for which he would have been a certainty.

And right through his career there was uncertainty as to which was his best All Black position and he alternated between the wing and fullback.

Even when he on the wing, too, it was often not in his best and more natural position, which was on the right.

But the presence, especially in the early part of his career, of John Kirwan meant that frequently Timu, even though he lacked a strong left foot, was played on the left wing. The switches of positions may explain why Timu finished with a relatively low strike rate in test match scoring: just seven tries in his 26 tests.

A product of southern Hawke’s Bay, Timu attended Lindisfarne College in Hastings where he soon showed his rare attacking skills and flairs. In the 1986-87 seasons he was a contemporary of a number of other gifted teenagers who eventually would become All Black backline stars. Jasin Goldsmith, Inga Tuigamala, Craig Innes and Walter Little were his team-mates in several national age group and secondary school sides.

Timu followed a by then well worn path among Hawke’s Bay prodigies to Otago University and in his first season in Dunedin, in 1988, he made an instant impact. He immediately made the Otago representative side and in his debut season scored a record number of tries for the province, 16.

Still only a teenager, Timu that year made the New Zealand Maori side for the first time (on the tour under Wayne Shelford’s captaincy of Europe and Argentina) and was also in the South zone side, equivalent to a South Island team, for the George Nepia Trophy series.

In 1989 he became an All Black for the first time when he was the replacecement for an injured Kirwan on the tour of Ireland and Wales. He thus joined his team-mates from age group sides in Innes, Tuigamala and Little, in the touring party. Indeed, it had been a close decision between him and Little for a place in the original selection, Little gaining the nod with some late impressive NPC form for North Harbour.

The preference for Kirwan and Terry Wright meant Timu and Tuigamala had to bide their time for test spots, though both went on the 1990 tour of France. By 1991 the claims of Timu in particular were becoming even more pressing and that year he made his test debut on the tour of Argentina.

But a sign of the selection dilemmas which would soon arise for Timu came with the World Cup quarterfinal of 1991 against Canada in Lille, France. Because of injuries Timu was moved to fullback, where he had played only rarely, and he responded by scoring two tries. Despite that double, though, he was overlooked for the following week’s semifinal against Australia as a fullback.

Timu played the early season tests of 1992 as a wing but on the tour of Australia and South Africa he was shifted to fullback, where he proved an effective attacker. He retained his place at fullback through 1993 in the series against the Lions, in tests against Manu Samoa and Australia and then on the tour of Scotland and England. But after playing the first two tests of 1994 against France as a fullback he returned to wing for the series against the Springboks and the one-off Bledisloe Cup test in Sydney.

He then made his surprise move to league joining the Bulldogs. He adapted to the 13-men code reasonably well, mainly as a midfield back.

Between 1995 and 1997 he made nine international appearances for the Kiwis.