All Blacks halfback Chris Laidlaw clears the ball against British and Irish Lions, 1966.
Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Two former New Zealand rugby players will be inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame this weekend.
All Black Chris Laidlaw and All Black Sevens legend DJ Forbes are among the five players to be acknowledged.
The others are Australian sevens player Emilee Cherry, Scotland’s Donna Kennedy and former Italian captain Sergio Parisse.
The World Rugby Hall of Fame recognises those who have made an outstanding contribution to the game of rugby throughout their careers, while also demonstrating rugby’s character-building values of integrity, passion, solidarity, discipline and respect.
The five inductees bring the total in the Hall of Fame to 171 since it began in 2006.
DJ Forbes
World Rugby Hall of Fame – Inductee No.168
A genuine sevens superstar, DJ Forbes was the fulcrum of one of the most successful New Zealand sides for more than a decade. Having made his World Rugby Sevens Series debut in Wellington in February 2006, Forbes and his distinctive beard were a mainstay on the circuit until he hung up his playing boots in May 2017.
Along the way he appeared in 89 series tournaments – playing 512 matches on the circuit – scoring 153 tries and amassing a shedload of medals. In total, Forbes won 26 tournaments, six overall series titles, one Commonwealth Games gold medal in 2010, silver in 2014 and a Rugby World Cup Sevens title in 2013.
He was also named World Rugby Men’s Sevens Player of the Year in 2008, following a campaign in which he scored 26 tries and led New Zealand to six tournament victories en route to their eighth series title.
Chris Laidlaw
World Rugby Hall of Fame – Inductee No.171
Considered something of a rugby prodigy in his youth, Chris Laidlaw would fulfil his undoubted potential both on and off the pitch. One of the greatest scrum-halves to ever pull on an All Black number nine jersey, he has gone on to have an influential and varied career outside of the game. After he retired from rugby in 1970, he went on to enjoy a long and distinguished career as a diplomat, politician and broadcaster.
Mentored by former international scrum-half Charlie Saxton, Laidlaw was called into the New Zealand squad and made his test debut for the All Blacks at the age of 19, on their 1963-64 tour of the UK, France and Canada. Included on the trip primarily as an understudy to Kevin Briscoe, he did enough to earn a start for the test against Les Bleus, landing a drop goal in a 12-3 victory at Stade Colombes on 8 February, 1964.
It was the start of a six-and-a-half-year international career in which he made the scrum-half position his own. In total, Laidlaw played 20 tests for the All Blacks, captaining them against Australia in 1968 and playing in a further 37 tour and non-cap matches.
Across that time, his only test defeats in the famous black jersey came at the hands of South Africa. Even then, Laidlaw emerged victorious from four of his seven encounters with the Springboks. It was in Port Elizabeth that Laidlaw played his final test for the All Blacks. By then, he had become a Rhodes Scholar at Merton College, Oxford and captained Oxford University to victory against the touring Springboks.
His involvement wouldn’t end there. He became captain-coach of the Lyon team in France, the first foreign international to play such a role. As a diplomat in the Pacific he coached both Fiji and Samoa and in New Zealand he became a board member of the Hurricanes franchise and Wellington’s Sky Stadium.
He also wrote extensively and honestly about rugby – for British and New Zealand newspapers, and published two best-selling books, Mud in your Eye in 1972 and Somebody Stole my Game in 2010 as the rush of professionalism began to threatened rugby’s core values.
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Author : rugby-247
Publish date : 2024-11-20 17:14:13
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