Billy Bush is seen above during the Tour of the British Isles playing for the All Blacks
against Cambridge University.
Career Record: Played 12: Won 8, Drew 1, Lost 3
Test Points: 0
1974 v Australia (Sydney) W 11-6
1974 v Australia (Brisbane) D 16-16
1975 v Scotland (Auckland) W 24-0
1976 v Ireland (Wellington) W 11-3
1976 v South Africa (Bloemfontein) W 15-9
1976 v South Africa (Joburg) L 15-14
1977 v British Lions (Christchurch) L 13-9
1977 v British Lions (Dunedin) W 19-7
1977 v British Lions (R) (Auckland) W 10-9
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1978 v Ireland (Dublin) W 10-6
1978 v Wales (Cardiff) W 13-12
1979 v Australia (Sydney) L 12-6
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The picture above of New Zealand's Billy Bush playing rugby against Cambridge University
was taken in October 1978 by George Herringshaw ©.
In 1973, reserve prop Bill Bush watched from the sidelines as Canterbury
teammate and future All Black coach Alex Wyllie was on the receiving
end of an embarrassing 16-10 loss to England in Auckland. That game
would prove to be Wyllie's last for New Zealand, but for Bill it was the
beginning of a six year involvement at international level. The first
of his twelve caps came in 1974 in the first test against the Wallabies
in Sydney, a game played in atrocious weather during severe storms on
Australia's eastern seaboard. A measure of Australia's newly found
competitive spirit was in the fact that the match was won only 11-6,
whilst the second was drawn 16-16 after Aussie fly-half Paul McClean
missed a last minute conversion.
A year later Bill encountered even
worse conditions when he played in the infamous "water polo" test
against Scotland in Auckland, a bizarre game which New Zealand won 24-0.
However, perhaps the toughest challenge of his career came in 1976 on
the tour to South Africa. Bush played some of his best rugby in that
series, and many felt that his omission from the third test due to an
ankle injury contributed to New Zealand's narrow loss. In 1977 Bill
started the second and third tests against the Lions, and came on in the
fourth as a replacement in what proved to be a close run series. He
then toured the UK in 1978 (the photo above shows him looking on as
teammate Mark Donaldson is about to get a pass away during the game
against Cambridge University) as part of the Grand Slam team and
played in two of the four tests, against Ireland and Wales respectively.
Bill's last international appearance came in 1979 when he faced a
furiously determined Aussie pack in Sydney which included the likes of
Chris Handy, Greg Cornelson, Tony Shaw and Mark Loane. That 12-6
Australian victory by attrition was seen as the culmination of five
years of rebuilding work by the Wallabies, an admirable comeback which
coincidentally had started in Bill's very first game back in 1974. (Jon
Collins) |