Craig GREEN

Craig Green was a fast, muscular winger who made his debut on New Zealand's difficult tour of the UK in 1983. A graduate of the New Zealand junior set up, he was part of a young squad and his call up came in the wake of unavailability of other players. Largely as a result of their inexperience, the All Blacks had an unusually poor visit to the British Isles, losing to England and drawing with the Scots. When John Kirwan arrived on the scene a year later the two became wing partners and formed a lethal strike partnership. One of the individual highlights of Craig's career came in 1985 when he rounded off one of the great "sucker punch" moves in a 10-9 defeat of Australia. With not long to go and the Wallabies leading 9-6, New Zealand won a penalty inside their own half. Instead of doing the expected and booting the ball deep into Aussie territory, scrum-half David Kirk quickly tapped the penalty and then burst down the left wing.

Before the Australians knew what had hit them Jock Hobbs had drawn the last man and sent Craig over for a sensational try. For reasons best known to those involved, the move was christened "Bombay Duck"! In 1986 Craig toured with the Cavaliers and lost his wing place to Baby Black Terry Wright for the first test against Australia. He was back for the second and third matches as New Zealand made panic changes, but the series was lost. Craig retained the number one slot in the 1987 World Cup and made a good contribution in New Zealand's victory, the highlight being his four tries against Fiji in Christchurch to equal the New Zealand record, a game in which John Gallagher also crossed four times. His last game came against Australia later that year before his place was taken by the up and coming Wright. The Canterbury man played in 20 tests, scoring 11 tries. (Jon Collins)

1983 v England (Twickenham) L 15-9

1984 v Australia (Sydney) W 25-24

1985 v Argentina (Buenos Aires) D 21-21

1987 v Italy (Auckland) W 70-6 (W.Cup)

1987 v Fiji (Christchurch) W 74-13 (W.Cup)