Despite having two stints in All Black sides, and being seen in his debut year as a teenaged prodigy, Simon Mannix never quite fulfilled his promise and at the age of 25 in 1996 was lost to New Zealand rugby when he took up a British contract.

Mannix continued at British club level for a number of years, playing competently but never again reaching the heights he seemed likely to reach as a youngster.

After excelling at St Patrick's College, Silverstream, and making the national secondary schools side in 1989, Mannix immediately came into the Wellington representative side in 1990. He was also in the New Zealand Colts side of that year and the coach John Hart was in the forefront of those predicting a rosy future for the young first five eighths.

He was taken as a 19-year old on the 1990 tour of France but the first match in which he appeared resulted in a loss and he never quite regained his confidence. He had four matches on that tour and another four on the tour of Argentina in 1991 but in neither did he look as if he would break into the test side ahead of incumbent Grant Fox.

However, he came close to appearing in the Bledisloe Cup test of 1991 at Eden Park when Fox was bothered by his groin injury. He was then overlooked for the 26-man World Cup squad with the selectors preferring to use the more versatile Jon Preston as Fox's backup in the inside backs.

Mannix then fell slightly out of national favour though he had a trial in 1993 and was in the New Zealand XV in 1992 for matches against the touring England B team.

Mannix was then given a chance to resurrect his All Black career on the retirement of Fox at the end of the 1993 season. He was among several first five eighths used in the next year or two to establish a successor to Fox.

As did the others, mainly Marc Ellis and then Stephen Bachop, Mannix failed to stablise a position which remained open until the emergence of Andrew Mehrtens at the 1995 World Cup.

Mannix was taken on the Development team's tour of Argentina in 1994, playing in four matches. Mannix had started his career as a prolific goalkicker but by the 1994 season was performing this role only occasionally and he did not score a single point in Argentina.

Again without doing the goalkicking, he appeared in two All Black trials on his return and was given his one and only test in the first international against France at Lancaster Park. But the All Blacks performed poorly in that match and after a heavy defeat Mannix was replaced for the second test at Eden Park by Bachop.

He never appeared at national level again. In the inaugural season of the Super 12 in 1996 Mannix played only five matches for the Hurricanes and made only one appearance for Wellington that year before moving off shore. Despite his disappointments at national level Mannix over six seasons had been a solid performer for Wellington and in his 83 matches for the union tallied 648 points.

His father, Peter, as an energetic hooker, captained the Wellington colts representative side in 1964 and his elder brother, Tim, also a hooker, played around the same years as Simon for both Wellington and the Hurricanes.

Profile by Lindsay Knight
for the New Zealand Rugby Museum.

FULL NAME

Simon James Mannix

BORN

Tuesday, 10 August 1971 in Lower Hutt

AGE

38

POSITION

First five-eighth

LAST SCHOOL

St Pat's (Silverstream)

RUGBY CLUB
(First made All Blacks from)

Petone

PROVINCE

Wellington

ALL BLACK DEBUT

Wednesday, 17 October 1990
v Provence/Cote D'Azur Invitation XV at Toulon
aged 19 years, 68 days

INTERNATIONAL DEBUT

Sunday, 26 June 1994
v France at Christchurch
aged 22 years, 320 days

LAST TEST

Sunday, 26 June 1994
v France at Christchurch
aged 22 years, 320 days

ALL BLACK TESTS

1 (0 as Captain)

ALL BLACK GAMES

8 (0 as Captain)

TOTAL ALL BLACK MATCHES

9 (0 as Captain)

ALL BLACK TEST POINTS

0pts

ALL BLACK GAME POINTS

70pts (2t, 19c, 8p, 0dg, 0m)

TOTAL ALL BLACK POINTS

70pts (2t, 19c, 8p, 0dg, 0m)

ALL BLACK NUMBER

908

The All Black Games that Mannix played.
(+) = substitute; (-) = replaced

Click on the date to be taken to the Match Card

1990

 17 Oct vs Provence/Cote D'Azur Invitation XV at Toulon 15-19  

 20 Oct vs Languedoc Selection at Narbonne 22-6  

 30 Oct vs Cote Basque-Landes at Bayonne 12-18  

 6 Nov vs A French XV at La Rochelle 22-15  

1991

 15 Jun vs Rosario at Rosario 81-9  

 22 Jun vs Buenos Aires at Buenos Aires 37-9  

 2 Jul vs Cuyo at Mendoza 47-12  

 9 Jul vs Mar del Plata at Mar del Plata 48-6  

1994

 26 Jun vs France at Christchurch 8-22  

Points scored for the All Blacks

t

c

p

dg

pts

vs Provence/Cote D'Azur Invitation XV, 17 Oct 1990

-

1

3

-

11

vs Cote Basque-Landes, 30 Oct 1990

-

2

-

-

4

vs A French XV, 6 Nov 1990

-

-

1

-

3

vs Rosario, 15 Jun 1991

1

8

1

-

23

vs Buenos Aires, 22 Jun 1991

-

2

3

-

13

vs Cuyo, 2 Jul 1991

1

-

-

-

4

vs Mar del Plata, 9 Jul 1991

-

6

-

-

12

Totals

2

19

8

0

70

Test Record by Nation

P

W

D

L

t

c

p

dg

pts

France

1

-

-

1

-

-

-

-

-

Totals

1

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

0