At his best in the late 1980s Steve McDowall as a loosehead prop ranked among the world's best and among the finest in the position produced by New Zealand.
Though not tall and under 1.83m McDowall was an extremely powerful man with his physique honed from his other sport, judo, in which he also won national honours, and his constant workouts with weights in gyms.
He was an excellent scrummager, a superb mauler and explosive when he burst frequently into the open, especially in his halcyon years between 1985 and 1990.
The bulk of McDowall's representative career was with Auckland but he was a Bay of Plenty product and was one of a fine group of players from around Rotorua who emerged at around the same time such as Wayne Shelford and Hika Reid.
McDowall entered the Bay of Plenty representative side in 1982 and played 35 matches for the union over the next three seasons, adding to that tally with a sole appearance when briefly back in the Bay in 1989.
McDowall impressed for the Bay in a number of high profile games against the Lions in 1983 and in a narrow Ranfurly Shield loss to Canterbury in 1984. In each of the 1982 and 1984 seasons he was in respectively the national colts side and the New Zealand juniors, making inevitable a transfer to one of the country's bigger unions.
He joined Auckland in 1985 and with selection in the Emerging Players and the All Black trials he emerged as a test contender. He was duly chosen for the tour of South Africa and when this was called off went instead on the replacement tour of Argentina, where he made his test debut.
In his first season with Auckland McDowall participated in the successful Ranfurly Shield challenge against Canterbury, scoring a crucial try. Over the next seven seasons McDowall was an Auckland mainstay and was involved in all of the province's triumphs of the late 80s at Ranfurly Shield and NPC levels.
At the same time he became a stalwart of All Black sides, his career suffering only a minor glitch when he incurred a two-test suspension for going with the Cavaliers on the rebel tour of South Africa in 1986. He formed a mighty front row with fellow Aucklanders Sean Fitzpatrick and John Drake during the 1987 World Cup and then when Drake retired prematurely Fitzpatrick and McDowall formed another celebrated front row with Richard Loe.
There were some outstanding tours in this period in which this trio were dominant, to Australia in 1988, Wales and Ireland in 1989 and to France in 1990. But by the time of the 1991 World Cup some of the momentum was fast fading from what had been a formidable team and in 1992, having had 81 All Black matches including 46 tests, McDowall suddenly disappeared from the national side.
Under new coach Laurie Mains he retained his place for the centenary matches early in 1992 and for the series against the touring Irish. But he was supplanted for the tests on the Australian-South Africa tour with Olo Brown emerging and Loe switching to McDowall's spot on the loosehead side of the scrum. McDowall's only consolation was captaining the midweek All Blacks, albeit to a big loss to Sydney.
In 1993 McDowall also faded from Auckland sides with Brown and Craig Dowd the preferred props. In 1994 he moved to Wellington and had 10 games for that union. He then had a lengthy period overseas returning in 1998 at the age of 37 and with little regular play behind him to make three appearances for Auckland bringing his tally for the union to 109.
McDowall between 1988 and 1992 was a frequent New Zealand Maori player, captaining that side in 1991 and 1992. In all first class rugby he played 294 matches.
Profile by Lindsay Knight
for the New Zealand Rugby Museum.
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FULL NAME |
Steven Clark McDowall |
BORN |
Sunday, 27 August 1961 in Rotorua |
AGE |
48 |
PHYSICAL |
1.82m, 102kg |
POSITION |
Prop |
LAST SCHOOL |
Western Heights High |
RUGBY CLUB
(First made All Blacks from) |
Auckland Suburbs |
PROVINCES |
Auckland, Bay of Plenty |
ALL BLACK DEBUT |
Tuesday, 15 October 1985
v Rosario Selection at Fisherton
aged 24 years, 49 days |
INTERNATIONAL DEBUT |
Saturday, 26 October 1985
v Argentina at Buenos Aires
aged 24 years, 60 days |
LAST TEST |
Saturday, 6 June 1992
v Ireland at Wellington
aged 30 years, 284 days |
ALL BLACK TESTS |
46 (0 as Captain) |
ALL BLACK GAMES |
35 (2 as Captain) |
TOTAL ALL BLACK MATCHES |
81 (2 as Captain) |
ALL BLACK TEST POINTS |
12pts (3t, 0c, 0p, 0dg, 0m) |
ALL BLACK GAME POINTS |
16pts (4t, 0c, 0p, 0dg, 0m) |
TOTAL ALL BLACK POINTS |
28pts (7t, 0c, 0p, 0dg, 0m) |
ALL BLACK NUMBER |
862 |
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The All Black Games that McDowall played.
(+) = substitute; (-) = replaced |
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Click on the date to be taken to the Match Card |
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1985 |
15 Oct vs Rosario Selection at Fisherton 28-9 |
19 Oct vs Buenos Aires Selection at Buenos Aires 31-13 (+) |
22 Oct vs Cordoba Selection at Cordoba 72-9 |
26 Oct vs Argentina at Buenos Aires 33-20 |
2 Nov vs Argentina at Buenos Aires 21-21 |
1986 |
23 Aug vs Australia at Dunedin 13-12 |
6 Sep vs Australia at Auckland 9-22 |
21 Oct vs French Selection at Strasbourg 42-12 |
28 Oct vs French Selection at Toulon 25-6 |
1 Nov vs Rousillon-Languedoc Selection at Perpignan 59-6 |
4 Nov vs Cote Basque Selection at Bayonne 21-9 |
8 Nov vs France at Toulouse 19-7 |
15 Nov vs France at Nantes 3-16 |
1987 |
22 May vs Italy at Auckland 70-6 |
27 May vs Fiji at Christchurch 74-13 |
6 Jun vs Scotland at Christchurch 30-3 |
14 Jun vs Wales at Brisbane 49-6 |
20 Jun vs France at Auckland 29-9 |
25 Jul vs Australia at Sydney 30-16 |
21 Oct vs Japan 'B' at Tokyo 94-0 |
25 Oct vs Japan at Osaka 74-0 |
1 Nov vs Japan at Tokyo 106-4 |
4 Nov vs J.R.U. Presidents XV at Tokyo 38-9 |
1988 |
28 May vs Wales at Christchurch 52-3 |
11 Jun vs Wales at Auckland 54-9 |
22 Jun vs Randwick RFC at Sydney 25-9 |
26 Jun vs Australia 'B' at Brisbane 28-4 |
3 Jul vs Australia at Sydney 32-7 |
10 Jul vs Queensland at Brisbane 27-12 |
16 Jul vs Australia at Brisbane 19-19 |
23 Jul vs N.S.W. at Sydney 42-6 |
30 Jul vs Australia at Sydney 30-9 |
1989 |
17 Jun vs France at Christchurch 25-17 |
1 Jul vs France at Auckland 34-20 |
15 Jul vs Argentina at Dunedin 60-9 |
29 Jul vs Argentina at Wellington 49-12 |
5 Aug vs Australia at Auckland 24-12 |
8 Oct vs British Columbia at Vancouver 48-3 |
18 Oct vs Pontypool at Pontypool 47-6 |
25 Oct vs Neath at Neath 26-15 |
28 Oct vs Llanelli at Llanelli 11-0 |
4 Nov vs Wales at Cardiff 34-9 |
8 Nov vs Leinster at Dublin 36-9 |
14 Nov vs Connacht at Galway 40-6 |
18 Nov vs Ireland at Dublin 23-6 |
21 Nov vs Ulster at Belfast 21-3 |
25 Nov vs Barbarians at London 21-10 |
1990 |
16 Jun vs Scotland at Dunedin 31-16 |
23 Jun vs Scotland at Auckland 21-18 |
21 Jul vs Australia at Christchurch 21-6 |
4 Aug vs Australia at Auckland 27-17 |
18 Aug vs Australia at Wellington 9-21 |
20 Oct vs Languedoc Selection at Narbonne 22-6 |
27 Oct vs French Barbarians at Agen 23-13 |
3 Nov vs France at Nantes 24-3 |
10 Nov vs France at Paris 30-12 |
1991 |
22 Jun vs Buenos Aires at Buenos Aires 37-9 |
25 Jun vs Tucuman at Tucuman 21-9 |
2 Jul vs Cuyo at Mendoza 47-12 |
6 Jul vs Argentina at Buenos Aires 28-14 |
13 Jul vs Argentina at Buenos Aires 36-6 |
10 Aug vs Australia at Sydney 12-21 |
24 Aug vs Australia at Auckland 6-3 |
3 Oct vs England at London 18-12 |
8 Oct vs USA at Gloucester 46-6 |
13 Oct vs Italy at Leicester 31-21 |
20 Oct vs Canada at Lille 29-13 |
27 Oct vs Australia at Dublin 6-16 |
30 Oct vs Scotland at Cardiff 13-6 |
1992 |
18 Apr vs World XV at Christchurch 14-28 |
22 Apr vs World XV at Wellington 54-26 |
25 Apr vs World XV at Auckland 26-15 |
30 May vs Ireland at Dunedin 24-21 |
6 Jun vs Ireland at Wellington 59-6 |
24 Jun vs South Australian Invitation XV at Adelaide 48-18 |
1 Jul vs A.C.T. at Canberra 45-13 |
8 Jul vs Victorian Invitation XV at Melbourne 53-3 |
12 Jul vs Queensland at Brisbane 26-19 |
22 Jul vs Sydney at Sydney 17-40 (Captain) |
5 Aug vs Orange Free State at Bloemfontein 33-14 |
10 Aug vs Central Unions at Witbank 39-6 (Captain) |
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