Andrew Blowers' career offers a striking illustration of some of the aspects in the new professional era of the mid 1990s which may not be to everyone's liking.

Earmarked at an early age, when he made the national secondary schools side from Auckland's Mt Albert Grammar in 1993, for All Black honours, Blowers received plenty of chances. But despite these and considerable natural ability he never quite fulfilled his potential.

Blowers as a schoolboy played as a lock and at 1.93m (6ft 4) and at more than 105kg (nearly 17st) he had a superb physique. But all of his representative career was as a flanker and it never became established whether he was better suited to the blindside or the openside.

Auckland born of Samoan heritage, Blowers first appeared at international level on a tour of South Africa with Manu Samoa. But he did not appear in tests and the loose international eligibilty regulations still operating at the time enabled him to become available for New Zealand by 1996.

And despite his appearances for Samoa Blowers was very much a product of the New Zealand system. At 20 he first appeared for Auckland in 1995 and that year and in 1996 he was in the New Zealand colts side. In 1996 he was also part of the Blues side which took out the inaugural Super 12 title.

Blowers was plainly seen by then All Black coach John Hart as a strong contender for the 1999 World Cup squad. For he was taken in the 36-man All Black side which toured South Africa in 1996 and later that year under Hart's coaching made the short tour to Britain with the New Zealand Barbarians.

Blowers made two brief appearances in the 1996 series against the Springboks, coming on as a substitute in the Cape Town test for Josh Kronfeld and again for Kronfeld for the last eight minutes of the Pretoria test.

Injuries affected Blowers for both the Super 12 and NPC of 1997, but he was still chosen for the tour of Ireland, Wales and England. Again the intention of developing Blowers for the World Cup was evident and he was surprisingly preferred to Kronfeld to start in the international against Ireland. Kronfeld only came on for the last 20 minutes.

Kronfeld was then restored for the remaining internationals and Blowers was returned to the bench, coming on as second spell injury replacements for Zinzan Brooke in the first England international and for Taine Randell against Wales.

But even though he was still not 23 and remained a regular player for Auckland in the NPC and for the Blues in the Super 12 Blowers was not required for the All Blacks again after the 1999 Rugby World Cup. Increasingly stiffer international eligibility regulations also precluded him from resuming a test career with Samoa.

At the end of the 2000 season, after 44 Super 12 games and 45 matches for Auckland, Blowers was lost to New Zealand rugby, at just 26 joining the exodus of second tier players or discarded All Blacks to an overseas contract. He was one of those left who still had more to offer the game in this country, even if only as a provincial or Super 12 player.

Profile by Lindsay Knight
for the New Zealand Rugby Museum.

FULL NAME

Andrew Francis Blowers

BORN

Thursday, 27 March 1975 in Auckland

AGE

35

PHYSICAL

1.93m, 105kg

POSITION

Flanker

LAST SCHOOL

Mt Albert Grammar

RUGBY CLUB
(First made All Blacks from)

Auckland Suburbs

PROVINCE

Auckland

ALL BLACK DEBUT

Tuesday, 6 August 1996
v Boland Invitation XV at Worcester
aged 21 years, 132 days

INTERNATIONAL DEBUT

Saturday, 10 August 1996
v South Africa at Cape Town
aged 21 years, 136 days

LAST TEST

Thursday, 14 October 1999
v Italy at Huddersfield
aged 24 years, 201 days

ALL BLACK TESTS

11 (0 as Captain)

ALL BLACK GAMES

7 (0 as Captain)

TOTAL ALL BLACK MATCHES

18 (0 as Captain)

ALL BLACK TEST POINTS

0pts

ALL BLACK GAME POINTS

5pts (1t, 0c, 0p, 0dg, 0m)

TOTAL ALL BLACK POINTS

5pts (1t, 0c, 0p, 0dg, 0m)

ALL BLACK NUMBER

956

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

Click on the date to be taken to the Match Card

1996

 6 Aug vs Boland Invitation XV at Worcester 32-21  

 10 Aug vs South Africa at Cape Town 29-18 (+) 

 13 Aug vs Eastern Province at Port Elizabeth 31-23  

 20 Aug vs Western Transvaal at Potchefstroom 31-0 (-) 

 24 Aug vs South Africa at Pretoria 33-26 (+) 

 27 Aug vs Griqualand West at Kimberley 18-18  

1997

 8 Nov vs Llanelli at Llanelli 81-3  

 15 Nov vs Ireland at Dublin 63-15 (-) 

 22 Nov vs England at Manchester 25-8 (+) 

 29 Nov vs Wales at London 42-7 (+) 

 2 Dec vs England 'A' at Leicester 30-19 (+) 

1999

 11 Jun vs New Zealand 'A' at Christchurch 22-11  

 26 Jun vs France at Wellington 54-7 (+) 

 10 Jul vs South Africa at Dunedin 28-0 (-) 

 24 Jul vs Australia at Auckland 34-15 (+) 

 7 Aug vs South Africa at Pretoria 34-18 (-) 

 28 Aug vs Australia at Sydney 7-28 (+) 

 14 Oct vs Italy at Huddersfield 101-3 (-) 

Points scored for the All Blacks

t

c

p

dg

pts

vs Boland Invitation XV, 6 Aug 1996

1

-

-

-

5

Totals

1

0

0

0

5

Test Record by Nation

P

W

D

L

t

c

p

dg

pts

Australia

2

1

-

1

-

-

-

-

-

England

1

1

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

France

1

1

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

Ireland

1

1

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

Italy

1

1

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

South Africa

4

4

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

Wales

1

1

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

Totals

11

10

0

1

0

0

0

0

0