Canterbury Of NZ Dream Team Announced

NEWS RELEASE
14 October 2003

CANTERBURY OF NZ DREAM TEAM ANNOUNCED

The even nature of the 2003 Air New Zealand NPC has been reflected in the Canterbury of New Zealand NPC Dream Team selected after round-robin play.

Seven of the 10 first division provinces are represented in the team selected by Canterbury of New Zealand in conjunction with rugby journalists Bob Howitt, Phil Gifford (Radio Sport) and Neil Reid (Sunday News). There are two players each from North Harbour, Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Wellington, Canterbury and Otago, while Waikato has three players in the mix.

The two bottom teams, Northland and Taranaki, as well as Southland, missed out on representation, but Southland players Ben Herring and Jimmy Cowan were voted second-best in their respective positions.

Only two players - Canterbury lock Norm Maxwell and Waikato prop Deacon Manu - received votes from all the judges, but Manu was helped by being able to prop both sides of the scrum.

POSITION

PLAYER

PROVINCE

Fullback

Loki Crichton

Waikato

Wing

Sireli Bobo

Wellington

Wing

Iliesa Tanivula

Auckland

Centre

Casey Laulala

Canterbury

Second-five

Sam Tuitupou

Auckland

First-five

Nick Evans

North Harbour

Halfback

Chad Alcock

North Harbour

No. 8

Clayton McMillan

Bay of Plenty

Flanker

Josh Blackie

Otago

Flanker

Thomas Waldrom

Wellington

Lock

Norm Maxwell

Canterbury

Lock

Keith Robinson

Waikato

Prop

Carl Hayman

Otago

Prop

Deacon Manu

Waikato

Hooker

Aleki Lutui

Bay of Plenty

The fullback position was the most contentious with Waikato winger Loki Crichton, who appeared occasionally in the No. 15 jersey, edging out Christian Cullen and converted first-five Orene Ai'i.

There was also no room for ex-All Black captain Anton Oliver with barnstorming BOP hooker Aleki Lutui favoured ahead of Oliver and Taranaki's Andrew Hore.

Canterbury of New Zealand promoted the Dream Team competition in-store and is collating hundreds of entries to find the winning entry that is closest to the judges' selection.

Ends

© Scoop Media