Was Nicky Allen a better talent than Dan Carter?
All Black pivot Dan Carter is widely regarded as the finest five-eighth playing rugby today.
But the New Zealand template pre-Carter for athleticism, fluid place-kicking and ability to exploit a gap was created, not by Grant Fox, Andrew Mehrtens or the mercurial Carlos Spencer, but by a little-known rugby player called Nicky Allen.
Nicky who? First, some history...
Born in Auckland in 1958, Nicky Allen proved a handy cricket player when growing up, but as a teenager he turned his hand increasingly towards rugby, representing the New Zealand Colts and Auckland in 1978.
Two years later he made his way into the All Blacks, touring Australia and featuring in the final losing test against the Wallabies. Having played little rugby on his return to New Zealand, Allen was included in the short tour late in 1980 to Wales, which was celebrating the centenary of the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU).
As your typical rugby-mad, All Blacks-obsessed teenager, I’d heard bugger all about Allen. The brief footage I’d seen of him on TV had also left me weary and unimpressed – elfin-like, long-ish hair, a bit too posh for my punky/skinhead leanings.
But the All Blacks coach must have seen something, because he was picked to play the final game of the tour – the test against Wales, which was good enough to have won the Five Nations tournament the previous year.
Understandably, I was shitting bricks for Allen and the All Blacks. Here they were, playing an historically dangerous opposition at a packed Cardiff Arms Park. It was also a centenary year, and player and supporter passions – not to mention expectations – would be fiendishly high.
What unfolded, however, changed the way I thought about five-eighth play and the game of rugby in general.
Wales were literally belted from the first whistle. In their terrific captain Graham Mourie, Mark “Cowboy” Shaw, Graham Higginson and Hika Reid, the All Blacks had muscular forwards willing to go the biff or run eighty metres to latch onto a pass for a last-minute try.
Behind such a staunch and skilled pack, menacing backs like Stu Wilson, Bernie Fraser and Dave Loveridge were finding holes and placing unbearable strain on a badly tiring Welsh defence, which was only propped up, it seemed, by their ageless fullback J.P.R. Williams and the nuggetty halfback Terry Holmes.
And guess what – pulling the strings and orchestrating much of the carnage was Nicky Allen.
All class and composure, Allen ably directed the team around the field. If he wasn’t running beautiful lines, he was passing sweetly, tackling solidly, even bobbing up for a try (though there was a suspicion he dropped the ball as he was forcing it over the line).
Phwor! What a performance!
New Zealand’s domination was reflected on the scoreboard, with the All Blacks winning 23-3, four tries to zip. Allen was a bona fide All Black hero.
Inexplicably, Allen then disappeared off my – and New Zealand’s – rugby radar. Having stayed on in the UK after the Welsh tour ended, he injured a knee playing club rugby in England, so was ruled out for all of the 1981 season.
After that, he flitted about in Australia and New Zealand rugby competitions, suffering several injuries that seemed to dull his exceptional rugby-playing gifts.
And then in 1984, seemingly out of nowhere, came the tragic news that he had died from head injuries after being heavily tackled in a club match in Australia.
Allen’s involvement at both representative and international levels was so brief and sporadic that he managed just 35 first class matches and two tests for the All Blacks. He was 26 years of age, for fuck’s sake!
Little by little, the news filtered back from Australia. The accumulation of injuries had taken their toll. He was prone to concussion. The tackle was one of those freak events.
Allen’s death marked the end of one of rugby’s most promising careers.
Even today, I’m gutted that the world never saw the best of what was a diamond talent – perhaps a talent even rarer than Dan Carter.
Stephen Townshend is the author of The Last Word – Rugby World Cup 2011 and the publisher of Germinal Press
Comments
On Monday, 18 Apr 2011 Amy Tan said...
“Never heard of Nicky Allen but Dan Carter sure is hot!”
On Monday, 18 Apr 2011 Bruce Robertson said...
“Good post and so glad you brought attention to a very gifted football player. I too watched the Wales test and thought a new star was born. Would he have been better than Carter? Difficult to say. But he definitely was the protoype for the modern first-five, and very "Australian" in his outlook on the game. I can't understand why he has been so overlooked.”
On Monday, 18 Apr 2011 Simon said...
“No, no, no, no! Neither are/were any good. Look no further than Quade the man...”
On Monday, 18 Apr 2011 Mark Barrington said...
“Nice piece of rugby history Steve and yes Nicky Allen was possibly a great five eighth but he was a Jafa and I'm a one eyed Cantabrian so I will always consider Dan Carter as one of the All Blacks finest five eighths,also consider this Nicky Allen was playing in behind one of New Zealands finest half-backs in David Loveridge..... ”
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