TOUGHEST JOB IN THE WORLD

THE CAPTAIN’S RUN

Gregor Paul

NZ RRP $39.99 | Harper Collins

Publishers NZ

It's the funniest thing, or maybe it's not, that few New Zealanders grow up dreaming they will captain the All Blacks one day.

Plenty, half the nation if not more, run around their backyard once they are able, dreaming that one day they will wear the famous black jersey and have millions watching them do so.

But it's almost as if it is a step too far – preposterous even – to imagine that they could not only make the test arena but do so as captain.

Of all the men who have been handed the honour of being All Blacks captain, none say they ever coveted the role.

They fell into it one way or another, usually on account of the quality of their performances over time or because they had shown some aptitude leading their provincial or Super Rugby team.

And it is important to understand that it's a job that no one asks for because it means that every person to have done the job has had it foisted it upon them, leaving them to come to grips with what it entails.

It was certainly worse in the earlier amateur period when captains were rarely pre-warned they were going to be named and then given virtually no help or support. They just had to work it out for themselves – roll up their sleeves and get on with it best they could.

Take Andy Leslie as an example, he didn't even hear that he was going to be the captain. In 1974 he'd once again be picked for an All Blacks trial and having been to many without ever making the grade, he didn't imagine that at 30-years-old and in so-so form, he was any prospect at all of being picked.

But he sat under the stand at Athletic Park in Wellington, listening to the radio with a handful of other trialists. He heard his name