Was Nicky Allen a better talent than Carter?
Roar Guru By Steve Townshend, 20 Apr 2011 The Crowd is a Roar Guru
- Tagged:
- All Blacks, Dan Carter, New Zealand Rugby Union, Nicky Allen, rugby, Rugby Union
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.
I was understandably nervous 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).
Phwoar! 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.
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
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The Crowd Says (9) | Page 1 of Comments
Have Your Say
- Explore:
- All Blacks, Dan Carter, New Zealand Rugby Union, Nicky Allen, rugby, Rugby Union
April 20th 2011 @ 7:24am
PkD said | April 20th 2011 @ 7:24am | Report comment
I am obviously a tragic, I teared up a little at the end of that.
I do remember the name, but little else. No doubt I would have watched that game live with Dad and the rest of his team, but heroes were harder to make on tours without the replays, post game analysis and Jockey commercials that we get today.
It is sad to hear of anyone dying playing rugby, let alone a former All Black.. Was it reported much in New Zealand at the time?
Kudos for telling the story.
April 20th 2011 @ 7:28am
Mike said | April 20th 2011 @ 7:28am | Report comment
I’ve seen them both in action and while a good player Nicky Allen was no match for Carter’s skills. Mertens and Fox would be two better 1st fives than Allen, but still behind Carter.
April 20th 2011 @ 8:12am
Bruce Ross said | April 20th 2011 @ 8:12am | Report comment
I was at the game where Nicky died. It was at the Wollongong showground where St George now play their Illawarra games. It was the Grand Final of the Illawarra competition played on October 7, 1984. As I remember it Nicky was one of a number of Kiwis who had been brought over to play for Port Kembla who had a wealthy sponsor determined to buy a premiership.
According to a 2008 report on the stuff.co.nz website his brother stated that he had been prone to concussion and had suffered side-effects of this prior to his death.
April 20th 2011 @ 8:41am
ionz said | April 20th 2011 @ 8:41am | Report comment
Like you I was a rugby mad teen ager an remember that Welsh Centenary tour/Game very strong All Black team playing the welsh “Provences” leading up to the test match and it was one of the great AB games of all time, the try to Mourie and Hika reid were beaties …and I do recall Nicky Allen and was a huge fan, he had extraordinary talent ahead of his time I would put him on a par with Carter for the era…and BTW the try he scored in that test was a beauty!
April 20th 2011 @ 9:30am
Rich said | April 20th 2011 @ 9:30am | Report comment
I too remember Nicky Allen and recall that great Wales v NZ clash match that ended up 23-3 to the ABs. I probably wouldn’t go that far to say Nicky Allen was a better talent than Dan Carter. I really didn’t see that much of him at the top level to make a comparison. But he certainly had the talent and potentially may have done some Carter-ish-type feats.
April 20th 2011 @ 10:15am
Sam Taulelei said | April 20th 2011 @ 10:15am | Report comment
Nicky Allen was my favourite All Black first five until the emergence of Frano Botica. I remember that 1980 centenary test well and the quality of Nicky’s performance. Tragically his career with the All Blacks was far too short and I was gutted when he died as he was planning to return to NZ and resume his career.
Nicky was a free spirit compared to the types of first fives in vogue in NZ at the time, he wasn’t overly brilliant at any particular aspect however he didn’t have any great weaknesses either which set him apart from his peers. For someone so young he played with great maturity on that end of season tour in 1980.
Difficult and unfair to speculate or make comparisons between Allen and Carter, they are both great talents.
April 20th 2011 @ 11:06am
sheek said | April 20th 2011 @ 11:06am | Report comment
I was at the SCG in 1980 for the 3rd test won easily by the Wallabies 26-10. Nicky Allen was in the ABs lineup but obviously he didn’t get too many opportunities that day.It was his test debut.
From memory, Allen was chosen as the flyhalf in NZ’s alltime XV to celebrate 80 years of test matches in 1983. It was a huge call, considering some of the talent that had preceded him. He only played 2-3 tests (also from memory).
I think it says something about the influence of Mark Ella at the time, that Kiwis wanted their own hero who could play like Ella. I think there was a romanticism attached to Allen, that he could be the ABs’ answer to Ella. Of course, it never happened.
I also think it is drawing an extremely long bow to suggest Allen was better than Carter, or one of the greatest ABs no.10s on the strength of basically one short tour. All the 1980 tour (to Wales) reveals is his potential, but we will never know if he could have sustained the heights he reached on that tour.
Unlike Carter, who has the form on the board…..
April 21st 2011 @ 6:07am
jus de couchon said | April 21st 2011 @ 6:07am | Report comment
As a Harlequin I would say Nick Evans is the best fly half Ive ever seen.
April 22nd 2011 @ 1:14am
Tui said | April 22nd 2011 @ 1:14am | Report comment
Nick Evans is good but he is not the once in a generation player Carter is