Doug Bruce retires from all rugby

Press, 27 March 1979, Page 36

Doug Bruce retires from all rugby

By

KEVIN McMENAMIN

Even before the season has begun, Canterbury rugby has suffered a severe loss. It came yesterday with the announcement by Doug Bruce that he has retired from all rugby. Bruce, who will be 32 in May, has been the Canterbury first five-eighths since 1970, the year he moved to Christchurch from Ashburton after three seasons in the MidCanterbury side. New Zealand, as well as Canterbury, will be the loser now that Bruce has made his decision. He became, belatedly to many minds, an All Black in 1974 and leaves the game at a time when he is firmly established as the country’s No. 1 first fiveeighths. Bruce gave some thought to retiring after he toured Britain with Graham Mourie’s All Blacks late last year, but then elected to wait until the end of the summer before making a firm decision. He said yesterday that he had given the matter a lot of thought and while he would dearly love to have another season, particularly in this, Canterbury’s centennial year, he had decided that the time had come for him to quit. “I have had a long run and a good run and I wouldn’t want to outstay my welcome,” said Bruce, whose lack of pretension

has helped make him one of Canterbury’s most popular footballers of the 19705. “I probably could have played another season before time caught up on me, but when I think of all that training on cold winter nights I began to wonder. To think this way 1 must be getting past it.” Travel was also an inhibiting factor. Bruce lives in Christchurch, works at Woodend (he is deputy principal of the primary school there) and played his club rugby for Oxford. “There is a lot of travel involved and it will be nice to take things a bit quieter,” he said.

Bruce said he could, perhaps, be persuaded to play the odd festival game and if Oxford was desperately short on any Saturday' he would not let the club down. “But as far as serious rugbv goes, I am finished.” He may take up coaching in a year or two.

Bruce retires a tantalising three games short of 2«0 at the first-class level. He plaved 114 for Canterbury, 41 for New Zealand, including a record 14 tests at first five-eighths, and the remainder are accounted for in games f'”’ MidCanterburv. New Zealand Junio’-s. Son + h Island and AU Black trials. Lancaster Park crowds will always remember Bruce for b<s two great assets — adhesive hands and a left-foot boot that could place the ball with slide-rule accuracy.

There were times too — the Ranfurly Shield defence against Otago in 1972 is one that leaps to mind — when Bruce showed he could also be a brilliant running fiveeighths. ’ In his latter years he may never have cut defences to ribbons like some of the great fiveeighths of the past, but there have been few better in getting a backline on the move. Many top threequarters will attest to Bruce’s worth to therm j

Bruce grew up in the Ellesmere district, his teen-age years being spent in Ashburton, where he also played cricket with some distinction. When he transferred north in 1970 he joined the Christchurch club, but his heart was always in country rugby and Oxford, with a brief stint at Ohoka, has been his main base. “Oxford and Ohoka have both been very good to me, but I have always looked upon Oxford as my main club,” said Bruce. Reluctant as always to talk about individuals, Bruce said he felt all his coaches had helped him. As to games, Canterbury's 18-4 win over Ireland at Lancaster Park in 1974 was the one he most fondly remembered, along with the third test victory at Carisbrook over the Lions in 1977.

“I suppose 1970 was my most rewarding year,” said Bruce. “It was -my

first season for Canterbury and there was a great spirit in the side.” This was the year Canterbury retained the Ranfurly Shield in spite of having six players away with the All Blacks in South Africa. Bruce kicked two dropped goals in Canterbury’s 1976 win over Ireland and he became the first /Ml Black to kick two in a test, against Ireland at Lansdowne Road last year. Bruce kicked a total of five test dropped goals, a record he shares with Don Clarke and Mac Herewini. The president of the Canterbury Rugby Union, and the All Blacks manage last year, Mr R. W. Thomas, said yesterday that he was disappointed to hear that Bruce had retired, but he understood the reasons for it. “It would have been nice if he could have enjoyed, as a player, our centennial year, but Doug has always been a quiet sort of person and it’s just like him to step down quietly. His contribution to rugby has been immense,” said Mr Thomas. So retires a footballer who was as popular as he was talented. His demeanour on the field earned him a “Mr Cool” image and it’s now a chilling thought for Canterbury that it no longer has his skills, or his reliability, to call upon.