New All Black ‘delighted’

Press, 24 September 1980, Page 40

New All Black ‘delighted’

’A Whangaret The North Auckland wing, Fred Woodman, named yesterday as a replacement for the injured Gary Cunningham in the All Blacks, is eagerly looking forward to the big challenge which faces him on the rugby tour to Wales.

“I’m really delighted, it’s a chance of a lifetime, but I had a feeling Tim Twigden would get the position as he’s been playing well,” Woodman said from his Kawakawa home yesterday. Woodman, aged 22, burst to the forefront on the national scene this year with the New Zealand Juniors, and particularly in the Juniors’ game against Italy, at Auckland.

He himself believes that this was the match which really put him c.: the way to bigger things.

Woodman became North Auckland’s twenty-third All Black this year when he played against Fiji at Eden Park. An electrician in Kawakawa, he plays for the Ohaeawai club in the Bay

of Islands sub-union, and with his speed, elusiveness, and effective covering tackles Las been one of the undoubted stars of the season. Woodman, made his debut in first-class rugby in 1978, when he played for both North Auckland and New Zealand Maoris. He was on the Maoris’ tour of Australia and the South Pacific last season, but upon returning home he damaged a knee in a game for New Zealand Juniors against WairarapaBush, and was out for the rest .of the year. He missed all of North Auckland’s Ranfurly Shield games in 1979. This season he damaged the ligaments in his left knee while playing in the final match of North Auckland’s southern tour, against Mid-Canterbury on August 5, and for a time it seemed as if he could be out for an extended peribd. However, he returned to score tries for .North Auckland against both Hawke’s Bay and Manawatu, and was on the way again.