Dunn emerges from shadows

Press, 3 June 1981, Page 42

Dunn emerges from shadows

The Cinderella of New Zealand rugby, Eddie Dunn, has finally found his Prince Charming in the person of Mr Peter Burke, chief of the national rugby selectors. The country-wide search conducted in recent weeks by Mr Burke and his colleagues, Messrs Stan Hill and Bryce Rope, has ended with the bouncy little Maori first fiveeighths’s right foot fitting the silver boot. His selection in the pivot position for the All Blacks to play Scotland in the first of two tests in Dunedin on June 13 enables him to shed the rugby rags he has worn for so long. An All Black first in 1978, he toured Britain as Doug Bruce’s understudy, and his dropped goal at Cardiff gave New .Zealand a last-minute

win against the Barbarians. Back in Britain a year later, he scored a remarkable try aginst Scotland after recovering a dropped ball. But in earlier 1979 tests he had been supplanted first by Murray Taylor, and then by Brian McKechnie, and after the Scottish test Dunn was • dropped and Taylor moved back from second fiveeighths. 1 Although he played in both tests for the New Zealand second team against Argentina in 1979, Dunn was pushed well down the queue of first five-eighths last year when Wayne Smith, Nicky Allen and Tu. Wyllie joined Taylor as All Blacks. But rejection is nothing new for the perky Dunn, who first played for North Auckland while still’ a schoolboy

and who has now gained his first full international cap at home eight years later at the age of 26. He spent the years 1974-75-76 in Auckland, a period in which he played for the national Maoris and Colts teams and had four All Black trials, but the Auckland A selector, Mr Eric Boggs, did not want him, and the B side’s selector, Mr Brian Craies, gave him only two runs in the three seasons. Now, in the face of intense competition from Taylor, Smith and Wyllie, among others, Dunn has won the selectorial nod. Whether he has matured into a reliable international player or is doomed to carry his teenager tag of “promising” for ever will become evident in 10 days time.