Loe’s rapid rise to the top

Press, 21 May 1987, Page 38

Loe’s rapid rise to the top

PA Auckland I i The Waikato prop, Richard Loe, completed his rapid rise to the top 1 when he was one of three 1 new caps named in the 1 AH Black team to meet < Italy in the World Cup 1 opener tomorrow. ; Last year Loe endured 1 a 12-hour cross-country I train journey when he answered an S.O.S. from i the injury-hit All Blacks ) who were touring France ; and like predecessors in ( such positions one could I have assumed that would j

be his international career. But for the early-season World Cup that might have been the end of the Loe saga, although with his strength, speed and country-rugby breeding Loe might have eventually got back to the top through more conventional methods. Brian Lochore was impressed with Loe in France so it was onward and upward — regional games, trials, selection in the All Black squad and yesterday the highest hon-

our — a test cap. "It is a great honour. Being in the first World Cup makes it a bigger honour,” said Loe yesterday. The second of the new caps, Michael Jones, the 22-year-old Auckland loose forward who is not given to long speeches said his test selection "has not really hit me yet.” “It is one thing to be an All Black, another thing to prove yourself in a test.” The third new test

player is John Gallagher, the London-born fullback who now regards himself as being a New Zealander in everything except his passport. “I regard myself as a New Zealander now rather than an Englishman. I made that decision three years ago and now everyone here seems to regard me as a New Zealander,” said Gallagher. Would he do a “Jamie Salmon” and later return to England? “No.”