KEY POINTS:
Brian Nordgren, lawyer, rugby league player. Died aged 81.
Brian Nordgren was one of the finest New Zealand league players never to play for his country. He played instead for the English club Wigan, from 1946 to 1954, scoring 312 tries and kicking 109 goals in 294 appearances.
He scored five tries in a game on three occasions, and in the 1949-50 season scored 57 tries.
Nordgren's signing by Wigan caused some tension between the New Zealand Rugby League and the English club.
A signing ban between New Zealand and Australia and the English league had been set up in 1937 to stop poaching of antipodean players.
But the ban lapsed in 1941, and Wigan had no compunction in getting their hands on Nordgren.
He had played one season for Auckland club Ponsonby in 1945, during which he scored a record 267 points.
In his time with Wigan, he played in two Challenge Cup finals at Wembley, losing to Wakefield Trinity in 1946 but beating Barrow in 1951.
The 1946 defeat was a shattering blow to Nordgren, who declared himself "the unhappiest man in London".
His long-range penalty goal, estimated by Nordgren to be about 54m, missed, giving Wakefield the win 13-12. In a 1991 interview, he said he thought about that kick often. "If we were getting the sort of money they are now, I probably would have thought about it even more."
As it was, the Wigan players got £5 each, instead of the £25 they would have got had they won.
Nordgren's time in England wasn't all devoted to league. He studied law at Liverpool University and was called to the bar in 1951. He returned home in 1954 to practise in Hamilton.
He is survived by his daughter Anne, son Robert, and two grandsons.