Fred Allen is 90 on Tuesday. Former Herald rugby writer D.J. Cameron chronicles the deeds of one of our most highly regarded rugby identities.
It's a pity that Fred Allen should be denied - by the abysmal decisions of the New Zealand Rugby Union fuddy-duddies - the chance of being acknowledged as THE man of New Zealand rugby.
By the end of World War II, Allen was established as an exceptional first or second
five-eighths. He had been an outstanding member of the 2nd NZEF Kiwis who re-lit the torch of adventurous rugby soon after the shades of war had lifted in Europe.
He had a gift for leadership which took him to the All Black captaincy approaching and during the 1949 tour of South Africa.
By the end of the tour Allen was so disheartened by the four test losses to the Springboks that, homeward bound, his playing boots were consigned to the bottom of the Indian Ocean.
Really Allen's 49ers did not have a chance. South Africa had a strong, tight-fisted style of play, their game built around the scrum, the raiding loose forwards and goals from penalty kicks - quite the opposite from the midfield adventures of the Kiwis.
But the greatest damage to the tour came before it started. At that stage Vic Cavanagh jnr had almost perfected a sensible, simple style of winning rugby for his Otago team. Cavanagh had a brilliant rugby brain, a modern man.
In contrast, the Wellington-based controllers of the NZRU had their elderly minds still fixed on the 20s and 30s. They ignored Cavanagh's promise and shuffled the NZRU chairs around until Jack Parker was manager and Alex McDonald an assistant manager with no worthwhile coaching experience.
The All Blacks had no chance. They faced a long tour, sometimes with overnight train journeys. They were so confounded by the mysteries of the 3-4-1 scrum devised by the Springboks that Danie Craven, the South African guru, came to their aid.
Cavanagh had the skill to change the whole pattern of the tests.
There were nine Otago men in the touring team and they would have reacted immediately to Cavanagh's skilful training. The rest would have developed quickly. A Cavanagh-drilled side might not have overcome all the test odds, but must have had the realistic prospect of at least a 2-all draw in the tests.
As it was, the All Blacks went down 4-0, and Allen was so disheartened he suggested he should not play in the fourth test.
His All Black career over by the time he was 29, he came back to Grammar Old Boys and Auckland, prospered in the clothing trade and became Auckland selector in 1957, with John Simpson, his four-square prop from the Kiwis and the 1949 tour, as assistant.
He had a difficult start as Terry Lineen and Frank McMullen, a potent midfield pair, were touring Australia with the All Blacks and missed the first three 1957 matches.
Too soon for comfort Auckland had losses to Thames Valley, North Auckland and a shattering 38-17 defeat by the touring Fijians. Canterbury arrived, Tom Pearce, the Auckland chairman, weighed in with a all-or-nothing pre-match lecture, and Auckland rebounded with a 16-6 win.
So 1957 brought a 10-5 tally, as did 1958. Nor was 1959 a bed of roses and it seemed possible that Auckland's habit of changing coaches after three seasons might continue.
By then Auckland and Allen had the kind of good luck that had so far bypassed them. Southland won the Ranfurly Shield from Taranaki, Auckland qualified for the first challenge. Auckland won the shield, 13-9. Shield- winning coaches do not get dropped and as Allen approached the 1960 season at last his rugby fortunes flourished.
Des Connor, the highly skilled Australian halfback, was drawn to Auckland by romance and a possible teaching post. Mike Cormack was a permanent rock at fullback, Mackie Herewini brought his youthful magic to five-eighths, a strong all-round pack was built round Bob Graham, Waka Nathan, Murray Reid, "Snow" White, Barry Thomas and Colin Currie.
Allen and Simpson started 1960 well, much more settled and confident as a coaching team, and the first two shield challenges were turned aside.
Then disaster. North Auckland won the shield. But by now Auckland were a much steadier side.
They won the shield back from North Auckland, followed with a few dodgy away games, but when the chips were down, in the last five 1960 challenges from Manawatu, Bay of Plenty, Wellington, Taranaki and Canterbury, Auckland held command - if only by Nathan's last-minute try, and Cormack's conversion, for the epic 19-18 defeat of Canterbury.
During 1961 and 1962 Allen was at the peak of his coaching powers. In both seasons Auckland had a 15-3 win-loss record, eight successful shield defences each year. Rocky Patterson, Malcolm Dick, Adrian Clarke, Albert Pryor, Frank Colthurst, Wilson Whineray, Lew Fell, Kevin Barry, Teroi Tataurangi and Don McKay joined in giving Allen more fire-power, more attacking options year by year.
Four shield wins in 1963 set the new shield defence record and no one burst into tears when Wellington won the next challenge.
Allen moulded the team with increasing expertise. It took another 20 years before John Hart brought together an Auckland team of such strength and skill - with the added bonus of Jim Blair's expert physical training.
But Allen had other worlds to conquer. He became an All Black selector in 1964, All Black coach in 1966, with four home test wins against the Lions. This led to the unbeaten 1967 tour of Canada, Britain and France, winning all four tests and only missing Ireland when health problems in the republic made a rugby visit impossible.
Allen's triumphant march through the 60s continued with two test wins in Australia - giving him the perfect record of 14 wins, no losses under his command.
But again stirrings among the NZRU hierarchy counted against him. The important people in Wellington maintained that Allen explored forbidden territory when he allowed reporter Alex Veysey to listen to a pre-test team-talk before a match against Australia. So at the peak of his coaching powers, Allen left trailing clouds of glory, and returned to his wife, Norah, and work in Auckland.
Allen became president and a life member of the Auckland union and ever the hard-headed realist.
Asked how his Ranfurly Shield heroes of 1960-63 would fare against the great Auckland shield sides of 1985-93 he said, with the hint of a smile ...
"Oh, these new guys are fitter and stronger than we were in the 60s. They would win, but I wonder whether they would have had as much fun as we did."
