KEY POINTS:
Michael Jones coaches Samoa in the 2007 World Cup. Paul Lewis remembers when he burst onto the scene as a player.
1987 wrap
One of the strongest memories of the 1987 World Cup was the former All Black coach, JJ Stewart, picking his way down the steps from the posh seats at Eden Park.
The famously crusty and earthy coach gestured in the general direction of All Black flanker Michael Jones and said: "He's a freak."
Praise was notoriously hard to gather from JJ Stewart. Being called a freak was perhaps as close as you got although many players said that if JJ wasn't chewing your ear, you knew were doing something right.
He only ever called one other player the same name - pint-sized winger Grant Batty, who played with elusive brilliance and whose blood seemed always to be at boiling point. Small, he might have been, but Batty was a tenacious defender with no idea, apparently, that he was only 1.65m and 70kg; a kind of rugby Jack Russell terrier.
But, if everyone remembers the 1987 tournament for New Zealand's only winning of the Webb Ellis cup and that amazing solo try by John Kirwan, this was really Michael Jones' World Cup.
He made his debut in that opening match against Italy, scored the first try of the tournament and the first try in the final when the All Blacks beat France 29-9.
But the statistics do little to show the phenomenon of Jones, also labelled "almost the perfect rugby player" by the man who first spotted him, former Auckland and All Black coach John Hart.
What Stewart and Hart meant was that Jones had it all. Speed, athleticism, ball skills, a tackle like being hit by a petrol tanker, a genuine lineout leap honed by his basketball skills and a kind of innate radar which meant he would get to the ball or into a position to give or take a scoring pass. He could kick the ball well. Almost the only thing he couldn't do was kick for goal - and we're not too sure about that either.
Few people can truly to be said to have changed the nature of the position in which they played. Jones re-shaped the role of No 7s, openside flankers, with his display in this World Cup and in subsequent years.
Before Jones, the All Black No 7 had been Jock Hobbs - now chairman of the New Zealand Rugby Union and then a typical example of the openside flanker breed. Low-slung, crouched low to the ground, forever hunting and pouncing on the loose ball, Hobbs was a successful exponent of the No 7 hunter-gatherer arts.
Jones did that too although some say he benefited from an All Black team which took huge pride in getting its "fatties" to the ball in large numbers and at speed, thus lessening Jones' ball-gathering duties.
Before Hobbs, perhaps former All Black captain Graham Mourie was the closest to mirror Jones. Mourie also had a sensitive radar and ability to turn up where the ball was although he didn't have Jones' raw pace. Mourie could also run and pass well but it wasn't until Jones that New Zealand and world rugby saw a No 7 forward, who really could run and pass like a back.
Since Jones, successive All Black No 7s and those from other countries have grown up knowing that their ability to create; to link with ball-carriers and receivers is also an essential part of their job description. Witness players since like Josh Kronfeld, Scott Robertson and even Taine Randell, in his days as a 7 who they also had running and passing abilities to go with the bread-and-butter role of securing possession.
Nowadays, it is not enough to be a good ball-getter and defender. A good No 7 has to be a creator and finisher as well. Richie McCaw has also joined the select club of players who have re-fashioned the position that they play in. McCaw probably doesn't get enough credit for his running and passing but he has brought a new dimension to modern rugby's vexing tackled ball rules; the acknowledged king of the tackled ball and the turnover.
It is an irony that Jones' appearances as an All Black - hampered by his Christian beliefs and some bad injuries - numbered a little over half as many as Sean Fitzpatrick even though the two were contemporaries.
JJ Stewart would have loved to have had Jones in South Africa in 1976 when the All Blacks were defeated. However, Jones was there when Hart's team became the first in All Black history to win a series in South Africa in 1966.
World Cup winner, historic winner against South Africa and one of the few men who re-wrote the book on No 7 play - not a bad CV for Michael Niko Jones.
- HoS
