What have 'Snow' White and Eroni Clarke in common?

By WYNNE GRAY

It will not go down in the Auckland rugby records, but "Snow" White acknowledges Eroni Clarke will equal his landmark for most appearances for the province on Saturday.

The difference of opinion is whether Super 12 games should count as appearances for Auckland such as the now defunct South Pacific and Super 10 games did.

While Auckland does not (yet) count Blues matches as games for the union and the honours board, White argues that they are just as meaningful as any game for the province.

And yesterday the former prop was at Auckland's final training session before their next NPC game, against Otago, to wish the seasoned centre well for what he believes is an historic moment.

"I have great admiration and respect for Eroni. He is an exceptional guy and a bloody good footballer."

White played 195 games for Auckland from 1949 to 1963. Clarke will play his 141st game in the blue-and-white hoops after 54 matches for the Blues - not to mention the two games he played when he was hired by the Highlanders this year.

It has been 38 years since White last pulled on his boots to play provincial rugby and since then, only Grant Fox and Gary Whetton had threatened his Auckland record. Fox retired after 190 matches and Whetton quit after 180 games, both finishing before professional rugby.

Clarke has crossed the amateur and professional times, his games in the Super 12 replacing the South Pacific and Super 10 tournaments, which convinces White that Clarke has a legitimate claim to his record.

While arguments about counting those Super 12 games continue, White has a small dispute with Auckland, who credit him with one game less than the New Zealand Rugby Almanack.

"It was back in the mid-50s and we played a club game in the afternoon [for Northcote] and then drove up at our own expense to play North Auckland under lights that night," he recalled.

The match was an arrangement made between the union chairmen, but it was a game ARU historians did not count, even though the Almanack did.

That day's hectic schedule and the way players often had two games in a weekend while holding down fulltime jobs, makes White recoil when modern-day professionals complain about their careers.

"I think it is ridiculous," the four-test All Black said.

"It is dreadful the All Blacks are taking 36 players for a five-game tour at the end of the year when we went with 30 players on a 36-match tour which took six months and there were no replacements in games."

Clarke started his career in a Ranfurly Shield defence on the road against Nelson in 1991 as a second five-eighths. The next match he was on the wing, and he now plays in his regular centre role.

There have been 10 All Black tests, a year interrupted by an Achilles tendon tear, threats he would be siphoned off to Bay of Plenty last year, and his return to be a central figure in Auckland's play once more.

"I feel great," he said yesterday. "I have no intention yet of slowing down."

While Clarke is healthy, team-mates Charles Riechelmann and Tane Tu'ipulotu were unable to train fully yesterday and will need to convince coach Wayne Pivac today they are ready to be selected.