$5 couldn't prop up All Black strongman

Kent Lambert has "awesome" memories of his days in the No 3 jersey.

Ex-footballers and the hotel trade are hardly strangers in this country and, in this, Kent Lambert fits the type.

His journey, though, from test rugby front row to small-town publican in his native province of Hawkes Bay contains a significant difference from the route travelled by the fellows of his day.

Lambert was one of the first high-profile players in the amateur era who, with his funds in decline, headed for Australian rugby league.

The one-test Wellington three-quarter Owen Stephens had made this move in the early 1970s, but Lambert's decision in late 1977 was seen as far more significant at a time when the first talk of setting up professional rugby began to emerge. Even as Lambert signed for Penrith, Auckland broadcaster Tim Bickerstaff approached him about joining a proposed pro-rugby set-up.

How times have changed. With the arrival yesterday of the expansive and expensive Lions tour party - the first professional Lions team to these shores - Lambert's story is as good as any for those who like to reflect on rugby's officially amateur era.

As the 53-year-old Lambert sits in a back room at his Waipawa pub and recalls his playing career, it is easy to get a feel for the strange mix of competitiveness and camaraderie which filled the game in his day.

One of his favourite stories concerns Irish prop Ray McLoughlin, whom Lambert scrummed against on the short 1974 tour.

The McLoughlin-led Connacht scrum dealt to the All Blacks at Galway. Over beers that night, McLoughlin gave Lambert, who had played tighthead, an impromptu lesson.

Turn your cheek to the right, McLoughlin suggested, so as to split the opposing loosehead from his hooker and force him to push in a disadvantageous direction. McLoughlin also encouraged Lambert not to lead into the engagement, and said he would also get more power by placing his feet further forward.

The amazing thing about this was that the All Blacks were playing Ireland just three days later, where Lambert would once again be propping against McLoughlin, his willing tutor.

McLoughlin should hardly have been in a helpful mood, having been put out of the 1971 Lions campaign in New Zealand by an injury suffered in the infamous Canterbury assault on the tourists.

Lambert says: "He was the best I scrummed against. A small man, but his back would be bent and then - snap - he'd straighten it and drive you back 2m.

"No one in Ireland was listening to his ideas and I think he was just happy that someone did.

"I used it against him in the test and we wrecked their scrum.

"Walking through the little gate off Lansdowne Park he said 'oh, you listened to me'. I said 'I had to - you're the best'. I've never met him since."

From his test debut as a 20-year-old on the 1972-73 Northern Hemisphere tour, Lambert had become a cornerstone of a great Manawatu pack and the strongman of the All Black scrum.

After playing in the winning first test against the 1977 Lions in Wellington, he missed the next two after having his appendix removed. During this layoff he commented on the financial strain players such as himself were suffering. He returned for the Eden Park test where the series victory was sealed.

He recalls an excruciating incident from the first test of that series. Having had a back injury rubbed down with a fiery ointment, Lambert found it had mixed with his sweat and travelled to a sensitive part of the male anatomy.

"I was trying to concentrate marking Phil Orr, and there's a red hot feeling there. It took 20 minutes to wear off. It was hard work concentrating, I can tell you," he says.

He only vaguely recalls the three-man scrum the All Blacks packed down in the fourth test, which came as the All Blacks attempted to get Bill Bush on for the injured John McEldowney.

Captain Tane Horton said later that the All Blacks - who were under the hammer from Fran Cotton, Graham Price and co in the scrums during the series - had practised the move "a couple of times", although Norton was reluctant to use it.

Lambert, however, says: "I only remember us using it once in the game, and it was all over so quick. I don't remember it being talked about before the game. We were too proud for that sort of shit.

"Someone must have done some quick thinking and called it - all of a sudden it happens."

The Lions, with a frightening pack but frightful backs, were beaten at Eden Park and All Black pride was restored after a run of series losses.

Lambert, who half-sensed that his financial problems meant this could be his last All Black game, grabbed the ball at match end. As he sat in the dressing room, the ball tucked in his kit bag, an official entered.

"He said 'Kent, have you got that ball?' I said 'yeah, and I'm keeping it'."

He took it into the showers with him, for safe keeping, and it remains among his mementos.

As Lambert suspected, his All Black career was over. With precisely $5 in the bank, he signed for the Penrith league club in late 1977.

"I was sick of coming home, spending months paying my phone bills etc. I just couldn't get ahead," he says, with less rancour than the words might suggest.

"We were on $1.50 a day in Britain in 1972, which equalled two jugs of beer. In South Africa in 1976 it was four rand a day, which was six or seven dollars. We only survived because our clubs raised money for us. I'd had enough of that."

His Penrith earnings enabled him to get into the pub trade, and his latest establishment is the Commercial Hotel in Waipawa, a short drive from Hastings.

Lambert is on crutches when we meet, as he awaits replacement of a hip that suffered through his sport and work. He was a shearer, fencer and freezing worker in his playing days. Lambert would often shear for four hours on Saturday morning, play a club game, drink after the game until midnight, then be up at 5am on Sunday to prepare for a full day's shearing. He would train with clubs near his shearing assignments.

During the pre-season, he went on nightly hill runs of 40-odd minutes after completing nine hours of shearing.

In one five-day period, he left his Palmerston North home at 2.30 each morning, drove two hours to where he was shearing, ran for half-hour stints during the lunch and tea breaks, returning home exhausted by 8pm.

"I don't recommend that particular week to anyone," he says.

His Penrith signing was inspired by a meeting with officials from a touring junior rugby league side over a drink in Palmerston North. They asked if he had considered playing league. The touring team was from west Sydney, and Lambert believes they must have informed Penrith he did indeed have an interest in playing in Australia.

The deal was highly unusual by today's standards. Lambert would work as a labourer and get his $45,000 payment in one whack at the end of a three-year stint.

As it turned out, a long-time knee injury finished his career early. After a season in reserve grade - where he played alongside future coaching greats Phil Gould and Tim Sheens - Lambert returned to New Zealand with a full payout from Penrith.

There were some good pub times and bad property investment times which have led the Wairoa-born and Te Aute educated Lambert to a new start in Waipawa.

It is the home town of his ex-wife Lesley - they have one daughter - and he says they remain friends.

After experiencing the life of an All Black, and tasting the rough and ready professionalism of Australian rugby league in the 1970s, Kent Lambert is delighted that today's rugby players are well rewarded.

"It came too late for us but I'm certainly not envious. I've got some awesome memories with the All Blacks," he says.

He just hopes they're salting something away for the future.

"Once you get hurt, it could all be over."

Kent Lambert

* All Black 1972-1977

* 40 matches, 11 tests

* Played for New Zealand Colts, Juniors, Universities, Maori, and All Blacks within the space of a year.

* A member of a legendary Manawatu pack, and part of the famous late 1970s Ranfurly Shield run.

* Almost played against the 1971 Lions as a flanker for Manawatu-Horowhenua. Bulked up and became the All Blacks' No 1 prop.

* Strange but true - Lambert is a front-row rarity in that he kicked a goal for the All Blacks on the 1972-73 British tour (after fullback Trevor Morris had missed seven in a row against South Western Counties).