'76 Bay side played from the heart

Eric Anderson's 75-year-old eyes crease with humour as he recounts the glory of his 1976 Bay of Plenty rugby team.
After 30 years, the former All Black, who lives just outside Katikati, is still tickled by the way his unheralded Bay side swept to the inaugural National Provincial Championship title.
Unfashionable, sure. Ungainly maybe, and under-estimated,certainly.
Yet Anderson moulded that side into the tightest of units, ultimately toppling teams like Auckland, Manawatu, Canterbury, Otago and Hawke's Bay on the way to the crown.
"If there was any secret, it was that we didn't have any stars _ there were no All Blacks being plucked out and there was a balance," the Whakatane-born Anderson said.
"We had pygmy locks _ we just used craft and cunning, cheated and played to the ref and we just had a hell of a lot of determination."
Those `pygmy locks' were perhaps the key to the whole season.
Thirty years ago, getting your own lineout ball wasn't quite so important.
Seven unruly blokes would line up on each side of a indistinguishable line, trade punches and climb over each other, and almost as an after-thought, maybe come up with the ball.
The precise, highly complicated lineouts of today would have baffled players 30 years ago, and quite simply they just didn't have the same emphasis on them.
That was just as well for Bay of Plenty in '76. Robbie Moore and Barry Spry formed the engine room of an uncompromising pack, and neither Bay servant could muster more than an inch over six-feet in height.
Both were officially listed as 6'1'' _ or around 1.85m _ and were frequently dwarfed by their opposites. Moore's son John, who played in recent years for the Steamers before heading to France, was considered about average for an NPC lock at 1.98m.
"Set phases are probably much more important now but back in those days, the lineout was a bit more of a lottery, without lifting and all that stuff," Moore, now a Rotorua real estate agent, recounts.
"We didn't win many of the lineouts _ but then we didn't lose many games either."
They won because Anderson spent long hours with his forwards, toiling hard and drilling them mercilessly.
The backs basically ran themselves, led by Greg Rowlands, Jimmy Kamizona and Eddie Stokes, feeding off the marvellous platform they were given.
"It wasn't a plan but most of the backs came from Tauranga and most of the forwards were from Rotorua. They developed into a very well-oiled side and we won a few games just because we didn't want to lose!" Anderson said, pausing before adding: "Robbie Moore and Barry Spry as locks _ they were crafty."
Anderson is still fit, despite suffering a minor stroke earlier this year. He apologises in advance for his speech, which he says has suffered, but at worst his words are just a bit more deliberate than normal.
There were a few well-chosen words that changed Anderson's life 47 years ago, when he was 29, in his rugby-playing prime at 1.85m and 95kg, and in the throes of a fine Bay of Plenty playing career which spanned 28 games.
"I played lock _ which I was far too small for _ and then in 1959 we combined with Thames Valley to play the Lions. We got very close to beating them and I had a pretty good game.
"The selectors had a look at me, with 1962 in mind, and I was told by one of the selectors, Dick Everest, that I'd have to play front-row because I was too small to be a lock.
"So I did. I played front-row from then on, and got the nod in the finish."
The `nod' was a spot in the 1960 All Blacks. He showed promise in three preliminary matches in Australia, scoring two tries against Western Australia, but played only seven matches in South Africa before injuring a rib in a scrum early in the match against Combined Services.
He retired the year after following several Bay seasons under Ron Bryers, and then took over from Bryers as coach in 1974.
History also records that Bay's 1976 heroics weren't repeated. A spate of retirements in 1977 saw Bay relegated to the second division, but there was still time for Anderson to make amends _ becoming the only coach to win first and second division titles with a fine 1978 season.
And it was Moore who paid the most fitting tribute to Anderson. Thirty years on and his memories of his former master are still warm.
"You can have the best 15 musicians in the world," Moore says. "But you still need a conductor to make them sound good."