When Bill Osborne reflects on his formative All Black years he is grateful for the selfless guidance from Bruce Robertson. In theory the pair were supposed to be competitors but the senior man gave Osborne stacks of support and suggestions.
Robertson even gave his understudy the invitation to travel tothe Cardiff club's centenary in Wales. Those gestures made a deep impact on Osborne who also realized he was probably best suited to play at second five eighths-a move which gave the All Blacks an even more potent partnership particularly on defence.
As Osborne shadowed and threatened opponents, Robertson used his speed to drift onto other defensive tasks as the duo paraded their power together for some seasons.
"Opposition players often blamed themselves for their shortcoming not appreciating what we were doing to them," Osborne said.
That sort of hard work and camaraderie brought the rewards on the '78 Grand Slam' tour where Osborne concurs with many that their success was due to a brotherhood rather than brilliance.
He missed a year of rugby with mysterious injuries until a visit to a specialist traced the problem to his hip. With that sorted, Osborne was ready to return for the short tour of Wales in their centenary season.
Osborne made several attempts to retire in 1981 and 1983 but was persuaded to return and then made the trip to South Africa with the Cavaliers in 1986. Away from rugby Osborne worked as a contract thinner then as a stock agent and is now chief executive of Quotable Value New Zealand.
Statistics Date of birth: 24 April 1955 Position: Second five-eighth Test debut: 14 June 1975 v Scotland at Auckland Final test: 11 September 1982 v Australia at Auckland Matches: 48 Tests: 16 Province: Wanganui Test tries: 0 Test points: 0
