Graham Lowe: Kurt Sorensen and 100% players

Kurt Sorensen in action for Mt Wellington in the 1976 Fox Mermorial final. Photo / Herald archives

As a coach of any team, when you see your players giving 100 percent, you feel a pride that is hard to explain.

To be quite honest I can't think of one single player I ever coached who let me down. Sure, at times some didn't play as well as they may have the week before, but when considering effort, I always got 100 percent.

And the Warriors coach Andrew McFadden would have felt very proud about his players on Saturday night against the Titans, because what I saw was each and every player giving 100 percent to provide a fantastic win.

Some players at times give what seems to be even more than 100 percent and they are the special ones, because they carry the X factor.

I see signs of this with the Warriors. It's not quite there yet but it's coming along nicely.

At the recent 'Mad Butchers Luncheon' there were many former great ex-Kiwis, some of whom I'd coached. They were all different kinds of players but each gave 100 percent every time they wore the Kiwi jersey.

As you may imagine, and at a function like that, I was asked dozens of questions about some of these players because many of their deeds are becoming folklore and are not archived with TV coverage.

Kurt Sorensen and the type of game he played is one player in particular many people are fascinated by.

The Sorensen family, like the Baileys, Wrights, McGregors, McClennans and others have produced many of the great Kiwi Rugby League identities in New Zealand which will last the test of time. Kurt Sorensen was there at the function along with many of his former team mates and there are heroic stories about all of them.

However, Kurt was special; he was a player with the X factor. At 180cm tall and 107kg he may not have been as big as some are today or were even then, but try and tell that to anyone who'd been on the end of one of his spectacular spot tackles. He was actually deadly.

He wasn't a player who topped the tackle counts, but the players he tackled stayed tackled, in fact they took little part in the game following one of his ferocious hits. Somehow he managed to use every inch of his body to connect with the ball carrier who must have thought he been trapped in the grasp of a grizzly bear.

As a forward his great speed and timing gave him an advantage over any unsuspecting ball carrier who got the sniff of a break. When that happened, Kurt sprung.

But it was his explosive ball running out wide, or on the edge as they call it now, that wreaked havoc among the opposition defences.

He possessed the speed of most modern day outside backs and could also off load in a tackle as good as anyone you'd ever hope to see.

When he burst on the scene in Sydney for Cronulla he caused absolute mayhem with his blockbusting style in both attack and defence. And he was the sort of player plenty went looking for in the next game trying to get square. Those who did come looking got another dose. This all added to his mana.

Coming from the Mt Wellington club in Auckland as a 19-year-old in 1976 he went to play for Wigan under the legendary former Great Britain forward Vince Karalius. Because of his unrelenting toughness and rugged style as a player, Karalius had earned the name 'The Wild Bull of the Pampas'. In the 1958 Great Britain tour of Australia, the English beat Australia in what was known as the 'Battle of Brisbane'. In that game the Great Britain captain Alan Prescott broke his forearm in the third minute of the game but carried on playing until they won 25-18.

They went on to win the third test 40-17 and also the Ashes. The Wild Bull of the Pampas has been quoted as saying : "I always enjoyed it [football] a bit more if there was a body or two lying about; it made the job more interesting". Karalius was regarded by most Australian and British rugby league journalists during the 50's and 60's as 'the hardest man of all time' and those who can remember still think that today.

So Kurt had a hard task master in the UK and he learned his trade well.

But the mental toughness Sorensen demonstrated when he stood down for the 1978 season in Australia was in itself remarkable. Kurt did this to avoid being eligible for the silly transfer fees that were imposed on Kiwis wanting to play professionally overseas. As a result he was banned from playing international football from 1978-1983, it was just an unbelievable ruling to which the NZRL was part of.

But in 1979 he appeared for Cronulla, playing alongside his older brother Dane, also a Kiwi, and quickly developed the reputation that had opposition players hoping they weren't on the end of one of his tackles or facing the ferocity of his charges to the line.

Kurt Sorensen played 407 club games for Wigan, Widnes, Cronulla, Roosters and Whitehaven. He also played 27 test matches for New Zealand and in three World Cups, 1975,1977, 1988.

When I watched Kurt Sorensen in my Kiwi teams, I felt very proud, because I knew he always gave 100 percent and he delivered the X factor.