That's what friends are for

Mark Graham, Hugh McGahan, Graham Lowe and Dane O'Hara.

I achieved a few things in my time as a player, like beating Australia and winning the World Player of the Year award, but by far the biggest thing I got out of league was the friendships I made.

This was highlighted to me at the Kiwis reunion at the Ellerslie Convention Centre on Friday. There were guys from the 1953 team who famously beat Australia in consecutive series, right through to the current team. It was a wonderful occasion to reminisce and the stories get longer and wilder with each telling.

It was the first time in a long time I felt really proud to be a former Kiwis player.

But I worry whether the next generation will continue this sort of tradition in quite the same way. We have a Kiwis reunion every year — not as elaborate as the terrific one the Mad Butcher put together on Friday — but the youngest guy who regularly attends these days is Logan Swann and he was playing in the early 2000s.

Someone asked me this week which NRL team I supported and I said the Roosters. He couldn't quite believe it but they are my team. I played more than 100 games for them in the late 1980s and they were the only team I played for in Australia.

These days, guys might have five or six different contracts through their career because they tend to go where the money is. Some might argue they have more friends but it's a different level to the type of bond you have when you are team-mates for 10 years.

I still go away on holiday every second year with guys I played with at the Roosters and I regularly play golf with the likes of Owen Wright, Gary Prohm and Clayton Friend — team-mates from the 1980s Kiwis side — and it's special.

One of the things about playing for the Kiwis is that bond. It has always been and I hope will always be very tight. It has to be because you're not going to enjoy success on the field if you can't get along off it.

As a coach of a school's first XV rugby side, I'm constantly telling them about the legacy they will leave and the great position they are in to be a part of the top team in the school but they won't realise that until perhaps 20 years later.

It will be the same as the current Kiwis side, who have achieved some great success over the past 12 months.

Friday's function reminded me of the value of team sports. Hopefully guys in 20 years still mark it in the same way as Friday.