Hawke's Bay captain Ash Dixon was one of the players in 2020 that reached 100 caps for their province. Photo / Sarah Lord / www.photosport.nz
Hawke's Bay captain Ash Dixon was one of the players in 2020 that reached 100 caps for their province. Photo / Sarah Lord / www.photosport.nz
In the era of professional rugby it is quite a rare achievement for a player to manage over a century of games for a single province - whether it is to chase more money overseas or moving on to another province.
Many of the players that stick around for along time are All Blacks who don't get many chances to play Mitre 10 Cup due to their international commitments.
Only two All Blacks have managed 100 caps for their province and a Super Rugby side.
Current Blues assistant coach Tana Umaga did this back in 2007 for the Wellington Lions.
Umaga managed this while also getting 74 test caps for New Zealand, 129 Super Rugby appearances and another 10 provincial caps for the Counties Manukau Steelers in 2010.
Jimmy Cowan is the latest to achieve this. In 2012 he played his 100th cap for the Highlanders and later on that year did the same for the Southland Stags.
Cowan finished his career with 53 test caps for New Zealand, 122 Super Rugby caps and 134 provincial matches, as he also appeared for the Tasman Mako 23 times in 2014-2015.
2020 saw three players, Alex Ainley (Tasman), Ash Dixon (Hawke's Bay) and Ross Wright (Northland), reach the 100 game milestones for their provinces. The former two have also captained their respective teams.
