Frank Bunce All Black Tribute
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- čas přidán 6. 07. 2015
- Bunce was born and raised in New Zealand, making his debut for Auckland in 1986. But he was first capped at international level for Western Samoa. The hard-hitting midfielder played four games for Western Samoa as they reached the quarter-finals of the 1991 Rugby World Cup in England.
Bunce's impact at international level brought him to the attention of All Blacks coach Laurie Mains, who selected him for the All Blacks in 1992. Bunce became the immovable man in the All Blacks backline, missing just one game (against Japan in the 1995 Rugby World Cup) before bowing out of the international arena against England in 1997.
The outside centre struck up a formidable partnership with Walter Little in the All Blacks' midfield, which reached a peak at the 1995 Rugby World Cup. The duo helped New Zealand to the final where they lost to South Africa. Bunce scored 20 tries in 55 games for the All Blacks.
From 2001 to 2003 he coached Italy before taking up a role with Auckland as defensive coach and then technical advisor to Samoa in 2005. - Sport
My #1 Center of all time
...line buster, Mr frank Bunce!
Hope young kiwis ,appreciate how fantastic Frank was.
Bunce and Little , what a center pairing combo
And this is why he makes my center for my All Blacks all time 15
Definitely
Exactly, this doesnt show his uncompromising defense
Totally agree
Our very best centre IMO. Top bloke too.
My favourite ab ever!
Fantastic player in his day.
I'm English and watched Bunce play test rugby from 1991 to 1997. In that time I never saw him miss a tackle. He was a very hard hitter and would hit a huge forward as hard as a back. Immense. Also, he was vastly underrated as an attacking player. As you can see from this video he was pretty damn good....doing it against the best teams in the world. I would have him in my World XV, no doubt.
He truly lacked physicality though. I would say his greatness was his skill and "brain" for the game, he was a very intelligent for a Pacific Islander. I played with him provincially in the Canes back in the day, and it was very easy to shove him around as he wasn't that strong physically. But he was good at shooting through the gaps to score
@@sheldoncooper0 Bunce never played for the Canes. What the hell are you talking about?
@@MrT67 i know that. I was saying that we played together back in the days when I played for Wellington.
I can see how the way the sentence flowed it implied that it could be misinterpreted. But when I was playing provincial rugby he came down to wellington and we played. The guy was tiny. I was only 6’3 and towered over him. He’s a small guy.
@@sheldoncooper0 Do you mean that you played "against" him.....?
@@MrT67 both.
Much love and respect to the man to who took a broom through the joint being Laurie Mains and over his 4yr rein as All Black coach he instilled a team(to which much love and respect to his successor John Hart acknowledge)of blokes that wanted to do their best for the NZ All Blacks and our country and yes they've done their duty dam straight ❤️❤️❤️
A great Tribute to a great ABs center!
Always looked forward to Frank Bunce and Eroni Clarke going head to head! Buncey was all class, Eroni was a powerhouse.
Bunce had the ability to step off both left & right, ran great lines and had a wonderful pass to put his outside backs into space. He had really good speed too...
Frank Bunce will remain my pick for the centre of the greatest all blacks 15 partnering Tana Umaga.
Always great to see Bunce in action. And yes, it would be great to see some of his tacking as well!
Hard as nails...have him sliiiightly over Umaga as my all time best 13. Just sooo hard
Solid on attack solid on defense.
The all blacks most underrated defender and hitter
man I miss 90's rugby.
New-Zealands-greatest13-considering-such-a-late-starter!-
Yes, there's been some great centres; Sella, BOD, Gerber. I rate Bunce so highly because apart from being a great attacking weapon and very strong tackler, his biggest strength to me was finding his wings. Brilliant distributor of the ball. Very strong, could always stand in contact just a little longer than most and ran with the ball in two hands in front of him. Always seemed to have a little more time than most.
Incredible that he didn't make the All Blacks until he was 30. Another victim of Auckland dominating selection of the national team with much inferior players.
That fend or shall I say manhandling on Montgomery was special because not many do that to any South African player
Great player
Best AB Centre ever.. BOD, Gerber, Gibson, Sella, Horan, Greenwood, Guscott, Bunce.. Apart from BOD, Danie Gerber and Mike Gibson, nothing to choose between the others.. All amazing..
I think those are bang on the greatest centres ever except I might have greenwood a bit back alongside the likes of jauzion and Conrad. I’d throw nonu in that top bracket too
He never looked like he was running that fast, but I guess he was because he's peeling kunce off, left right & center.
As tough as they come.
Bunce Goat
What a centre. My best all-time pearing would be sella and horan. But back up 2ould be bunce and bateman(im welsh obviouslly)
Yep....
I remember that fend Bunce applied to an Argentinian while playing for Samoa at the 1991 world cup. The fend hurt the defender, requiring a couple of guys to carry the Argentinian off to the sideline. How he hurt the opposition with that fend still remains a mystery to me. Was it because he hit him hard in the face with the fend or was is because the Argentinian hit the ground hard as a result of the fend? I will never know unless someone can enlighten me.
Edit: revisiting here. Saturday nght - June 19, 2021.
Bunce was so deceptively strong. Like he was just built different.
1st try for Samoa @ 2:18 I bet that's not given as I reckon his body is in touch before he grounded it.
Bunce is my kind of centre, you can stick the rest of the modern day centres up yer arse, few match watch he could do, tough to pick a top 5 in the last 35 years but I'd have Bunce, Sella and O'Driscoll in there for sure.
Tony Franklin, that Bunce try actually counted. He grounded that ball in time, if you look much closer. I watched that game back in the day.