Albert Anderson is the first to admit he spent more time drinking Steinlager than on the field during the All Blacks successful 1987 Rugby World Cup campaign.
The lock played just one game in the tournament – a 74-13 demolition of Fiji at Lancaster Park. He spent much of the campaign as a member of the ‘dirty dirties’ – a name coined for the World Cup squad members playing no part in the matches.
“I was a dirty dirty a fair bit of the time . . . we had to go to the functions and drink all of the Steinlager,” he said.
Anderson, now 58 and living on the family farm where he grew up in Southbridge, was a key cog in the Canterbury side of the 1980s which famously held the Ranfurly Shield for 24 successive defences from 1982 - 1985. In total he played 143 times for Canterbury between 1981 and 1990.
He played for Southbridge as a junior before boarding at St Andrew’s College where he went on to make the first XV.
The Christ’s College team which eluded him contained many players he would go on to play with at Canterbury and in the All Blacks, including Jock Hobbs, Robbie Deans, Bruce Deans and Joe Leota.
Anderson spent many of his years in red and black under the guidance of Alex Wyllie, whose training sessions he does not miss.
“He did it his way, which was fine, we got the results . . . I can’t say I’d go back and do it all over again if I knew what was coming. I’m very glad I had him, though, that’s for sure.
“We used to play rugby to get fit for his training runs.”
One of Wyllie’s more intense sessions involved Anderson and the team doing multiple laps around Rugby Park while leapfrogging – which even managed to break Leota, a former New Zealand sprint champion.
“Joe [Leota] fell over on the ground, he was absolutely stuffed, he couldn’t move. He just wasn’t used to it . . . we kept leapfrogging and Murray Davie looked across to me and said ‘we just beat the New Zealand sprint champion’.”
Anderson was involved in Canterbury’s famous 23-28 Ranfurly Shield loss to Auckland at Lancaster Park in 1985. Anderson scored Canterbury’s last try in a spirited second half comeback.
An image of the try went on to inspire the ‘Albert Anderson Player of the Year’ shield which is presented annually to the top Southbridge player.
“It was a good photo in the paper of Foxy [Grant Fox] trying to hold me up, so the Southbridge publican made up a leather shield with the photo on it.”
Each year the shield, now in wooden form, is presented on ‘Alby Anderson Day’. The annual event raises money for different causes in the Southbridge community and has been hosted at a number of venues in the area. It is estimated to have raised about $500,000 for the local community over the years.
The day also has a reputation for unexpected events. Events on Alby Anderson Day include the death of Princess Diana, a major snow event and the Southbridge Hotel being held up at gun point.
Outside of the 1987 World Cup, Anderson was involved in All Blacks tours to Australia and the United Kingdom. However, one of his favourites was the 1985 tour to Argentina.
“Steinlager were sponsoring us then and they put a pallet of beer on the plane with us when we left. We drank the last of it just before we left to come back, but actually Argentinian beer is really nice so we wouldn’t have needed it. I don’t like the Aussie beers and hate Pommy beer, but the Argentinians made some good beer,” said Anderson.
Free drinks were one of the few perks in the days of playing for the national side before rugby went professional, but Anderson has no qualms over the lack of six figure contracts like those received by players now.
“We got a £12 sterling a day player allowance. So when you’re on tour that was seven days a week. That was just about a bit more than what I was earning here, so that wasn’t bad for a little country fellow like me.
All the yuppie Aucklanders would go and spend it on a new pair of fancy shoes and it’d be gone,” said Anderson.
His last stint with the All Blacks included six tour games in 1988, in which he captained the side in four. After his final season with Canterbury in 1989, Anderson played a handful of seasons for Southbridge before dislocating his knee.
The injury paved the way for his current sporting passion – cycling.
“If you told me 30 years ago I’d be wearing lycra and riding a bike I’d probably smack you,” he said.
Anderson can be found riding around the Port Hills most weekends and has even cycled in Vietnam, France, Croatia, Austria and Germany with his wife Sandy.
His claim to fame with cycling – which he reinforces that he is “actually bloody good” at – is keeping pace with Hamish Bond and George Bennett during a downhill section in the Abel Tasman Cycle Challenge.
