Bruce John Robertson (born 9 April 1952) is a former

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

footballer. He played for

Counties A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

and the

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987 ...

. He played 34 tests (102 All Black matches) between 1972 and 1981, and scored 34 tries (4 test tries). He played 135 matches for Counties between 1971 and 1982, making his debut for the union at the age of 19. He was the All Black centre (No 13) for much of the 1970s, and was admired for his pace, silky pass and swerve, and his thinking approach to the game. Robertson is regarded as one of the best centres in New Zealand rugby history. He did play against all-white

South African __NOTOC__ South African may relate to: * The nation of South Africa * South African Airways * South African English * South African people * Languages of South Africa * Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the Afric ...

teams during the

Apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

era, in common with many All Blacks at the time. However, he declared himself unable to play against the Springboks during the New Zealand 1981 tour. This was due to his 'personal abhorrence of apartheid,' following his tour of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

.All Blacks versus Springboks - 1981 Springbok tour', URL: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/1981-springbok-tour/all-blacks-vs-springboks, (Ministry for Culture and Heritage), updated 20-Dec-2012

References

External links

All Blacks Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robertson, Bruce 1952 births Living people New Zealand international rugby union players New Zealand rugby union players Rugby union centres Counties Manukau rugby union players