BRUCE REIHANA
THE FORMER ALL BLACKS, WAIKATO, CHIEFS, NORTHAMPTON AND BORDEAUX-BEGLES PLAYER

When All Blacks coach John Hart rang me up to say I’d been called up as a reserve for the 1999 World Cup, I thought it was one of my mates taking the mick so I hung up.
Carlos Spencer had done his knee and I’d been told to be on standby but, even so, I didn’t believe it could be real. A few seconds later, the phone rang again and the voice said, ‘Bruce, hang up on me a second time and you won’t be joining the All Blacks’. Finally it dawned on me it was him and I...