Propping it up steadily

Crusaders prop Wyatt Crockett is tackled by Shunsuke Nunomaki, of the Sunwolves, during the 2017...
Crusaders prop Wyatt Crockett is tackled by Shunsuke Nunomaki, of the Sunwolves, during the 2017 Super Rugby season. Photo: Getty Images
Steve Hepburn reviews Croczilla, by Wyatt Crockett & Scotty Stevenson, published by Upstart Press.

Is Wyatt Crockett worth a book?

An All Black prop who played 71 tests for the All Blacks, Crockett became the first player to rack up 200 games of Super Rugby. So he has been around.

But he is not a great All Black. There are plenty round like him - and thankfully they do not all write books.

Right, confession time: never rated Crockett at all; just another annoying and over-rated player from red-and-black land.

It is not a bad read but, and this is a big but, the story is not overly compelling. He goes to school, comes down to Otago Boys' High School for a year, makes a few rep teams and then works his way into the Canterbury set-up and then eventually into the black jersey.

Someone suggested the Wyatt Crockett story was written because of an interesting backstory. Well, there is not.

It is all a bit ho-hum really. Good on him and all that but it is hardly page-turning.

Of those 71 tests, he was a substitute in 46 of them. So nearly two thirds of his test career started on the bench. And he admits his career was extended when the decision was made to have three props on the bench, so a specialist loosehead like himself could live on.

He never made it through to the final of the World Cup in 2015 which was gutting for him. Crockett seems like a good bloke and a loyal team mate.

But Croczilla is not one that will linger long in the memory.

Steve Hepburn is ODT sports editor.

 

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