Dean Kenny gets a reminder of his rugby career every time he goes to an airport.
When he goes through security, the alarms go off.
Kenny, who these days lives on the North Shore and works as a chiropractor, has a body that has seen better days.
"My body is broken. I’ve had a new left hip, my right knee is going to need a replacement. I’ve had two broken wrists and five shoulder reconstructions," Kenny (56) said.
"When I go through airport security you get the big beep. For all the good times we have got with rugby, it is only when you get old you sit back and think of the expense it has put on your body.
"I got told 21 years ago I would never run properly again, so ever since then I have done a lot of cycling. I can’t walk more than 5-6km because of my knee."
Kenny said the injuries he picked up over the years could have been prevented with better training methods and equipment.
"You look at shoes. They don’t take long to break down. But you never go out and buy new ones. You just keep wearing the old ones until they are completely broken. So you are exposing yourself to injury.
"But that is what it was like back then. You didn’t know any better."
Kenny was born in Woodville, in Manawatu, and went to Palmerston North Boys’ High School, where he made the New Zealand schools side in 1978.
He linked with the Southern club through the urging of All Black Gary Seear and started out in the under-20 grade. Damage to cartilage in his knee ruined his season in 1980. He came back the following year. He moved up to senior and made his debut against University B.
Within a matter of weeks he was in the Otago team, and made his debut against Bay of Plenty at Whakatane.
"Bay of Plenty was a pretty good side back then. They had Frank Shelford, Greg Rowlands, Eddie Stokes and Kevin Everleigh. I was ushering a ball across the sideline and it had already gone out when I was late-tackled by Kevin Everleigh. He said to me ‘Welcome to the big boys’.
"But later in the game he made a beeline for me but I managed to get a nice ball away to Neil Purvis. I ran past Everleigh and said ‘too slow, old man’."
That was a good year for Kenny as Southern won the club title. It repeated the next year but Kenny missed the season because of a dislocated shoulder.
He returned the next year with Otago. This was the first year Laurie Mains coached the Otago team.
Kenny was to be a mainstay of the side from then until his retirement.
The halfback was a key to the Otago game with his big boot and lengthy pass.Kenny said those skills were from nothing special.
"When I was at Palmerston North Boys’ High School I was always the first one to training. The first five, he would want to go and play touch with the boys. But I would work on my passing, 30 minutes on my left, 30 minutes on my right. I was lucky enough too to play with some top first five-eighths.
"Guys like Barry Haig, John Haggart, Lindsay Smith. It was totally ingrained in those days. And just the way the game was played. Everything was slapped back, came off the top. You did not have the same time with the ball. You had to be really instinctive."
Under Mains, Otago started to improve and Kenny was a key part of that.
In the first couple of years with Mains he shared the halfback role with David Kirk, but in the end Mains preferred Kenny.
Otago had some mighty victories at Carisbrook and the crowds started coming back. There was the beating of Auckland in 1985, after it had won the Ranfurly Shield.
Kenny, though, admitted he was always fighting internal demons.
"I always thought I could have played a lot better. When I was growing up, I wanted to play that perfect game. Every single time. But of course you never achieve that ... but that is the psyche that some of us had at the time."
Kenny soon came into national calculations but it was a logjam at halfback.
Eventually, though, he was selected, along with Kirk, to tour France. He played in three midweek matches and sat on the bench behind Kirk.
Kenny said it was great to be an All Black but there was always that feeling he did not appreciate the national selection enough.
"I just felt I did not give enough respect to the jersey ... I do not think I made enough of it, even today. But being an All Black, it is pretty special. But at the time I didn’t appreciate it. I should have treated it a little bit different. I’m really grateful for it and I deserved to be an All Black."
Kenny missed out on the World Cup squad the following year but kept plugging away for Otago.
But in 1989, aged 28 and with his left shoulder "munted", Kenny had no option but to give the game away. He was wearing a harness also worn by Kiwis league skipper Mark Graham but his shoulder suffered a severe dislocation.
"It was really tough to give up. But the great thing about it was, when you look back, the great opportunity it opened up for me. I had the second bite of the cherry at life."
He went to Spain, where he coached, and then headed to the United States, where he coached and dabbled in playing.
But he still wanted to do something along medical lines and ended up at the Palmer College of Chiropractic in Iowa.
A four-year degree was helped by a scholarship that included coaching and playing rugby across the United States.
After finishing the degree he moved to Wigan, in England. His sister Tracey was married to All Black and Kiwis international Frano Botica, who played for the Wigan league side.
He stayed there for more than a decade, treating all the top league players and enjoying life in the north of England.
In 2005 he returned to New Zealand with his new wife, Amanda, who hails from Wales.
He now lives on the North Shore. He coached three club rugby sides but is now helping his daughters, Nia (20) and Brooke (16). He is set to become a grandfather next year.
Nia wants to follow in her father’s footsteps and become a chiropractor, while Brooke is a talented tennis player.Kenny said, looking back, it was a privilege to play for Otago.
"Laurie [Mains] was a very loyal coach. Not very many people warmed to Laurie but you just look at all the guys who played a hundred games for Otago in that time. They had come through and were great ambassadors for Otago.
"That team in the ’80s has some special players and special people. The team kind of changed the way Otago was seen. How the union grew from there. You look at the Highlanders and all that now and that is where that team spirit came from. There were great days."
