Belfast celebrate book launch of local legend

Belfast celebrated the launch of Belfast and Canterbury Rugby life member Billy Bush’s book last night, with the book delving into the amazing career of Bush, who played 101 games for Canterbury over 11 years.

Bush has maintained a strong affiliation to Canterbury and Belfast, in recent years as the Club Patron for the Canterbury Rugby Supporters Club.

Born in Hawke's Bay, Bush played his early senior rugby in both the Bay of Plenty and Northland before venturing south to Canterbury, playing all of his provincial rugby for Canterbury.

After excelling for Canterbury in a 1972 Ranfurly Shield success, Bush got his first recognition at national level with the first of six selections for the South Island and for the 1973 New Zealand Maori tour of the Pacific Islands. He formed a formidable Maori front row with Tane Norton and Kent Lambert, both by then already All Blacks.

Bush won promotion to the All Blacks when he was one of several newcomers introduced for the 1974 tour of Australia and Fiji. He played the first two tests against the Wallabies and for the next five years was a regular choice for All Blacks though not always assured of test selections.

He toured Ireland in 1974, South Africa in 1976, was in the Grand Slam tour of Britain in 1978, where he was plagued by a hamstring injury but still played in the internationals against Ireland and Wales, and got the last of his 12 caps against Australia in 1979.

Bush's greatest contribution to the All Blacks was probably on the 1976 tour of South Africa when injuries to other props such as Kerry Tanner and Brad Johnstone saw him at one period play nine consecutive matches.

Bush was penalised in the final few minutes for a supposed lineout offence to concede a narrow loss to the Springboks in the fourth test and that was hardly fair reward for the big effort he had made during that series.

After his All Black career had ended Bush continued to be a mainstay of New Zealand Maori sides and his swansong to major rugby was with them on the 1982 tour of Wales. The highlght of Bush's many games for the Maori was as captain of the side which battled to a 12-all draw with the Springboks in Napier. But for a wrong decision to award the Springboks a late dropped goal the Bush-led Maori side may have become the only side on that tour outside the All Blacks to have gained a win over the Springboks.

In the 1980s and 90s Bush resumed his ties with Maori rugby as a coach and selector of the national side and in the early 2000s was president of the Canterbury union.

His book is available from today at all good book retailers.