{"id":1016,"date":"2014-09-12T12:08:11","date_gmt":"2014-09-12T00:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bullerrugby.co.nz\/?p=1016"},"modified":"2014-09-12T12:08:11","modified_gmt":"2014-09-12T00:08:11","slug":"big-record-goes-to-smallest-rugby-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bullerrugby.co.nz\/wp2\/2014\/09\/12\/big-record-goes-to-smallest-rugby-union\/","title":{"rendered":"Big record goes to smallest rugby union"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"luke_brownlee\"<\/a>BULLER’S BRAVEST:<\/strong> Loose forward Luke Brownlee will enter the New Zealand rugby records books on Saturday with the most consecutive first class appearances.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Luke Brownlee isn’t a household name in New Zealand rugby but perhaps he should be.<\/p>\n

The openside flanker plays for the country’s smallest province, Buller, but is breaking one of New Zealand rugby’s more remarkable records.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow against South Canterbury he will make the most consecutive first class appearances, racking up 138 in the cardinal and blue jersey.<\/p>\n

A Buller legend since pulling on the No 7 jersey back in 1999 – no-one else has worn it – he usually plays the full 80 minutes.<\/p>\n

Brownlee will take the record off Marlborough lock Ray Sutherland and Buller No 8 Tom Stuart.<\/p>\n

Brownlee and Stuart actually played together for a year, so to find a Buller programme without one of their names goes back to 1985.<\/p>\n

A true grassroots man, it will also be his 163rd appearance for Buller in a row, but not all the games were given first class status.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old reckons he still has a few games left in him as he wants to celebrate fellow loosie Bruce McIlroy’s 50th game.<\/p>\n

Brownlee hates the spotlight and grudgingly made himself available for an interview, only because it would help his small union get some exposure.<\/p>\n

His first game was a Seddon Shield challenge against Marlborough.<\/p>\n

“I remember putting on the jersey and thinking ‘I own it and someone will have a fight on their hands to take it off me’.”<\/p>\n

He laughs when he thinks that it was 15 years ago.<\/p>\n

“There will be a young buck out there one day who wants it, but not yet. I still get a thrill out of it.”<\/p>\n

Brownlee admits for many years it was a battle playing for Buller.<\/p>\n

At the start he remembers the occasional win but the past couple of seasons have delivered the highlights.<\/p>\n

“Winning the Lochore Cup in 2012 and taking the Seddon Shield off West Coast earlier in the season was a first for me.”<\/p>\n

In fact it was the first time for 22 years Buller had made a successful challenge.<\/p>\n

Brownlee said the turnaround started under coach Johnny Smith and the two Craigs (current coaches Scanlon and Neil) had made a big difference.<\/p>\n

The dairy farmer credits his wife Kathryn’s understanding for his longevity in the game.<\/p>\n

“I love it but without her support I wouldn’t be doing it.”<\/p>\n

Staying injury-free has also been a key but Brownlee carries a few battle scars.<\/p>\n

“I guess I’ve just been lucky.”<\/p>\n

Brownlee also finds time to coach his two sons, 10 and eight, in club rugby.<\/p>\n

Buller chief executive Brian Ahern said Brownlee was a very dedicated rugby player and family man.<\/p>\n

“He is quiet and does not seek the limelight and is admired and respected as a rugby player and person.”<\/p>\n

High-flying Buller will be hoping their talisman can stay injury free, as they are unbeaten so far in the Heartland Championships with three wins and sit a point behind South Canterbury, who they face tomorrow.<\/p>\n

The sides have clashed in the past two Lochore Cup finals (for fifth to eighth) and are one apiece.<\/p>\n

Since the Heartland Championships began Buller have never made the top four, so will be hoping at least one other record disappears in five weeks’ time.<\/p>\n

by\u00a0STU PIDDINGTON<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0http:\/\/www.stuff.co.nz\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BULLER’S BRAVEST: Loose forward Luke Brownlee will enter the New Zealand rugby records books on Saturday with the most consecutive first class appearances. Luke…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18,20,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buller-ru","category-heartland-championship","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bullerrugby.co.nz\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/luke_brownlee.jpg?fit=600%2C900&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8xFmW-go","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bullerrugby.co.nz\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bullerrugby.co.nz\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bullerrugby.co.nz\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bullerrugby.co.nz\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bullerrugby.co.nz\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bullerrugby.co.nz\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bullerrugby.co.nz\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bullerrugby.co.nz\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bullerrugby.co.nz\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bullerrugby.co.nz\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}