{"id":296069,"date":"2023-05-13T03:02:58","date_gmt":"2023-05-13T03:02:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=296069"},"modified":"2023-05-13T04:58:17","modified_gmt":"2023-05-13T04:58:17","slug":"all-blacks-greatest-centre-in-history-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=296069","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks&#039; &#039;greatest centre in history&#039; dies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/all-blacks\" title=\"All Blacks\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">All Blacks<\/a> legend Bruce Robertson has died, age 71, after a lengthy illness.<\/p>\n<p>The centre made 34 test appearances for New Zealand and 102 in total between 1972 and 1981.<\/p>\n<p>He was a constant at club Counties Manukau and was part of the National Provincial Championship-winning effort in 1979.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Watch the 2023 Super Rugby Pacific season on the home of rugby, Stan Sport. <\/strong><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/9.nine.com.au\/KRnrlm\"><em><strong>All matches streaming ad free, live and on demand<\/strong><\/em><\/a><em><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Robertson later took up coaching, assisting the Blues in Super 12 and Northland in the National Provincial Championship.<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"c5759b13-c82b-4241-86f8-cf57c77d3af7\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/c5759b13-c82b-4241-86f8-cf57c77d3af7\" alt=\"NSW centre John Wetherstone makes an effective tackle of his opposite number Bruce Robertson in the NSW vs All Blacks game on May 18, 1974.\" data-width=\"2943\" data-height=\"1962\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A statement from the family read, &quot;Bruce&#x27;s whanau would like to acknowledge and thank everyone for their love and support at this time.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>The Counties Manukau Rugby Football Union said Robertson was famed for his &quot;speed, silky skills and ability to beat defenders with his trademark swerve&quot; and is &quot;considered by many as the greatest centre in New Zealand rugby history.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>He was voted the greatest player in the history of the club by a panel of judges in 2020.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CountiesRugby\/status\/1657180495380185089\" rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"embed-social embed-twitter\">https:\/\/twitter.com\/CountiesRugby\/status\/1657180495380185089<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&quot;We are terribly sad to hear of the passing of one of Counties Manukau&#x27;s greatest All Blacks,&quot; said Counties Manukau Rugby Football Union chief executive Aaron Lawton.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Bruce was an iconic player and a true rugby servant.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&quot;He leaves a lasting legacy at our union and would have been incredibly proud to watch his grandson Jadin pull on the hoops last year.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;We are working with his family now to confirm a service at Navigation Homes Stadium and will release details as soon as possible.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Robertson is survived by wife Nellie and their six children.<\/p>\n<p>Jadin Kingi, grandson of Robertson, currently plays for Counties Manukau.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by <\/strong><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/login.nine.com.au\/edm?client_id=wwos&amp;redirect_uri=https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au&amp;newsletter=true\"><em><strong>clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a><em><strong>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>All Blacks legend Bruce Robertson has died, age 71, after a lengthy illness. The centre made 34 test appearances for New Zealand and 102 in <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=296069\" title=\"All Blacks&#039; &#039;greatest centre in history&#039; dies\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":296071,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296069"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=296069"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":296072,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296069\/revisions\/296072"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/296071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=296069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=296069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=296069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}