Andrew Hore on the charge for the All Blacks against Ireland in 2013. PHOTO/GETTY IMAGES
By Gary Caffell
Former All Black Andrew Hore has been confirmed as the guest speaker for the 2017 Wairarapa Times-Age sports awards presentation function at Copthorne Hotel and Resort, Solway Park on Wednesday,
June 7.
Hore made his debut in his specialist role of hooker for the AB’s in 2002 and went on to make 83 appearances for his country during an 11-year international career which included being part of the 2011 Rugby World Cup winning side.
He also tasted success in Bledisloe Cup fixtures with Australia on numerous occasions and New Zealand were unbeaten in the last 28 tests he played, a then record for any individual player.
In his final season of international rugby in 2013 the AB’s became the first side in the professional era to go through an entire calendar year unbeaten.
On the Super Rugby front Hore made 141 appearances, more than 100 of them for the Hurricanes and had stints with the Crusaders and Highlanders as well.
Hore was also part of a Taranaki team which won arguably the country’s top domestic trophy, the Ranfurly Shield.
In fact, he represented Taranaki from 2001 through to his “retirement” in 2013.
Since then he’s answered SOS calls from Southland in 2014 and Otago last year, appearing for the latter in last season’s Mitre 10 Cup championship final.
It was Otago for which he had his debut on the provincial scene in 1998.
Hore was awarded the highest individual honour in New Zealand rugby, the Kelvin Tremain Memorial Trophy for the country’s most outstanding player, in 2008 and his leadership skills saw him given the captaincy of the All Blacks, the Hurricanes and Highlanders at various times during his distinguished career.
He has also represented the internationally-renowned Barbarians and continues to play for his beloved home club, the Maniototo Maggots, having turned down several offers to play off-shore.
These days Andrew Hore is a fulltime farmer on his family’s 32,000 acre station near Patearoa in Central Otago.
