'I’ve never lived that one down': Eroni Clarke revisits Super Rugby's first season

The influence of the Clarke family has traversed three decades of Super Rugby. Robust centre Saveatama Eroni Clarke played 51 games for the Blues between 1996 and 2000, scoring 18 tries and winning championships in 1996 and 1997.

His son, All Blacks winger Caleb Clarke, has appeared 75 times for the Blues since 2018. He has won 49 games. In 2024, he joined Brumbies and Wallabies winger Mark Gerrard as the only player to score a hat-trick in a final, touching down three times for the Blues in their 41-10 thumping of the Chiefs at Eden Park.

Capped ten times by the All Blacks between 1992 and 1998, Eroni Clarke had a remarkable career for Auckland. He played 150 matches, winning 118 and scoring 72 tries. He won six NPC championships and held the Ranfurly Shield several times.

Among his many highlights, Clarke is especially fond of his role in the first Super Rugby match between the Blues and the Hurricanes in Palmerston North on March 1, 1996. He scored a vital try early in the second half to tie the scores. Later, with the Blues down 28-24, he made a slashing break and passed to Carlos Spencer for a decisive try. The Blues eventually won 36-28.

However, family connections and off-field circumstances made the milestone victory more poignant for Clarke.

“Michael Jones and I didn’t arrive in Palmerston North until the afternoon of the match. The day before, we attended the funeral of Don Oliver, an influential fitness trainer and dear friend to many in West Auckland,” Clarke told RugbyPass.

“It was a huge relief when we won. It was a close, physical game. I remember shedding a tear with Michael afterwards. Don had a huge impact on how I trained and how I mentally approached sports.

Don Oliver was a butcher and weightlifter who won 10 national titles, competed in three Olympic Games, and took gold at the 1966 Kingston Commonwealth Games. In 1975, he opened his first gym, the Don Oliver Health Centre, and later owned six gyms in Auckland. All Black Craig Dowd, who played loosehead prop for the Blues on the opening night of Super Rugby, was also a student of Oliver.

Hurricanes centre Alama Ieremia and No.8 Filo Tiatia are All Blacks and cousins of Clarke. Ieremia gained an early advantage by scoring the first try in Super Rugby history.

“I’ve never lived that one down,” Clarke laughed.

“The Hurricanes were an incredibly competitive team. Remember, Tana Umaga and Christian Cullen weren’t All Blacks until after that season. Bull Allen was their captain. They had a big home behind them.”

The Blues tumbled to an early 16-0 deficit, with fullback Jamie Cameron adding a conversion and three penalties to Ieremia’s early score.

There was little panic among the visitors. With 13 All Blacks in their starting XV, Auckland was the powerhouse of New Zealand rugby at the time. The Blues reduced the deficit to five by halftime, with All Blacks loose forward Andrew Blowers scoring his side’s first try after catching a pass from Fijian international winger Waisake Sotutu. Sotutu’s son Hoskins was an All Black and 2024 Super Rugby winner with the Blues.

Early in the second half, Clarke tied the scores with an unusual try. A Hurricanes scrum five metres from their own line twisted sharply toward the touchline. Blowers quickly ushered Umaga out, and then Blues and All Blacks halfback Junior Tonu’u pounced.

“Junior went across looking to throw to the lineout. No one noticed at first, then we joined eyes. He winked, I winked. Sling. There was the ball. I busted a Christian Cullen tackle, try. Well, maybe I just dived over the line,” Clarke laughed.

Cameron kept the plucky Hurricanes in contention with another four penalties to finish with an individual haul of 23 points. The Blues, however, were better positioned to handle setbacks and achieve long-term success.

Clarke’s 75th-minute break when the Blues were down 28-24 came from a delightful sleight of hand from All Black Lee Stensness, providing Clarke the space to deliver a routine pass to Carlos Spencer.

Nearly three months later, on May 25, 1996, the Blues won the first Super Rugby final, beating the Natal Sharks 45-21 at Eden Park in Auckland.

“I was a Pacific Islands advisor at Unitec when Super Rugby started in 1996. It was pretty surreal going from a full-time job to full-time training,” Clarke recalled.

“We had a week to perfect our moves. In the past, we only had an hour. We didn’t know what to do after lunch on the first Monday.

“Seriously, the Auckland teams of the 90s were almost professional before professionalism even existed. Coach Sir Graham Henry and guys like Sean Fitzpatrick and Zinzan Brooke set incredibly high standards.

“Our trainer was Jim Blair. He revolutionised rugby in New Zealand. We developed a totally new approach to skills training – backs and forwards working together, specific conditioning for each position, and in-game scenarios. Traditionally, everyone had trained the same, run around the field and then run the other way.

“Jim had a beautiful heart, but an intimidating Scottish bark. He’d yell at us, ‘Remember who you are.’”

Clarke was and remains a leader as Pasifika Engagement Manager at New Zealand Rugby.

The Hurricanes weren’t quite as advanced in their identity. March 1, 1996, was a start. Late All Black and pioneering coach Frank Oliver told the New Zealand Rugby Museum.

“We were literally the League of Nations that first year. We had players from all over the shop, eight provinces in all, and none of us really knew what we were doing because the whole thing was new to everybody,” he said.

“Still, those guys were a bloody good bunch to deal with and to coach. For a lot of those players, the Hurricanes had given them a lifeline. They’d come to us on the draft because they weren’t wanted anywhere else. As a result of that, they’d been given a chance they didn’t think they’d get, and so they all pitched in. It started that first night where we gave the Blues a bit of a go.’”

Cameron, who scored 614 points in 75 games for Taranaki, became a successful real estate agent, selling more than $70 million in property. He later moved to Australia for a management role in recruiting, then returned home to work with media company Fairfax and real estate again.

The Hurricanes’ first captain, Bull Allen, was a popular prop. He became a successful television commentator and is now based in Tauranga as a Territory Sales Manager for United Supply Co, which provides piping equipment and support.

Tana Umaga, Roger Randle, Christian Cullen, Dion Waller, Phil Coffin, and Rhys Duggan became new All Blacks, joining Allen, Norm Hewitt, Jon Preston, Filo Tiatia and Dallas Seymour as All Blacks.