Brad Thorn became the first player in history to win a Super Rugby title, World Cup and European Cup title when Leinster beat Ulster in the Heineken Cup final at Twickenham on the weekend. All up he's won 3 NRL championships , State of Origin series wins, Bledisloe Cup wins, Tri Nations Championships, NPC titles along with 2 Super Rugby titles, a Rugby World Cup title and now the European Cup. Quite an illustrious career he's had.
Legend. how long will he still play as i thing during his heyday him and bakkies were always a great contest to watch.
Did he have any help in winning these titles?
I remember this thug for his dropping of John Smit from a dizzy hight in full view of the ref (was it Dickinson) and getting off without a problem - should have been a red. Very average player who was regulalry gobbled up by Bakkies,. No contest really. Poor Bakkies though did battle as he had the work of 2 locks to do as wee victoria was trying to feature unsuccessfully in our backline.
Braaaaad was one of those players who flew under the radar and it was thus assumed he was doing the real job.
Hahahahhahahahaha - please black udder don't come and idolise the very average ou brad here. To be fair to you many here unfortunately idolise the even worse matfield(at least brad was a lock) and nothing will get these oaks to see sense. Its like sapster and chilli boy. Cast in concrete stuff.
Beeno I think that is quite an unfair evaluation of Brad. To me he was one of the better enforcer type Locks in th past years. Yes Bakkies had his number on a few occasions and vice versathe one that cannot acknowledge that is short sighted or one eyed perhaps. This guy is a legend man, nothing you can take away from that. I would not have minded having him in my team at all.
Brad Thorn is the most overrated lock around, had no skills at all and was meant to be a hard man - hardly the biggest and most physical guy about. Dont get what the AB's saw in him
Well lets not be too hard on poor Brad as he is a hero at least to black udder.
Yeah another 110kg, 1.96m enforcer!!!
Thorn was more valuable to the ABs than Bakkies to the Boks, and outplayed him as often as not. A great player with a real sense of the game, albeit a bit dirty.....but hardly as dirty as Bakkies
Enjoy the wind up Moz I am out of here! hahahhahahaha
Oh no Beeny my fairy friend - another Kiwi success story - i can see you pulling yr hair out and reaching for yr meds lol - don't come around here posting stuff like that ? haha who the fk are you? I'll post what i want you muppet.
Ag man BA. Pay no mind to the forums deluded sour poes. He thinks he's controversial espousing his anti kiwi rhetoric on a SA'n rugby site but the truth is he's no more subversive than a pro apartheid activist at a national front rally.
Yep Nuke you've hit the nuclear button on the head.
Brad Thorn was a very average rugby player who was passed off as a hard nut, not sure why given his physical make-up, but lets take it as a given he was a strong chap. Good rugby player he was not. You hardly saw him take a line-out ball and very seldom saw him with ball in hand or putting in big hits.
I really dont know what people saw in him. No better than a Johan Muller or Ackerman. Bakkies was ten times the player
I can understand that Throrn had his supporters - but he is really past it at 37 years of age. He veered between Union and League Ruby and he played over the years for longer periods for League (11 years as against 6 years) . Instead of building up an outstanding career in either he would be remembered as a good lock - as against an outstanding one. he played 12 tests in 2003-2005 - before going back to play League rugby for the Queensland Broncos - and only played for New Zealand from 2008-2011. He thus only played Union rugby for six years in total - the first three when he was between 28 and 30 years old - and the last three from 33 to 36 years of age. In both cases he was too old to make a real impression - other than at times being a dirty player - i can remember the Smith episode very well, but there were also other cases where he should have been sent off and banned for weeks on end.
Be it as it may - he was a good lock forward - but I fail to see how he can be regarded as a top hero in Rugby Union.
Amazing player one of the hardest working warriors in the game
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viGTpF0KxDA&feature=g-u-u
Not much rugby in that clip, about says it all as a rugby player
Lets hope take 3 is out soon, for that last endorsement just confirmed how average he was. Hell a few high tackles, a good few cheap shots, the odd flop over the line and many fights.......wow what a player!!!! When they ran out of rugby footage we were treated to an average gym session by a hardly impressive man in the physical stakes.
But thanks for the link Al, proved my point exactly
I guess he was just in the right place at the right time then ;) - another opinion perhaps...
Patrick McKendry lists five reasons why Brad Thorn must now be regarded as one of New Zealand's greatest athletes.
1. Success
First things first. Thorn has just won a European Cup with Irish club Leinster in front of 82,000 supporters at Twickenham. Also in his bulging CV are a World Cup with the All Blacks, a Super Rugby title with the Crusaders and several NRL titles with the Brisbane Broncos. He played State of Origin league with Queensland and internationals with the Kangaroos. He is the first man in history to win a Rugby World Cup, Super Rugby title and a European Cup, Europe's biggest club prize. His success rate is extraordinary and his latest comes after a 16-month non-stop stretch of rugby. After winning the World Cup with the All Blacks, he travelled to Japan to play for the Fukuoka Sanix Blues and was loaned to Leinster. "I just love my footy," he said. No kidding. And before the Aussies try to claim another one, yes, he is a Kiwi. Brad Carnegie Thorn was born in Mosgiel on February 3, 1975 and moved to Australia with his family aged eight.
2. Longevity
At 37, Thorn became the oldest player in a European Cup final and shows no signs of stopping. He has rarely been bothered by serious injuries, despite the manner in which he throws himself about on the pitch. One of the most frustrating for him was a foot injury at the Crusaders in 2010 which caused him to modify his footwear. He has been a professional footballer since 1994 when he made his debut as a 19-year-old for the Broncos - he was named rookie of the year. He played 200 games for the Broncos over eight years, 14 times for Queensland and eight times for Australia. He played 59 tests for the All Blacks, 92 times for the Crusaders, 30 times for Canterbury and once for Tasman. He has spoken of his anxiety about facing life after rugby and it's probably partly fear, along with his huge ambition and durability, which has kept him in the game for so long.3. Example
Although sportspeople shouldn't necessarily be considered role models in every sense, they do inevitably play a part and Thorn plays his better than most. He didn't like the way his life was heading when, as a league player in his 20s, he let the lifestyle go to his head so he gave up drinking to excess and converted to Christianity. He's not a complete teetotaller - Guinness is his favourite tipple which is probably another reason why he is enjoying his Irish experience so much, but only when celebrating and only one or two. Known for his fearsome training regimes and work ethic, Thorn is considered the ultimate professional which is why he has enjoyed so much success for so long. He rarely sits still, preferring to stretch his considerable muscles whenever given the opportunity.
4. Adaptability
It might seem surprising, but Thorn struggled when trying to learn his rugby craft for the Crusaders after making the move back from Australia. He was seen as a No 8 initially, but found the position difficult. He was 25, had taken a big pay cut, was living by himself and on the phone to wife Mary Anne back in Brisbane almost every night. It wasn't until he played at lock for Canterbury under current All Blacks coach Steve Hansen that he started to enjoy his rugby. The fact he quickly excelled at lock is all the more extraordinary given the position's core roles are pushing in scrums, leaping in lineouts, and clearing out rucks, all of which don't apply in league. During his latter years in New Zealand he was known as one of the hardest scrummaging locks in the country. One of Hansen's first tasks as All Blacks coach is to find a replacement for Thorn.
5. Character
Thorn is about as single-minded as it gets and yet is always keen to pass on his knowledge to younger players, particularly those in his position when others could see them as a threat. He can be gruff, but has a wicked sense of humour and isn't afraid to open up. Perhaps the last word should go to Leinster coach Joe Schmidt, a fellow New Zealander. "It was a really tough situation for him to come into," Schmidt said of Thorn's arrival at the club. "Other players got us into the final but he got the opportunity to play the quarters, semi and final and he felt a weight of responsibility to do his best to deliver because there were guys who missed out who contributed during the year. He wanted to make sure he did his best to fill in for them and get a result we were looking for and he gave every bit of effort to make sure it happened."
