Bernard John Fanning

A century ago Canterbury stalwart Bernie Fanning was regarded as having the ideal build for locking the 2-3-2 scrum. He was 90kg and below 1.83m in height but for the age that was a relatively big man and moreover his barrel-like chest equipped him admirably for the key pushing/locking role required in his position.

Fanning worked as a blacksmith and that gave him natural strength.

He played senior rugby as a 19-year for the Kaiapoi club in 1894 but the following year moved from the country into Christchurch, where he became a mainstay of the Linwood club.

Between 1895 and 1904 Fanning played 56 games for Canterbury, which was a phenomenal tally for the time and in the heavier programmes of recent years would have been well over a century of appearances. As well as Canterbury he made half a dozen appearances for Wellington in 1896, spending that season in the capital playing for another of New Zealand's famed pioneering clubs, Poneke.

Fanning had been a South Island player in 1897, 1902 and 1903 before winning national honours when he was a relative veteran. He made the tour of Australia in 1903 and in what was a landmark tour proved invaluable with his consistency and dedicated work in the tight.

He played in eight of the 10 matches and was in the side which played New Zealand's first recognised official international: the 22-3 win over Australia in Sydney.

After appearing for a combined Canterbury-West Coast-South Cantebury selection against the touring Great Britain side Fanning retained his place for the first offiicial international played in New Zealand: the 9-3 win over the tourists at Athletic Park in 1904.

Fanning was by then 29 and dropped out of the game that season. His younger brother, Alfred, also a lock, followed him into the national side, playing against the Autralians in 1913. Another of his brothers, Leo, was a prominent journalist and in 1910 wrote a whimsical book about rugby which has remained readable today, "Players and Stayers".

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