Tony Kreft Obituary, Death – Former All Blacks head coach for New Zealand tests Laurie Mains paid tribute to late All Blacks prop Tony Kreft, calling him “one of the best team spirit men” in rugby and calling him the “cornerstone” of the Otago pack. Last Friday, Kreft passed away in Dunedin at the age of 78. His death came a day after Roy Roper, who had held the record for the longest-living All Black, passed away in New Plymouth at the age of 100.
located in Ranfurly On the 1968 tour, Kreft played in four games for the All Blacks, including one test. He did so while sharing the field with some of the best All Blacks to emerge from the amateur ranks, like as Colin Meads, Ian Kirkpatrick, and Chris Laidlaw. Mains, who played with Kreft for Otago, stated that he “probably would have” gained more caps had it not been for the fact that the New Zealand front row at that period was so strong and that it would have been very tough to break in. “He played a lot of rugby for Otago, and he was the cornerstone of the scrum in the years I played with him,” Mains said on Monday.
“He also played a lot of rugby for other teams.” “However, even more impressive than that, he would have been one of the best team spirit men for a rugby team to have on their squad.”He was the kind of person who would never speak ill of another person, and I never once heard someone speak ill of him. “He always had a smile on his face and was the life of the party. In those days, we went on a lot of vacations, and he would sit in the middle of the back set and very much supervise everything that happened.
