Any sports trivia quiz show in which a contestant might be asked to name all of the players in the Baby Blacks side which beat France in 1986 is bound to provide one or two stumbling blocks.

Even the keenest rugby buff would probably have to stretch their memory banks to name one of the loose forwards, Brett Harvey from Wairarapa-Bush. Most of the Baby Blacks went onto celebrated careers, the likes of John Kirwan, Joe Stanley, David Kirk, Frano Botica and Sean Fitzpatrick or else a significant role in either the All Blacks or provincially: Greg Cooper, Terry Wright, Arthur Stone, Mike Brewer, Andy Earl, Kevin Boroevich and Brian McGrattan.

But Harvey, like the Otago lock Gordon MacPherson and the Auckland loose forward Mark Brooke-Cowden who the following year turned to league, has been quickly forgotten. Harvey and Macpherson were both forced out of the next “Baby Blacks” test against Australia with injuries and the game against the French in Christchurch was to be their one and only All Black appearance.

However, the rangy blindside flanker Harvey who was 1.91m tall but relatively light at 92kg acquitted himself well and with Brewer and Brooke-Cowden he was effective in the loose despite the problems up front of a considerably outweighed tight five.

After attending Palmerston North Boys High and playing in 1981 for Manawatu Colts Harvey commenced his representative career with Wairarapa-Bush in 1983. In six seasons until 1988 Harvey played for the union 80 times and was a key member of a side which for much of the time boxed above its weight by playing with credit in the NPC first division.

Harvey’s efforts undoubtedly won the approval of the great man of Wairarapa-Bush rugby, Brian Lochore who was on the All Black selection panel from 1983 and the coach in 1985-87. Lochore and later Lane Penn were the two coaches who performed against the odds to keep tiny Wairarapa-Bush at the top for so long.

Harvey received an All Black trial in 1984, made the NZ Emerging Players in 1985 making three appearances on an internal tour and had another trial and came on as a replacement for the North Island in 1986 before in the absence of the suspended Cavaliers winning his cap.

The return from suspension of other specialist blindside flankers such as Mark Shaw and Alan Whetton, and the edge Earl had as a utility, saw Harvey inevitably slide down the national pecking order. But he had another trial in 1987 and played twice that year in the inaugural George Nepia Trophy tournament for Central zone, a side chosen from unions in the bottom half of the North Island or what has become the Hurricanes Super 12 catchment area.

Harvey’s father, Neil, was an accomplished No 8 at provincial level for Manawatu. He played 24 first class games in 1954-56, including Manawatu-Horowhenua’s match against the 1956 Springboks.

Profile by Lindsay Knight
for the New Zealand Rugby Museum.

ALL BLACK GAMES THAT HARVEY PLAYED

(+) = substitute; (-) = replaced

1986