TREMAIN—A CENTURY OF TRIES

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31094, 24 June 1966, Page 13

TREMAIN—A CENTURY OF TRIES

Even if he had not done enough to earn that distinction, K. R. Tremain joined the immortals of New Zealand Rugby on Wednesday.

The first of the two tries the All Black flnaker scored for Hawke’s Bay against East Coast was his hundredth in first-class matches.

He is only the third New Zealander to win this: distinction and the first forward. Probably no forward anywhere else in the world has been such a prolific try-scorer. The only other New Zealanders to score 100 tries in first-class matches were both left-wings of the same period. R. A. Jarden (Wellington) scored 145 tries between 1949 and 1957, and R. M. Smith 104 between 1948 and 1960. Smith also holds the record for a union, having scored 94 tries for Canterbury in the same period; Jarden scored 70 for Wellington. Four forwards, besides Tremain, have scored 50 tries or more in first-class Rugby: P. F. Jones 66, C. E. Meads 63, A. J. Pryor 58, and W. J. Whineray 50.

Tremain has scored 26 tries for New Zealand, seven of them in tests, and his complete total is more than all but a dozen backs in New Zealand history. Tremain made his debut in first-class Rugby for Southland in 1957 and in succeeding years has played for Manawatu (1958), Canterbury (1959, 1961), Auckland (1960) and Hawke’s Bay (1962-66). He has also toured Hong Kong and Japan (1958) with a New Zealand un-der-23 team; California (1961-62) with New Zealand Universities; and, with the All Blacks, South Africa (1960), Australia (1960, 1962), and the British Isles, France and Canada (1963-64).

He also took part in the South African Jubilee games in 1964. Tremain’s record, season-by* season, with matches play, ed in parenthesis, is:— 1957 (10), 2; 1958 (16), 6; 1959 (15), 10; 1960 (20), 9; 1961 (11), 9; 1961-62 (8), 8; 1962 (19), 9; 1963 (16), 12; 1963-64 (22), 10; 1964 (17), 6; 1965 (17), 17; 1966 (—). Last season, Tremain also kicked a goal from a mark for Hawke’s Bay. The five tries he scored for Hawke’s Bay in a single game against East Coast in 1963 is a record for a forward.