NEW BALANCE MADE IN UK 574URB

Exfootballers and the hotel trade are hardly strangers in this country and, in this, Kent Lambert fits the type.

His journey, though, from test rugby front row to smalltown publican in his native province of Hawkes Bay contains a significant difference from the route travelled by the fellows of his day.

The onetest Wellington threequarter Owen Stephens had made this move in the early 1970s, but Lambert's decision in late 1977 was seen as far more significant at a time when the first talk of setting up professional rugby began to emerge. Even as Lambert signed for Penrith, Auckland broadcaster Tim Bickerstaff approached him about joining a proposed prorugby setup.

How times have changed. With the arrival yesterday of the expansive and expensive Lions tour party the first professional Lions team to these shores Lambert's story is as good as any for those who like to reflect on rugby's officially amateur era.

As the 53yearold Lambert sits in a back room at his Waipawa pub and recalls his playing career, it is easy to get a feel for the strange mix of competitiveness and camaraderie which filled the game in his day.

One of his favourite stories concerns Irish prop Ray McLoughlin, whom Lambert scrummed against on the short 1974 tour.

The McLoughlinled Connacht scrum dealt to the All Blacks at Galway. Over beers that night, McLoughlin gave Lambert, who had played tighthead, an impromptu lesson.

Turn your cheek to the right, McLoughlin suggested, so as to split the opposing loosehead from his hooker and force him to push in a disadvantageous direction. McLoughlin also encouraged Lambert not to lead into the engagement, and said he would also get more power by placing his feet further forward.

The amazing thing about this was that the All Blacks were playing Ireland just three days later, where Lambert would once again be propping against McLoughlin, his willing tutor.

McLoughlin should hardly have been in a helpful mood, having been put out of the 1971 Lions campaign in New Zealand by an injury suffered in the infamous Canterbury assault on the tourists.

Lambert says: "He was the best I scrummed against. A small man, but his back would be bent and then snap he'd straighten it and drive you back 2m.

"No one in Ireland was listening to his ideas and I think he was just happy that someone did.

"I used it against him in the test and we wrecked their scrum.

"Walking through the little gate off Lansdowne Park he said 'oh, you listened to me'. I said 'I had to you're the best'. I've never met him since."

From his test debut as a 20yearold on the 197273 Northern Hemisphere tour, Lambert had become a cornerstone of a great Manawatu pack and the strongman of the All Black scrum.

After playing in the winning first test against the 1977 Lions in Wellington, he missed the next two after having his appendix removed. During this layoff he commented on the financial strain players such as himself were suffering. He returned for the Eden Park test where the series victory was sealed.

He recalls an excruciating incident from the first test of that series. Having had a back injury rubbed down with a fiery ointment, Lambert found it had mixed with his sweat and travelled to a sensitive part of the male anatomy.

"I was trying to concentrate marking Phil Orr, and there's a red hot feeling there. It took 20 minutes to wear off. It was hard work concentrating, I can tell you," he says.

He only vaguely recalls the threeman scrum the All Blacks packed down in the fourth test, which came as the All Blacks attempted to get Bill Bush on for the injured John McEldowney.

Captain Tane Horton said later that the All Blacks who were under the hammer from Fran Cotton, Graham Price and co in the scrums during the series had practised the move "a couple of times", although Norton was reluctant to use it.

Exfootballers and the hotel trade are hardly strangers in this country and, in this, Kent Lambert fits the type.

His journey, though, from test rugby front row to smalltown publican in his native province of Hawkes Bay contains a significant difference from the route travelled by the fellows of his day.

The onetest Wellington threequarter Owen Stephens had made this move in the early 1970s, but Lambert's decision in late 1977 was seen as far more significant at a time when the first talk of setting up professional rugby began to emerge. Even as Lambert signed for Penrith, Auckland broadcaster Tim Bickerstaff approached him about joining a proposed prorugby setup.

How times have changed. With the arrival yesterday of the expansive and expensive Lions tour party the first professional Lions team to these shores Lambert's story is as good as any for those who like to reflect on rugby's officially amateur era.

As the 53yearold Lambert sits in a back room at his Waipawa pub and recalls his playing career, it is easy to get a feel for the strange mix of competitiveness and camaraderie which filled the game in his day.

One of his favourite stories concerns Irish prop Ray McLoughlin, whom Lambert scrummed against on the short 1974 tour.

The McLoughlinled Connacht scrum dealt to the All Blacks at Galway. Over beers that night, McLoughlin gave Lambert, who had played tighthead, an impromptu lesson.

Turn your cheek to the right, McLoughlin suggested, so as to split the opposing loosehead from his hooker and force him to push in a disadvantageous direction. McLoughlin also encouraged Lambert not to lead into the engagement, and said he would also get more power by placing his feet further forward.

The amazing thing about this was that the All Blacks were playing Ireland just three days later, where Lambert would once again be propping against McLoughlin, his willing tutor.

McLoughlin should hardly have been in a helpful mood, having been put out of the 1971 Lions campaign in New Zealand by an injury suffered in the infamous Canterbury assault on the tourists.

Lambert says: "He was the best I scrummed against. A small man, but his back would be bent and then snap he'd straighten it and drive you back 2m.

"No one in Ireland was listening to his ideas and I think he was just happy that someone did.

"I used it against him in the test and we wrecked their scrum.

"Walking through the little gate off Lansdowne Park he said 'oh, you listened to me'. I said 'I had to you're the best'. I've never met him since."

From his test debut as a 20yearold on the 197273 Northern Hemisphere tour, Lambert had become a cornerstone of a great Manawatu pack and the strongman of the All Black scrum.

After playing in the winning first test against the 1977 Lions in Wellington, he missed the next two after having his appendix removed. During this layoff he commented on the financial strain players such as himself were suffering. He returned for the Eden Park test where the series victory was sealed.

He recalls an excruciating incident from the first test of that series. Having had a back injury rubbed down with a fiery ointment, Lambert found it had mixed with his sweat and travelled to a sensitive part of the male anatomy.

"I was trying to concentrate marking Phil Orr, and there's a red hot feeling there. It took 20 minutes to wear off. It was hard work concentrating, I can tell you," he says.

He only vaguely recalls the threeman scrum the All Blacks packed down in the fourth test, which came as the All Blacks attempted to get Bill Bush on for the injured John McEldowney.

Captain Tane Horton said later that the All Blacks who were under the hammer from Fran Cotton, Graham Price and co in the scrums during the series had practised the move "a couple of times", although Norton was reluctant to use it.