{"id":204212,"date":"2025-10-11T00:34:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T00:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/204212\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T00:34:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T00:34:14","slug":"why-george-bower-said-damn-when-called-up-to-the-all-blacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/204212\/","title":{"rendered":"Why George Bower said ‘damn’ when called up to the All Blacks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

George Bower is an accomplished Super Rugby prop, a seasoned NPC veteran and a 24-Test All Black. But up until last weekend\u2019s Bledisloe Cup game in Perth, he had never scored a try in professional rugby.<\/p>\n

The 33-year-old has played 147 games as a first-class rugby player in New Zealand, won more than a handful of Super Rugby titles and continues to be a fringe All Black, earning frequent call-ups when another body is needed in the national setup.<\/p>\n

While he\u2019s contributed to some great teams, he\u2019s never done so on the scoreboard, something that he was all too aware of coming into the 2025 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the start of the year, I was gaining on 80 Crusaders<\/a> games, and I was telling my front-row friends like Fletcher Newell<\/a>, Tamaiti (Williams), \u2018I have to score a try for the Crusaders this season\u2019,\u201d the Wellington-born prop told Israel<\/a> Dagg and Scotty Stevenson on Sport Nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt even got to the point where in work-ons, I would practice my close-quarters work around the tryline, to really try and get in there, practising footwork, and still nothing came.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went down to Otago, and they found out, so they had a set move planned for me, and I was about to play that weekend, but I got called up for the All Blacks<\/a>. I was like, \u2018damn.\u2019 So I didn\u2019t play that game, either.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen, obviously, the Bledisloe happened, and I got called up for that, and I was just hungry, I was hungry for a try. How cool would it be to score my first-ever try at the international level? And fortunately enough for me, it happened. A blessing, bro.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Ireland <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

New Zealand <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

While Bower, known as one of the most jovial characters in the Kiwi game, has had some injury troubles in his career, the fact that he had never scored a try up until the final round of this year\u2019s Rugby Championship<\/a> took many by surprise.<\/p>\n

Now with a five-pointer to his name, Bower is clinging to every moment of the memory.<\/p>\n

\u201cPushing the ball over the line, it was just slow motion, as everyone always says,\u201d he recalled. \u201cOnce I realised I was over the line, my bounce to get up straight away was so quick. I think Pasi (Tosi) was still on the ground, but I was already up celebrating for 10 seconds or something. It was crazy.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as I heard the ref\u2019s whistle, I was over the moon. And then Rieks (Ioane) came, he started hugging me, and I just started yelling out, \u2018My first try! My first try!\u2019, and then all the boys started coming in.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was definitely a memory that will stay with me forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

The score was just reward for Bower\u2019s perseverance, having split his time between the NPC and the international game without the benefit of continuity in either camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first, I did find it quite hard. Bouncing around from Otago<\/a> back up to All Blacks, and then from All Blacks back to Otago. You have to live out of your bag a lot, and you have to ask people \u2018Can I crash in your room for a night?\u2019 or, \u2018Can I crash at your house for a few weeks?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I told myself and my partner, and my family, that wherever I am, I\u2019m going to spread my love and spread my energy, and just do it with 100 per cent. And that\u2019s what helped me change that mindset and just be grateful for wherever I am. At the same time, be competitive, but grateful, and just spread my energy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Bower is an accomplished Super Rugby prop, a seasoned NPC veteran and a 24-Test All Black. But…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-204212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}