Wynne Gray was introduced by Cindy Bakewell. “He’s been involved in journalism since the 1970s, initially at the ‘Auckland Star’ and ‘8 O’Clock’ newspapers as a sports’ writer. He later spent time working for ‘The Sun’ and then the ‘NZ Herald’ -where he spent 30 years as senior rugby writer. During that time Wynne attended 250 Test matches and wrote several books. He is now a Life-member of the ‘NZ Sports’ Writers Association’”.

Wynn believes the early season matches with Tonga and Fiji are valuable as they clearly show coaches where improvements must be made before sterner opposition is encountered. He acknowledged that the All Blacks have ‘stacks’ of talent, are very athletic and very fit – but wondered if they’d be up to the challenges of the ‘Boks’ and Northern Hemisphere teams later in the year.