Former All Black and goalkicker extraordinaire Frano Botica was a celebrated import at Wigan, but his stint as an Auckland Warriors original was cruelly cut short by injury. Big League tracked down the dual international for a chat.
FRANO, YOU’VE BEEN INVOLVED IN REAL ESTATE IN AUCKLAND FOR SEVERAL YEARS, BUT YOU’VE HAD SOME HEALTH SETBACKS RECENTLY – CAN YOU UPDATE US ABOUT HOW YOU’RE GETTING ON?
Our company got bought out by Bayleys, so I work for them now which is going well. I had a stroke last year so I’ve been limited in driving – that makes it a bit hard selling real estate. [The rugby union and league community] have been great, and my dad drives me around and my friends will come and get me if I need to go somewhere. It’s a visual thing, I can’t pass the test at the moment – when I pass the visual test I can drive again.
YOU WERE PART OF THE WAVE OF ALL BLACKS CONVERTS IN 1990 ALONG WITH THE LIKES OF MATTHEW RIDGE, JOHN GALLAGHER AND JOHN SCHUSTER – HOW DID THE MOVE TO WIGAN AND RUGBY LEAGUE UNFOLD?
I had a phone call after our last game [on the All Blacks’ 1989 tour of the British Isles] in London and [Wigan] asked if I wanted to pop up and have a chat to them. We had about three days before we had to fly home, so I went up there and left having signed a contract.
The main reason was it was getting quite tough working and training and playing and touring, so I decided to go and chase the dollar. I had a courier business, so it would cost you money to go away on a [rugby] trip, you had to a pay for a driver – I was getting sick of it.
THE FANS OVER IN ENGLAND SOUND LIKE THEY WERE SOMETHING ELSE…
It was unbelievable really. They might have 15 or 20,000 people at the ground, but they make more noise than 50 or 60,000 people in New Zealand. They’re fanatical and great supporters. Last year I went over to the World Club Challenge where [Wigan] beat Penrith and it was like I hadn’t left. I went to Vegas at the start of this season and the same thing happened – there’s more Wigan supporters there than anyone else.
YOU SHATTERED A HOST OF POINTSCORING RECORDS IN ENGLAND, BUT DURING YOUR RUGBY UNION DAYS YOU WEREN’T EXACTLY HAILED AS AN ACE GOALKICKER. HOW DID YOU GET SO GOOD, SO QUICK?
[Goalkicking] wasn’t really part of my game, but that Wigan team was full of stars – even to make the team was a struggle, they had 12 internationals in the starting line-up. I changed to the wing while I learned the game and I realised I needed to practise my kicking more. That was the difference, I wasn’t as dedicated to goalkicking when I was in the All Blacks and at North Harbour. That was mainly a mindset, I had to shift my thought patterns away from, ‘I can’t be bothered’ or ‘I can’t beat [All Blacks goalkicker] Grant Fox’, to ‘I need to be better than Grant Fox even though I’m playing league now’.
YOU PLAYED EVERYWHERE IN THE BACKLINE AT WIGAN, BUT MOSTLY AT FIVE-EIGHTH OR WING – DID YOU HAVE A PREFERRED SPOT?
I preferred it in the halves, but while I was there we had dominant halves – the likes of Shaun Edwards and Andy Gregory, they were very dominating types of people – so you’d just let them run the show.
HOW DID YOU GEL WITH THOSE STRONG PERSONALITIES AND BIG EGOS AT WIGAN?
I suppose the toughest one was Shaun Edwards, he was a bit strange sometimes. Most the time he was fine but he’d have mood swings, he wasn’t my cup of tea and I didn’t hang out with him that much. Ellery Hanley kept to himself, he lived in Leeds and was [playing for Wigan] in my first year – he never really hung around, he’d play the game and disappear.
It was great to have [fellow Kiwis] Sam Panapa and Dean Bell there, they certainly helped me in doing more work in the gym than I was used to. Dean was like the [former All Blacks captain] ‘Buck’ Shelford of rugby league for me. There were plenty of other Kiwis in other teams around the area – St Helens and Warrington – so we used to get together once a week, play a few cards and muck around.
YOU WERE PART OF A BIG WIGAN CONTINGENT THAT CAME OVER FOR THE AUCKLAND WARRIORS’ FIRST SEASON IN 1995 WITH JOHN MONIE, DEAN BELL, DENIS BETTS AND ANDY PLATT – WAS IT THE WIGAN FACTOR OR THE LURE TO COME HOME THAT PROMPTED YOU TO TAKE UP THE OFFER?
I was starting to figure it was time to head home because of my kids, but I was going to sign to come back to Wigan after that first season with the Warriors when I broke my leg. Wigan then decided they would not sign me. The only team that would sign me with my leg was Castleford, so it was a stopgap – I needed a job – so I went there [in 1996]. I was back playing six months after I broke my leg.
THE STINT WITH THE WARRIORS ONLY LASTED FIVE GAMES BEFORE THAT INJURY…AND IT WAS PARTICULARLY BRUTAL ONE. DOES THE FOOTAGE STILL MAKE YOU WINCE?
I was on a program called Pathfinders [recently] and they had the footage of that incident – I hadn’t seen it for 30 years. I was like, ‘Holy shit, no wonder it hurt!’ But it was definitely disappointing, I don’t know what would have happened if I hadn’t broken my leg. I thought it might be the end of me, but I hung around for another four of five years [playing league and union].
THE WARRIORS’ ’95 SEASON WAS REGARDED AS A SUCCESS – DID YOU HAVE A SENSE THAT THINGS WEREN’T GOING TO PROGRESS AS SMOOTHLY AS EVERYONE THOUGHT FOR THE CLUB AND JOHN MONIE IN THOSE EARLY YEARS?
We had some good players in that team, but I knew it was going to take some time. There was a lot of good teams and it was a big transition for a lot of players [who had come from outside the Australian competition]. For the likes of us Wigan guys, we could perform really well but it was about that consistency week to week, as opposed to England where there’s some good teams but also some average teams you knew you were going to beat.
YOUR TENURE IN THE KIWIS WAS RELATIVELY BRIEF BUT MEMORABLE, PARTICULARLY PLAYING FULLBACK IN THE 1991 WIN OVER AUSTRALIA IN MELBOURNE…
You don’t often beat the Aussie league team, so to be in that team was amazing – but we certainly got brought down to earth the next week (a 44-0 loss). But playing for the All Blacks or the Kiwis, any time you pull on the jersey for a national team, you wear it with pride and do the best you can.
DATE OF BIRTH
3 August, 1963
CURRENT AGE
61
BIRTHPLACE
Mangakino, New Zealand
POSITION
Five-eighth, fullback, wing, halfback
PLAYING HISTORY
1990-95: Wigan
1995: Auckland Warriors
1996: Castleford
REP FOOTBALL
1991-93: New Zealand
TOTAL MATCHES
212
TRIES | POINTS
72 | 2,217
