Full name | Andrew Grant Dalton | ||||||||||||
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Date of birth | 16 November 1951 | ||||||||||||
Place of birth | Dunedin, New Zealand | ||||||||||||
Height | 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in) | ||||||||||||
Weight | 93 kg (205 lb) | ||||||||||||
School | Selwyn College, Auckland | ||||||||||||
Notable relative(s) | Ray Dalton (father) | ||||||||||||
Occupation(s) | Company manager and director CEO Auckland Rugby |
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Rugby union career | |||||||||||||
Playing career | |||||||||||||
Position | Hooker | ||||||||||||
New Zealand No. | 777 | ||||||||||||
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Provincial/State sides | |||
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Years | Club / team | Apps | (points) |
1976–82 1975–85 |
North Island XV Counties |
National team(s) | |||
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Years | Club / team | Apps | (points) |
1977–85 | New Zealand | 35 | (12) |
Coaching career | |||
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Years | Club / team | ||
1989–91 | Counties |
Andrew Grant Dalton (born 16 November 1951) is a former New Zealand rugby union player. He captained the national team, the All Blacks, 17 times in tests. He is a second-generation All Black; his father Ray Dalton played in two All Blacks tests in the late 1940s.
Although born in Dunedin, he was schooled at Selwyn College in Auckland (not to be confused with Selwyn College at the University of Otago), playing for the school's first team in 1968 and 1969 as a prop. He then returned to the South Island, enrolling at Lincoln College (then a part of the University of Canterbury) to study for a Bachelor of Agricultural Science. While there, he converted to hooker, and represented Canterbury at under-20 and senior reserve level.
After graduating, he returned to Auckland, playing for the senior B side at the Eastern club. In 1975, he moved to Bombay to start a career as a farm adviser, and won representative selection for the first time at Counties. The following year, which was the first of the National Provincial Championship (the predecessor to today's Air New Zealand Cup), he was named captain at Counties.
Dalton earned his first All Blacks cap during their 1977 tour of France. He also played all four tests on their successful Grand Slam tour of Great Britain and Ireland in 1978, scoring the only try in their encounter with Ireland.