George Bower: from cutting hair in a Dunedin flat to 31 Tests for the All Blacks

When the All Blacks bench at Murrayfield is called on this weekend, one of the replacements will be a 34-year-old prop who was once training to be a teacher in Dunedin and cutting hair in his flat to get by. George Bower did not play Super Rugby until he was 26 or a Test until he was 29. He has since won Super Rugby titles with the Crusaders, played 100 games for them, come back from a knee reconstruction that cost him a World Cup, and played 31 Tests for the All Blacks. This is how he did it.

Lower Hutt, Avalon and Taita

Bower was born in Lower Hutt on 28 May 1992 and raised there by parents who had emigrated from Fiji. Fijian culture was central to his upbringing, RNZ reported in 2020: the family went to a Fijian church every Sunday, and he still travels to Fiji to see relatives. "Fiji is very close to my heart and my heritage," he said.

He learned his rugby at the Avalon club in the Hutt Valley and went to Taita College, a school that, as he put it, has not produced many famous players, naming Brad Shields, Mike Kainga and Nigel Ah Wong as the ones he remembered. Bower told RNZ he was not always a regular in the Taita First XV, and counted himself lucky to find "the right coaches and the right people" along the way. His first representative team was the Wellington Under 20 side in 2011.

Dunedin: teaching, club rugby and haircuts

In 2014 Bower moved south to Dunedin to train as a teacher, and joined the Harbour club, which was dealing with an injury crisis at the time. That same year he played one game for Otago as an injury replacement. Then he waited. It was four years before he played for Otago again.

They were lean years. Stuff's Robert van Royen wrote in 2019 that not long before, Bower had been cutting hair in the kitchen of his Dunedin flat to get by, and Wikipedia records that he was once an extra in an All Blacks advertisement. He kept working on his scrummaging at club level. "I've slowly started to build my game and my scrumming," he told RNZ in 2020, and Otago's coaches eventually saw him as cover at prop. In 2018, in the final year of his teaching degree, he was called into the Otago side again as injury cover and played eight games that season. The chance to play full-time came soon after, and the teaching was put on hold.

The Crusaders

The Crusaders brought Bower into their 2019 pre-season as cover. He made his debut in round four and played 10 games that year, the last of them 26 minutes off the bench in the final, when the Crusaders beat the Jaguares 19-3 for a third straight title. He was 27 and a Super Rugby champion in his rookie season.

He was officially named in the squad for 2020 and quickly felt at home. "No one's got big egos there," he told RNZ, describing how Sam Whitelock, Joe Moody, Codie Taylor and Kieran Read would offer him advice unprompted. "I still have to pinch myself sometimes." The Crusaders won Super Rugby Aotearoa in 2020 and again in 2021, when Bower started the 24-13 final win over the Chiefs. He started the 2022 final too, a 21-7 win over the Blues at Eden Park.

The club values his versatility: its profile describes him as an agile front-rower who can play on either side of the scrum. In April 2025 he re-signed until the end of 2027, partly, he said, because of the wall at the Crusaders' base honouring players who have reached 100 games. "I want to be on that wall too," he said. Coach Rob Penney called him "an outstanding individual". Two months later Bower came off the bench in the 2025 final as the Crusaders beat the Chiefs 16-12.

The milestone came on 8 May 2026 against the Blues in Christchurch. In his 100th game for the club, Bower took a short pass from Leicester Fainga'anuku off a lineout move and powered through Stephen Perofeta's tackle to score his first Super Rugby try. Penney said the try was "a set-up play" and that giving Bower the chance to score it in his 100th game was "just brilliant". The Crusaders won 36-20.

Fiji calling, then the All Blacks

By 2020 his form had attracted interest from two directions. RNZ reported that Fiji's then coach John McKee had approached him in 2019, and Bower admitted that playing for the Flying Fijians was something he would have to consider. Instead, Ian Foster named him in the wider All Blacks squad for the Tri-Nations in Australia late in 2020, though he did not win a cap on that trip.

The cap came on 3 July 2021 at Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland, where he came off the bench in a 102-0 win over Tonga. Three other rookies made their debuts that night: Quinn Tupaea, Ethan Blackadder and Finlay Christie. "It's fantastic that Quinn, George, Ethan and Finlay have an opportunity," Foster said when he named the team. Bower was 29, and All Black No 1194.

A week later he started at loosehead against Fiji in Dunedin, the city where he had trained as a teacher, and the All Blacks won 57-23. He started both Bledisloe Cup Tests at Eden Park that August and the third in Perth, and finished 2021 with 11 Tests, six of them starts, including the 47-9 win over Italy in Rome.

In 2022 he started all three Tests of the home series against Ireland. The All Blacks won the first, then lost in Dunedin and Wellington, Ireland's first Test wins in New Zealand. He started the 26-10 loss to South Africa in Mbombela and the 38-31 win over Japan in Tokyo, and came off the bench at Murrayfield and in the 25-25 draw with England at Twickenham. That draw, on 19 November 2022, was his 22nd Test. It would be nearly three years before his 23rd.

The knee

In March 2023, in the final minute of a Crusaders win over the Reds in Brisbane, Bower injured his anterior cruciate ligament. He had a reconstruction, and in April Crusaders coach Scott Robertson confirmed his season was over, World Cup included. "He's mending well," Robertson said.

Bower returned in February 2024, starting at tighthead against the Chiefs. "I've learned a lot about myself. I've missed the game," he told 1News, adding that he felt he had come back "a bit better than I was before". He was called into the All Blacks camp as cover when Robertson, by then the national coach, named his first squad in June 2024, but he did not play a Test that year.

Three years of grind

When Robertson named his squad for the July 2025 series against France, Bower was not in it. Then Tamaiti Williams needed knee surgery after the Super Rugby final, and Bower was called in. He came off the bench in the third Test in Hamilton, a 29-19 win, and told RNZ he had sometimes doubted it would happen. "Every now and then, like everyone else, it does creep in," he said, describing the gap as "three years of grind and hard work". He said he had considered playing overseas but stayed for the chance of another All Blacks jersey. Fijivillage noted that the recall ended any prospect of him playing for Fiji that year.

On 4 October 2025 in Perth, with the All Blacks chasing a bonus-point fourth try against the Wallabies, Bower came off the bench and was driven over in the final minutes. It was his first Test try, and the All Blacks won 28-14. He added a 52-26 win over Wales in Cardiff in November.

Rennie's front row

Under Dave Rennie, Bower has played six of the All Blacks' nine Tests in 2026. He came off the bench against Italy in Wellington in July, played in the tour wins over the Stormers and the Bulls in South Africa, and then started two of the four Tests against the Springboks, in Cape Town and at FNB Stadium in Johannesburg, both of which were lost. In the Bledisloe Cup he was on the bench for the 50-19 win at Eden Park and started the 43-21 win in Sydney on 17 October.

Style and standing

Bower is 183cm and 115kg, and the NZ Rugby Museum's profile on stats.allblacks.com credits his scrummaging, work ethic and mobility for catching the Crusaders' eye. In 2020 he was known as the "Fijian Bulldozer", RNZ reported. Of his 31 Tests, 14 have been starts at loosehead and 17 have come off the bench; the All Blacks have won 22, lost eight and drawn one of them.

Penney said in 2025 that Bower "contributes to every area of the game". Bower himself, back in 2020, said that after time in the Crusaders environment he felt a duty to pass on what he had learned to his Otago team-mates.

Where he is now

Bower is on the bench at No 17 for the Test against Scotland at Murrayfield on Sunday morning NZ time (Saturday 7 November in Edinburgh), with Ethan de Groot starting at loosehead. Wales and England follow, then the Nations Championship finals weekend in London. He still represents Otago at provincial level and is contracted to the Crusaders until the end of 2027.

Career at a glance

Test figures are from RUGBE's match-by-match All Blacks data to 17 October 2026.