Few All Blacks have ever embodied raw power and personality quite like Mark “Bull” Allen. The former prop, cult hero, and TV favourite carved out a reputation not just for his scrummaging strength, but for the unmistakable energy he brought to every team he played for. Whether he was leading the Hurricanes, packing down for Taranaki, or belting out a tune on Match Fit, Bull has always been larger than life.
We caught up with the man himself to talk rugby, resilience, and what keeps him charging forward long after the final whistle.
Mark “Bull” Allen grew up playing Rugby when he was a 5 year old and has loved it ever since. He was a massive fan on the All Blacks, especially Mark Shaw who gave Bull a desire to become a blindside flanker. Bull continued through the grades as a loose forward. At the age of 19, he made the shift to prop so he could continue playing the game at a senior level. Rugby had not become professional although some players did receive payments from there clubs or unions, wasn’t professional like it is today and Bull at this point was working alongside his father as an auto electrian. Bull felt that he was able to strike the right balance between work and rugby trainings as they “didn’t know any different, when rugby was amateur you just you had to work and play rugby so you just made it work, you fit it in.” His parents were very supportive of his career aspirations and gave him the time to do what he needed to do to improve his rugby skills as well as help the family business.
In his earlier years, Bull played for age grade rugby throughout high school. He made his way through to the Taranaki Colts, eventually debuting around the age of 20 for Taranaki in 1988 against Wanganui. Reminiscing on his first game for Taranaki, that was played at 10am on a Queens Birthday weekend. Throughout the 1980’s and mid 1990’s before the game became professional, the All Blacks used to have trials that were generally televised on tv. This was generally the way that the all blacks squad would be picked for the up and coming series that particular year. These games stopped after 1997 due to rugby becoming more professional. Bull was fortunate enough to play in both teams in his career and felt that the trials were “A good opportunity to show what you could do and also what it made you aware of is where you sat in the pecking order” Bull thought that the games were beneficial back in the days as “I thought they had value but the thing is now there’s so many games televised and the selectors go to so many games or watch so many games so it’s not as necessary as they once were.”
Due to the success of the 1995 Rugby World Cup and the famous All Blacks game with Jonah Lomu running over the top of English winger Mike King, rugby became professional in 1996 and the birth of the Super 10 competition involving New Zealand, Australia and South African teams. Bull Allen became the very first captain of the Hurricanes team, representing the Wellington region. No one really knew what to expect from this first season as it was the beginning of the unknown and the beginning off more games beening played on television thanks to the deal with Sky Sport and also the birth of more evening Rugby compared to what there was previously. This was also a step up for many players as guys were used to playing in the first, second and third divisions on the NPC championship.
The Hurricanes played their first game in Palmerston North, against a strong Auckland Blues side that included international players like Eroni Clarke, Sean Fitzpatrick, Zinzan Brook, Robin Brooke and Carlos Spencer. The Hurricanes meanwhile had Tana Umaga, Norm Hewitt, Christian Cullen (as Bull mentioned he was the best player that he played with), Filo Tiatia and Alama Ieremia. Wellington finished that year in seventh but then came back to make the semi finals in 97. Bull described the game as an incredible moment “it was very different level for us and the best thing was we got to just focus on rugby which in those days, we just wanted to play rugby. For a lot of us, we played amateur rugby for a lot of years, to suddenly get paid for something you love, well it doesn’t get better than that, does it?”
Bull made his debut for the All Blacks against Samoa in 1993 at Eden Park on the bench. The All Blacks went on to win that game 35-13. Bulls debut he remembers well as he came on due to coming “on for Graham Purvis cause he as a blood bin and yeah, Craig Dowd must’ve moved to tight head” Looking back on this game, Bull goes on to say that using your reserve players in those days was quite different to how they are utilised today. “As a front rower, you didn’t know whether you would get on the field or not. You would have on extra prop and hooker in the reserves. Nowadays, you have 2 props that will most likely make it on the field at some point in the game.” Although there were many games that Bull didn’t make it onto the field from the bench, he still cherished them and thinks back on them fondly. Bull has an interesting stat that not many All Blacks players had, when he ran out on the field the All Blacks won every game that he played. Some could argue that he was the key difference in the team and if he edged out Craig Dowd or Olo Brown for starting prop the All Blacks may have won the 1995 Rugby World Cup.
During the ’96 tour of South Africa, Bull had made this squad after not making the rugby world cup squad in the previous year due to them only taking 3 props. After a devastating end to the ’95 World Cup from a kiwi’s perspective, going back to South Africa for this tour had its own edge to it. Bull reflected on the impact that Jonah Lomu had on this tour, “I think he was married to a South African girl at that stage and the things I remember are people following us on the bus and they had a photo of Jonah Lomu holding it out on the roof of their car following the bus. Everywhere Jonah went, he was absolutely mobbed. We arrived at the airport and it was mayhem. There was just people everywhere.” Bull loved the fact that there were tours as they gave guys the chance to experience what test match Rugby was like and also play against guys that they had either never seen before or weren’t sure about the skills of a particular player. After winning the first game, 23-19, they went onto win the second game at Loftus 33-26, then going down to South Africa 32-22 in the third and final game. For the All Blacks to win that series after the devastating loss in the ’95 Rugby World Cup was incredible. This series team would be dubbed The Incomparable for making history as they won a series in South Africa for the first ever time.
Bull retired from all rugby at the end of 1998. Since his retirement, he has noticed that the game of rugby has changed immensely. Having seen rugby through different eras, Bull has had a great seat to watch how it has changed over time. He recounted some of those changes “ When rugby became professional, it added a lot more players and people involved in management, more rules. It became more technical”.
Over the years the NPC has changed over the last 20 years and now is the ITM competition, which is designed to build and continue to challenge provincial rugby. Most fans would argue that Rugby New Zealand needs to ensure that provincial Rugby continues to make sure that club players have a forum to showcase their skills to selectors and Super Rugby team scouts and this could be a way to reinvigorate the game for the fams and players alike. Most fans are not watching the provincial competition as much now and that’s clear to see when Auckland plays at Eden Park and it’s 1/30th full (formerly known as spot the fan). Bull believes that New Zealand Rugby needs to look at the following “I think the provincial teams should be represented by club players because you know a lot of unions bring in players from outside the areas, players all over the place. I’d love to see it. Provincial teams represented by club players. When I played for Taranaki, for most of the time it was amateur and that worked well so maybe that’s the answer. It’s an amateur competition”
Being a prop in the old days meant you were a good scrimmager and there to block the opposition players from getting the ball in rucks and also the lineout. In Bulls day, he played against guys like. South African Os du Rount, (Bulls favourite player that he played against was Patrio Norleigo from Argentina a team that the All Blacks didn’t play as much as they do now) and Englands Justin Leonard. Bull shared how much the prop model has changed since when he played due to size and the skills required. “When I started playing prop it was perceived that shorter, heavier guys were the best option but now with lifting, guys around 6’2, it’s quite handy at lifting. You’ve got to be more skilful these days……… There’s a lot more to it now. I think they’re more athletic, more skill based and fitter models, for sure. They’ve still got to do their core jobs, I think when I was playing, 20+ scrums a game, but now there’s 8-13 a game.”
Since hanging up his boots from all Rugby in 1998, after he suffered a very bad injury with 2 prolapsed in his back. Bull still keeps in himself in shape, loves the sauna and doing kettlebell exercises. He now works for a plumbing company called Aqua Firm, specialising in systems and fittings. Bull is still involved in rugby from time to time with some appearances in the media but more importantly, supporting his 3 sons who play rugby on the weekends.
