Veteran All Black will be a Thorn in Irish side

IT HASN’T been easy keeping track of Brad Thorn’s unique and fascinating career but the man himself can rattle off his bewildering array of career stats like most of us can our mobile phone numbers.

It’s an impressive feat considering he has been playing professionally for half of his 34 years and has jumped over and back between league and union and the Tasman Sea on three separate occasions.

“I’ve played 214 NRL games (for the Brisbane Broncos), eight tests for Australia, 14 games in (State of) Origin, 52 games for Crusaders, 26 for Canterbury, 21 tests for the All Blacks… and a couple of games in between.”