Ben Franks

Ben Franks was the older by more than three years of two brothers who because of their immense strength and scrummaging technique were regular selections from a young age for provincial, Super and national squads.

But unlike the younger Owen, who specialised as a tighthead, Ben played with equal ability on either side of the scrum and perhaps because of his versatility never quite matched Owen's overall record.

He was seen as offering excellent cover from the reserves and whereas Owen, starting much more often in his specialist role, became an All Blacks test centurion, Ben managed only seven starts in his 47 tests. Ben at least achieved one thing in test rugby his brother never did, he scored two tries. Owen was never able to score a try in test rugby.

Australian-born, Ben emerged from Christchurch club rugby as a national under 19 representative in 2003 and the under 21s in 2004, before playing his first games for Canterbury in 2005 and then the Crusaders in 2006.

After playing in the championship winning Crusaders side in 2008, Ben Franks made his All Blacks' debut in the mid-week match against Munster, his only appearance on that tour.

In 2009 he played for the Junior All Blacks in the Pacific Nations Cup, with Owen coming into the All Blacks that season and thus gaining his first test caps ahead of Ben. In 2010 Ben finally won his cap and he and Owen had the rare distinction of a pair of brothers being the two starting props in the two early season tests against Ireland.

But from that season on Owen on the tighthead and Tony Woodcock at loose-head became the preferred starting props and even for a place on the bench Ben faced stiff competition from John Afoa and Neemiah Tialata.

During those seasons he was in a similar position with the Crusaders, with Owen, Wyatt Crockett and a little later Joe Moody also on the propping staff. Frustrations with the amount of time he spent job sharing might explain why in 2007 he changed provinces, firstly to Tasman and then Hawke's Bay. After 83 games for the Crusaders in 2013 he switched to the Hurricanes, finishing in 2015 with 45 games for that franchise.

Despite the country's propping depth, the two brothers were together in the World Cup-winning All Blacks squads of 2011 and 2015. Ben's role was as a back-up, his four appearances in 2011 were all from the bench and in 2015 he started the pool game against Namibia, and had three appearances from the bench that included the semi-final against South Africa and the final against Australia.

The Franks brothers were two of the All Blacks' best weight-lifting exponents and their expertise led to them running their own gyms.

Ben left New Zealand rugby after 2015 and spent his last few seasons in England with London Irish and then Northampton. He stepped away from playing after the northern hemisphere 2019-20 season.

Profile by Lindsay Knight
for the New Zealand Rugby Museum.