Ken Carrington, a stocky wing or centre, looked set for a long and distinguished international career when in his first two seasons in first class rugby he quickly gained major honours.

As a 19-year old in 1970 he was in the New Zealand Maori team which met Fiji in two internationals and one year later aged only 20 he was a wing in the first, third and fourth tests against the British Lions.

But those were to be Carrington's only test appearances and he had the dubious honour of never once in his three tests being in a winning All Black side.

Carrington was in the All Black side which made an internal tour early in the 1972 season but he missed the test series that season against Australia and despite playing in the trials was not chosen for the 1972-73 tour of Britain and France.

He played for the North Island and had another All Black trial in 1973, but again missed selection and from then on was never in national calculations, either for the All Blacks or the Maori, for whom his last match was in 1971 against the Lions.

A product of Opotiki College (1st XV 1964-66), Rutherford High School (1st XV 1967-68) and the Waitemata club, Carrington made his first class debut in 1969 in his first year out of high school, playing for an Auckland XV.

In 1970 Carrington was a regular first choice for Auckland A, but curiously that was to be the only season in which he had a full representative season.

He was affected by injuries in both the 1971 and 1972 seasons and both then and in the 1973-74 seasons he was constantly in competition for an Auckland starting position against several other class three quarters, including Bryan Williams, another All Black Jon McLachlan, Dave Palmer and Willie Gascoigne.

A reserve for the Auckland Ranfurly Shield winning side in 1974, Carrington finished his association with Auckland that season, having made 41 appearances for the union.

He then became one of the first of New Zealand rugby's nomads, playing out the 1975-77 seasons in Italy with the Casale club. His last match in New Zealand was the sole appearance he had for Bay of Plenty early in the 1978 season.

Carrington's son Matthew in the late 1990s played in the Super 12 for the Highlanders and represented Auckland and Otago, becoming a hero for Auckland by scoring a try and kicking a difficult conversion in the last minute of a sensational Ranfurly Shield win in 1996 over Bay of Plenty.