What a difference half a season makes! Bruce Reihana was a late arrival in the 2002/03 season due to his NPC commitments with Waikato and spent most of last season finding his feet. It is true to say, that those feet have well and truly been found and he has been winning the hearts of the Saints supporters ever since.
Bruce scored 15 tries in all competitions in 2003/04 to add to the four he scored the season before. He also won the PRA Players' Player of the Year award that year and the Zurich Premiership Overseas Player of the Year. He also won the Chronicle & Echo's Player of the Year award and was joint top try scorer with Steve Hanley.
Over the coming seasons Bruce took over the mantle of the captaincy or shared the responsibility with club captain Steve Thompson. He also took over the kicking duties following the retirement of Paul Grayson and departure of Shane Drahm.
Bruce also scored a few tries, as you would expect, and ended the rugby year with nine, leaving him in second place, six behind scoring king Ben Cohen. He also consistently made the most metres in the Premiership week in week out and therefore deservedly came in third place in Saints' Player of the Year awards in 2005/06.
But 2006/07 was marred by injury. After moving from full-back to centre with the opening day loss of Jon Clarke, Bruce suffered a major knee injury of his own during the GUINNESS PREMIERSHIP trip to Gloucester. This required an operation and nearly five months of rehabilitation and after several turns as tee carrier, and 35 minutes of action for the Wanderers on a rainy Reading evening, Bruce returned to the Saints starting line-up against Harlequins at the end of February.
He started every match from then until the end of the season, and by the penultimate Premiership match at London Wasps had taken over the kicking duties. Furthermore Bruce scored a sensational try in the Heineken Cup semi-final that had Saints briefly dreaming of Twickenham. A success percentage rate in the 90s with the boot showed what Saints had been missing, and his emotional address to the crowd after Saints' relegation showed how much the skipper was determined to get his club back in the English top flight as soon as possible.
As club captain Bruce was the figurehead of the 2007/08 promotion campaign. He started more matches than anyone else (only missing the home match against the Bees), scored more points than anyone else and showed positional flexibility by playing on the wing and in the centres, as well full back. There was also the small matter of scoring two hat tricks of tries inside four days against Rotherham and Launceston in March. Against Sedgley Park Bruce set two notable records: the number of successful kicks in a game (13 from 14 attempts) and the highest individual points total within a game (36). He was deservedly named Player of the Season and his attitude was typified when he gave Johnny Howard and Darren Fox, the two longest-serving Saints players, the privilege of lifting the EDF Energy National Trophy at Twickenham. Bruce also endeared himself even more to the Saints supporters by signing a two-year contract extension that will keep him at Franklin's Gardens until at least 2010.
Visit Bruce's website by clicking here!
