Brian Steele

Leo Brian Steele was born in Wellington, New Zealand, on 19 January 1929. His father was a train driver, and the family lived in the Wellington railway village of Ngaio, where he grew up. He took up rugby as a halfback and joined the Onslow club, which later became part of Western Suburbs.

Steele played 20 games for Wellington between 1950 and 1953 and six for Horowhenua in 1954. He was listed at 5 ft 6 in (1.67 m) and about 66 kg.

In 1951, at 22, he was a surprise selection for the All Blacks tour of Australia, since he was then second choice in Wellington to the incumbent All Blacks halfback, Vince Bevan. He shone in the final trial and, with Bevan injured, was favoured for the tests over Waikato's Ponty Reid, who was himself hurt early in the tour.

He made his All Blacks debut against Newcastle on 11 June 1951, alongside fellow debutant Bill McCaw. He played nine of the twelve matches on the unbeaten tour, including all three tests, as New Zealand won back the Bledisloe Cup that Australia had taken two years earlier. He scored no tries but kicked a dropped goal against a Combined XV at Wagga Wagga. The 1951 tour was his only All Blacks tour.

Steele worked as a carpenter, on high rise developments in Wellington and then for about twenty years at the Tomoana freezing works after moving to Hawke's Bay in 1968 with his wife, Margaret, and the first four of their five children.

He was devoted to fitness: a mountaineer who ran about 25 marathons, he marked his birthdays for many years by circling the Nelson Park athletics track in Hastings once for every year of his age, including 78 laps in 2007. He campaigned against the park's closure in 2007, followed local politics closely through letters to the editor, and supported Telethon, at one point living for a week in a hut 1.82 m by 1.21 m on top of a pole while donations were sent up in a bucket.

He was a great uncle of All Blacks fullback Christian Cullen. Margaret, his wife of 65 years, died on 5 February 2020. He was survived by daughters Sandra, Jan, Karilyn and Tracy, son Damian, 12 grandchildren, 14 great grandchildren and three great great grandchildren.

Steele died in Hawke's Bay on Monday 9 November 2026, aged 97. His death was reported by Hawke's Bay Today and the New Zealand Herald, by Stuff, and by ClubRugby.nz, which remembered him as a former Onslow and Wellington halfback. No cause of death was made public. His funeral was arranged for the following week at Terry Longley and Sons Crestwood Chapel in Hastings.

Steele was one of the last links to the All Blacks of the early 1950s. He played every test of the 1951 Bledisloe Cup winning tour, and from May 2025 until his death he was the oldest living All Black, a title he had inherited from Bill McCaw, who had made his debut in the same match.