Born: December 5, 1962
Test record: 16 Tests (1985-89) – 0 points
Tours: 1985 tour of Britain and France, 1986 tour of Australia and Papua New Guinea, 1987 tour of Papua New Guinea and Australia, 1989 tour of Britain and France

Bustling Wellington second-rower Sam Stewart was a mainstay of the Kiwis pack during the second half of the 1980s and holds a cherished place in Newcastle Knights’ history as their foundation captain.

A Junior Kiwi and Wellington debutant in 1981, Stewart represented Central Districts against Great Britain in 1984 and Australia in 1985. He helped Randwick Kingfishers to three straight grand final wins from 1983-85 – winning the WRL Sportsman of the Year award in the latter two seasons – to belatedly receive a Kiwis call-up for the 1985 tour of Britain and France.

The 23-year-old scored five tries in 11 matches on tour and played one Test, starting in the second-row in New Zealand’s 25-8 loss to Great Britain in the second clash at Wigan.

Stewart came off the bench in both Tests in Papua New Guinea in 1986 and the one-off fixture in Port Moresby in 1987, before regaining a second-row berth and starring in the stunning 13-6 upset of Australia at Lang Park.

The super-fit, industrious policeman was one of Newcastle’s highest-profile recruits for its 1988 premiership debut and skippered the side in 20 of its 22 matches. He was in the starting line-up for New Zealand’s mid-season wins over Papua New Guinea and Great Britain that secured a place in the World Cup final, where Stewart came off the bench in a bitterly disappointing 25-12 loss to Australia at Eden Park.

Stewart featured in the second-row in all eight of the Kiwis’ Test matches in 1989 – the 3-0 series loss at home to Australia, and on the end-of-year tour of Britain and France – which would prove his international swansong. He played 16 Tests in a total of 43 games for New Zealand.

He surrendered the Knights’ captaincy to Michael Hagan in 1990 and was ravaged by injury in 1991, but the veteran returned as a bench regular as the club qualified for a maiden finals berth in 1992.

The popular Stewart departed Newcastle but was made its inaugural life member in 1993, rounding out his professional career with two-season stints for London and Hull KR.

Stewart’s representative highlights also included captaining New Zealand Māori at the 1986 Pacific Cup and turning out for Rest of the World against Australia in 1988. He was named in Wellington’s Team of the Century in 2012.