Rugby League Career
Karam switched codes in 1975, signing a three-year deal with the Glenora Bears in the Auckland Rugby League competition $20,000 a year. Karam was horrified that players on the UK tour of 1971 got a pound a day as their living allowance while rugby officials “were flying around the world drinking champagne like it was going out of fashion”. For players of “modest employment” slogging it out on the field for their country it meant that “their wife and children were starving back home”.
He scored 160 points for the Bears in 1976, winning the Painter Rosebowl Trophy as top point scorer. He won the trophy again in 1977. Karam was selected for Auckland almost immediately, playing in six games in 1976 and scoring 53 points. This including playing in Auckland's 17-7 defeat of New South Wales City. He played in one game for Auckland in 1977, kicking six goals.
By the final year of his contract Karam couldn't break into the Glenora side, being succeeded by Warwick Freeman. He reportedly found the tackling work rate to be far more demanding than in rugby union.
Read more about this topic: Joe Karam
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