Wellington, Dec 27 NZPA - Former All Black Grahame Thorne says he has lost his "best mate" with the death of his eldest son in a Christmas Eve car crash in South Africa.

Former Super 12 and Junior Springbok player Bruce Thorne, 38, died at Kroonstad, about 200km south of Johannesburg, after his car spun off the road and rolled.

His wife, Siobhan, and 13-month-old son, Benjamin, survived the crash.

Bruce's death comes three years after a rugby tackle resulted saw Thorne's son, David, suffering a stroke that left him unable to speak or function properly. He is learning to read and write again.

Thorne, now 63 and who played 29 times for the All Blacks, plans to fly to South Africa tomorrow

He was struggling to take in the loss, he told the Herald on Sunday.

"It's just terrible, I just can't believe it. Three years ago David gets whacked, and now we've got Bruce gone," he said.

Thorne was told his son had lost concentration or fallen asleep at the wheel.

"His wife woke up and the car was going off the road. He over-corrected and the car spun and rolled, and his seatbelt broke.

"He was just too young to leave a widow and young son. It's just so unfair."

Bruce was Thorne's only child from a previous marriage to a South African woman.

His mother took three-year-old Bruce to South Africa to live when the marriage broke down and Thorne didn't see his son for 13 years.

When they reunited, the long separation had made them more like brothers than father and son, Thorne said.

"He was my best mate. We had the same sense of humour."

Bruce, who played at flanker or lock, was over the moon when Transvaal took South Africa's provincial championship, the Currie Cup, in 1999 -- repeating his father's feat with Northern Transvaal in 1971 just a week after his son was born, Thorne said.

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