He is still spoken of by many former team-mates as one of the unluckiest players of their era not to have been an All Black. Yet, this disappointment aside, Angus Gardiner still enjoyed an outstanding career filled with success, which included featuring in two Super rugby final-winning teams. He was also a key member of the NPC winning Canterbury side in 1997. Gardiner made his debut for the province in 1994 and had run up 69 appearances for Canterbury by the time he departed for a playing stint in England at the end of 1999. He was arguably the province’s busiest player during the turbulent 1996 season, where only a handful of players appeared in more than his seven matches during the first Crusade. Gardiner then backed that effort up by managing to feature in all 16 matches played by Canterbury in 1996. During his two years in England, Gardiner played with the famed Bath club.