02 BEAVER KICKS THE GOAL
It was a fairytale story like no other. Stephen Donald became one of the most pilloried players in All Blacks history when he came o the bench against the Wallabies in 2010 and had a bit of a shocker.
A lot of a shocker really – missing an easy kick at goal, giving away penalties and then failing to boot the ball out in the last minute. A game the All Blacks should have won... they lost, and everyone in New Zealand blamed Donald.
It was unprecedented how much bile came his way and it was no surprise he announced in April 2011 that he was heading to Bath later in the year.
Unsurprisingly he didn’t make the All Blacks World Cup squad and while the national side was battling away, he was out in the back of beyond fishing and definitely not training.
He wasn’t in great shape when he was dramatically called into the squad ahead of the semifinal after Daniel Carter and Colin Slade were both ruled out with serious injury.
Half an hour into the final and, unbelievably, Aaron Cruden’s knee gave way and Donald was on the field in the biggest game in recent All Blacks history.
A nation that had turned on him a year earlier, had to embrace him because 10 minutes after half-time, Donald was lining up a penalty that would ultimately win the All Blacks the World Cup.
He turned out to be the hero of the hour and earned redemption in the most stunning way. Everyone suddenly loved Beaver.
“I genuinely didn’t see it,” he would later say of the penalty. “I thought it came o the boot well. Usually they shape the other way, but it shaped to the right, I got told later that night. But yeah, I was well and truly on my sprint back to position so I didn’t see it.
“I was in a bad way as far as my lungs were concerned. I remember dry retching a few times, thinking, ‘Jeez, how long have we got to go?’ But luckily we hung in there.”