Mergesm from a dark tunnel with a smile on his dial

HIS coach may have been a bit grumpy, but it was impossible to persuade Hurricanes hooker Dane Coles that Friday night’s Super Rugby quarterfinal victory over the Brumbies was anything but a glorious privilege to be part of.

You see, Coles has seen the light when it comes to this thing he does they call professional rugby. Or, rather, he has seen the darkness that is the foreboding shadow of concussion, and what it can do to derail even the most high-flying of careers.

Coles had been out of the game for four months (he had last played on March 18), dealing with injuries and then a long-term concussion that left him fearing whether he would ever play the game again. His days got very dark indeed as the 30-year-old, 49-test All Black wondered whether he would ever get the chance to chalk up that cherished half-century mark.

But on Friday night in Canberra, in a match won 35-16 by the Hurricanes, after trailing 16-15 at the break, Coles returned to rugby with a remarkable turn off the bench. He came in early, to cover for Ricky Riccitelli’s first-half head assessment, and then permanently in the 50th minute, and it was as though he had never been away.

Coles nailed his lineouts (as he does) from the off, made his tackles, hit his rucks and slipped in a trademark jinking run and offload to put TJ Perenara in for the gamesealing try a dozen minutes from time. In fact, his only miscue came when an attempted probing kick careened out on the full.

‘‘Vintage Coles,’’ remarked coach Chris Boyd as his mood lifted from being ‘‘pretty grumpy’’ on initial reflection of a stop-start effort. ‘‘He has been out, comes on, and apart from his little kick at the end which he’ll get hammered for by the boys, it was a good performance from him.’’

Coles, as straight a shooter as you get in the Kiwi game, admitted he had been massively nervous in the leadup to a game that had wider repercussions for him, than just whether his beloved franchise would advance to a third straight semifinal.

‘‘It was an awesome feeling to be back on the pitch with the lads,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s been a pretty hard four months, and to do something I love, just to put the Canes jersey back on, was a great feeling. It means a lot to me to wear this jersey.

‘‘It was something I thought had been taken away from me, but to do it again ... words can’t really describe how I’m feeling at the moment. I’m just happy to be amongst it and doing something that I love.’’

For the man widely acknowledged as the best hooker in the game, and certainly its most expressive, there was a new appreciation for this thing he does for a living.

‘‘I know it’s a cliche, but to have something taken away from you, and in the situation I was in I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to pull on the Hurricanes jersey again, there’s definitely a new appreciation. You’ve just got to cherish these moments a bit more and never take it for granted, I suppose.’’

Coles said he fully expected the earlier-than-expected introduction and said immediate lineouts on both occasions helped him settled immediately into his task. ‘‘I didn’t have much time to think. Once you’re in the thick of the game it goes pretty fast, you’re making runs or tackling or scrummaging. I was pretty nervous all day but once I’m amongst it, I’m just doing my job.

‘‘Just to be a part of it and contributing to the team is something I’ve hated missing. When you’re out there, you feel you’re doing your part to contribute. That’s massive for me. We’ve earned another Monday, and we’ll see where we go next week.’’

Will Coles start next week’s semifinal, in either Johannesburg or Wellington, depending on the LionsSharks quarterfinal overnight?

Probably, is the answer. But not Coles’. ‘‘That’s up to the coaches,’’ he declared. ‘‘I’ll do what’s best for the team.’’