Why Aaron Smith’s ‘too good’ by half
‘‘Tell him what he should do Keith,’’ says a beaming Steve Hansen to 86-year-old Keith Davis, who is talking with All Black halfback Aaron Smith.
‘‘There’s nothing I can tell this fellow,’’ says Davis, ‘‘he’s too good.’’
For a few precious minutes at Eden Park after Friday’s captain’s run, warmth spread across the rugby generations.
Davis, in 1953, was the All Black halfback to face Wales when the northern hemisphere team were overwhelming favourites, and giants of the game.
The 13-8 victory for Wales in ’53 was their third in four tests against New Zealand. But in 27 games since, the have been no more. Before last night’s 39-21 loss, the TAB had Wales as 9-1 outsiders.
Aaron Smith runs, a small GPS has recorded, about 9km in a game. Last night a lot of that distance would have been covered in scrambling, sometimes desperate, defence.
He needed courage, as well as fitness and skill, because it was no armchair ride behind an All Blacks pack that was harried and bashed at every breakdown.
But when it mattered most Smith dared to tap for the Waisake Naholo try that turned the game.
Davis and Smith share much common ground. Like Smith today, Davis’s team-mates towered over him (at 1.71m Smith is just a centimetre taller than Davis), and were also in awe of his speed.
Davis is embarrassed at suggestions he might have been as fast. ‘‘Not like him ... and he’s smart too.’’
The past 63 years have brought plenty of changes to an All Blacks v Wales test.
For last night’s test Smith prised on a skintight woven carbon polyester jersey. On the ’53 tour each player’s heavy cotton jersey was washed so often the silver fern turned blue, and a paintbrush and white ink was needed to restore them to silver.
Smith last night ran onto Eden Park in newly designed grey, metallic patterned, boots. Davis took one solid pair of O’Brien black leather boots on his fourmonth tour – when they split, friendly UK cobblers stitched them together again.
Smith was paid an extra $7500 for each week he is in ABs camp, above his base contract. Davis, a junior clerk at Dominion Breweries, was thrilled his employers continued to pay his £2 10 shillings a week salary, and the daily allowance of seven shillings neatly doubled his earnings to £5 a week (adjusted for inflation, that’s about $1500 a week).
Davis, the only Maori in the ’53 touring squad, led the haka, but says it was ‘‘pretty tame compared to how they do it today’’.
Before the Eden Park game, Davis said if he had one wish it’d be for a return to the days when Wales were a revered, almost feared opponent. ‘‘Wouldn’t it be great if they were as good as they were once?’’
Last night, if scary for All Black fans, wasn’t a bad step towards that.