From schoolboy star to AB start
Before enticing a teenage Anton Lienert-Brown to Hamilton, Dave Rennie and Wayne Smith made a pact with his parents Mel and Tai.
The Lienert-Browns’ youngest son, Rennie and Smith promised, could expect to be carefully managed and not exposed to any shabby treatment if he elected to move to Hamilton to begin a career with the Chiefs and Waikato after his final year at Christchurch Boys’ High School in 2012.
The decision was a big deal for everyone involved.
In addition to being encouraged to undergo some tertiary studies Anton was being offered the chance to earn an income for doing something he would do for free, while his parents had to contemplate their youngest child springing the family nest. The Chiefs and Waikato, meanwhile, were putting their money where their mouth was in a bid to develop the teenager into a Super Rugby midfielder.
Mel and Tai, having listening to the sales pitch, were satisfied their boy wasn’t going to be neglected.
Some parents are within their rights to feel apprehensive when professional sports organisations come knocking; injuries, dubious friendship choices and the privileged lifestyle have the potential to create uncertainty, or unhappiness, for their kids.
‘‘Mel and I both spoke to Wayne Smith and Dave Rennie. They gave us a promise, that they would take good care of him,’’ Tai said.
‘‘Anton works really hard and that was our advice to him. It was a hard decision for us – but it was such a good life opportunity for him … He was only 17 when he moved up there.’’
From the days when Anton started playing for the Marist-Albion club as a five year old, he was competitive and eager to wrap his hands around the ball.
‘‘I can still see him standing beside the coach whenever he was in the reserves – because he wanted to try and get out and play,’’ Tai recollected.
‘‘If he was playing cricket, touch rugby or kicking the ball around he was always determined to win.’’ On Saturday night Anton, who played his first Super Rugby match aged 19, will make his test debut for the All Blacks against the Wallabies in Wellington, having been selected to start at second five-eighth.
His elevation to the test arena has been swift, a necessity given injuries have gouged a hole in the midfield stocks: Sonny Bill Williams (ruptured Achilles tendon), Ryan Crotty (concussion), Charlie Ngatai (concussion) and George Moala (knee) were removed from the selection list.
Outside the Canterbury and the Crusaders organisations, who must rue their decision not to attach him to their list of contracted players, Anton’s switch in allegiances has proved popular.
Yet if Lienert-Brown, whose older brother Daniel plays for Canterbury and the Highlanders, had fallen in love with rugby league this story could have forked off in another direction. During Anton’s second year at CBHS Tai suggested he and Daniel stop playing rugby and directed them to the Celebration rugby league club so they could experience the 13-man code. Tai, who had played league to a senior level for the Sydenham club, wondered if his lads would also get a kick out of the sport he had enjoyed.
‘‘I just thought I would give them a feel for rugby league and they did pretty well. It was just a wee taste of it, and then I took them back to rugby.’’
A move back to the CBHS rugby factory proved an astute decision.
Anton, who is on the cusp of becoming the school’s 46th All Black, represented the 1st XV in 2011 and 2012 and his efforts in the No 12 jersey in his second season sparked the interest of the Chiefs.
Lienert-Brown wasn’t a massive physical specimen, but his awareness and ability to quickly assess situations with or without the ball didn’t go unnoticed.
He seemed destined to be selected in the NZ secondary school’s team in 2012, but the shoulder injury he incurred when he scored his second try in the loss to Otago BHS in the South Island final scuttled those ambitions.
The CBHS 1st XV in 2012 and Lienert-Brown’s combination with first five-eighth Fletcher Smith, now on the Highlanders and Otago’s books, had a bearing on the team’s success.
‘‘Anton was a clever footballer and what impressed was the amount of work he and Fletcher were prepared to put in after their trainings,’’ Drury recollected. ‘‘They were both very good players. Anton was just one of those guys who had a lot of time when making his decisions, and a calm temperament.’’
Lienert-Brown, who was also a handy volleyball and basketball player, and Fletcher Smith weren’t the only members from that CBHS team to sign with other provinces. Although Brad Hemopo is contracted to Canterbury, Blair Prinsep (Tasman), Steven Misa (Waikato), Geoff Cridge (Hurricanes and Hawke’s Bay) have moved elsewhere.
Other schoolboys to leave the province in recent seasons include Brodie Retallick (CBHS) and Damian McKenzie (Christ’s College). Both are at the Chiefs.
Now Mel and Tai, along with Mel’s parents and Anton’s brother from Australia, intend to travel to Wellington to watch Anton in Bledisloe II.
Daniel will remain in Christchurch because Canterbury meet Tasman on Sunday afternoon. Tai confirmed there was plenty of emotion in the Lienert-Brown household when Anton confirmed he had been called into the All Blacks squad.
‘‘We were just so happy,’’ Tai, who moved to New Zealand from Samoa in 1985, said.
‘‘I can’t explain the feeling. I always dreamed that one day one of my kids would be in the All Blacks. ‘‘My wife and I just sat down and had a wee cry … It is quite a big thing for us, massive.’’