The ‘special’ one
Asafo Aumua has been a sensation in provincial rugby this season. Hamish Bidwell plots his spectacular rise.
Before a provincial rugby ball had even been kicked this season, a prominent coach made a prediction. ‘‘[Asafo] Aumua’s the guy who’ll eventually take over from [Dane] Coles.’’
Who for? The Hurricanes? ‘‘No, no, the All Blacks. He’s special.’’
So special that, at just 20, he’s made the increasingly rare leap from age-group and provincial rugby, straight into the All Blacks.
Aumua might depart on the team’s northern hemisphere tour as the fourth hooker in the queue behind Coles, Codie Taylor and Nathan Harris - but you doubt he’ll be that low on the depth chart for long.
Even All Blacks head coach Steve Hansen - a man not prone to overstatement - described Aumua this week as ‘‘pretty special.’’
Most people have, over the years.
Already a standout by the time he hit Naenae Intermediate, Aumua was 14 when staff at Wellington and the Hurricanes began plotting his path into those teams.
At 15, he’d made the first XV at St Patrick’s College Silverstream, then it was on to New Zealand Schools and two years in the New Zealand under-20 team.
At each stage in that process, Aumua’s coaches were all saying remarkably similar things.
‘‘He doesn’t take a backward step and he can be brutal. He does everything at 100 miles an hour and has a tremendous attitude,’’ former Silverstream first XV coach Rob Ackerman said.
A former Wales and British and Irish Lions outside back, who made his test debut against the All Blacks in 1980 as a teenager, Ackerman knows a prodigious young talent when he saw one.
What has stood out about Aumua’s development since those school days is the patient way he’s been brought along.
It’s barely 12 months since he was playing for Wellington at the national under-19 tournament in Taupo. Then an injury to hooker Leni Apisai saw Aumua rushed from Taupo to Whangarei, to turn out for the Wellington Lions against Northland. He scored a hat-trick in that match and finished the season as the team’s top tryscorer.
Those performances announced him to a few people but, again, the approach remained careful. Aumua wasn’t named in the Hurricanes’ squad for 2017, instead steered towards a second tilt at the world under-20 title.
He still trained with the Hurricanes occasionally, and made the odd appearance for their development team, including one memorable occasion earlier this year, in Levin, when the team met the Crusaders in the curtain-raiser to a Horowhenua-Kapiti club match.
On as a sub, Aumua scored with virtually his first touch, leaving six or seven defenders in his wake on an amazing 45-metre run. Another try shortly after saw the Hurricanes win, having been down 19-0 at one stage.
Again, though, it was that under-20 tournament in Georgia where the powers that be wanted Aumua to focus his attention. Little wonder, as he scored a hattrick to propel New Zealand to victory over England in the final.
All the time he was working hard at becoming the complete player. Strong and not frightened of contact or collisions, Aumua’s scrummaging was useful, as was his lineout throwing. Given his appetite for work and eagerness to please, those will only improve.
But it’s the ball-running and uncanny ability to breach the tryline that marks Aumua out for now. He’s scored seven tries on Wellington’s run to the national provincial championship final, including a couple that Taranaki wing Declan O’Donnell and Canterbury fullback George Bridge won’t forget in a hurry.
Hookers don’t often outsprint, or go around, outside backs but it’s all in an afternoon’s work for Aumua.
The national team leaves for London tomorrow, a few hours prior to Wellington’s final against Bay of Plenty. Aumua might not feel like he’s one just yet, but the reality is he’s an All Black now.
So where was he yesterday? Not admiring his new team-issue kit, waiting for his sponsored vehicle to arrive or asking his agent about per diems.
No, Aumua was at Rugby League Park, joining Wellington’s other dirty dirties in trying to replicate Bay of Plenty’s gameplan and offering tips to the men Apisai and Sitiveni Paongo - who’ll play hooker in his place.
Only the special ones do that.
"He doesn’t take a backward step and he can be brutal. He does everything at 100 miles an hour."
Former Silverstream first XV coach Rob Ackerman