Former All Black open to questions about current team
Rugby legend Conrad Smith won’t rule out talking about the current state of the All Blacks when he joins three other Taranaki sporting legends at a fundraising dinner.
Smith, along with paralympic gold and silver winning alpine skier Corey Peters, ultra endurance athlete Lisa Tamati, and former Tall Black Dillon Boucher, will be on a panel discussion and Q&A at a fundraising gala dinner for Conductive Education Taranaki.
The September 17 event will be hosted by former Taranaki Daily News reporter and TV host James McOnie.
Smith laughed when asked if he’d talk about the All Blacks, who have had a horror run of results this year, losing to Ireland and Argentina at home. ‘‘I’m happy to talk about everything. It’s about resilience, and they’ll be needing a bit of that at the moment.’’
The panel is an interesting group, and Smith, who grew up in South Taranaki and lives in New Plymouth, has done a few things with McOnie before, so is confident it will be a good night.
‘‘We are very different but I’m sure they’ll be some very common themes that will come out, despite our different backgrounds, the challenges we’ve faced, successes and failures that we’ve encountered. There’s lots I’m sure that people can take away from it.’’
Conductive Education Taranaki was an ‘‘easy group to support,’’ he said.
When Smith was told Taranaki’s Conductive Education centre is the only one in New Zealand without any funding from central Government, he jumped at the chance to help.
Smith went along yesterday to have a look at the centre for himself.
‘‘I thought it would be cool to see it in action.’’
Conductive Education Taranaki manager Renee Manella said they had 30 children on the roll and each child came one day a week, while attending school the other four days.
Legends Go Wilder, a black tie event, will be held on September 17, at 6pm, at the Devon Hotel, in New Plymouth. Tickets are $150 and includes a three-course dinner, an auction and a live Q&A with the sporting legends.
Conductive Education is a physical therapy for children with neuromotor disorders.