Flying Pig brings home the bacon

ITM Cup
Pigs can fly - although the length of the flight is being hotly debated amongst the Bay of Plenty Steamers as hooker Dan Perrin prepares himself for the possibility of an encore performance tomorrow night in Whangarei.
Perrin sparked the brilliant last-minute try that helped Bay of Plenty to a four-try bonus point in Sunday's 32-0 win over Wellington, with the replacement hooker's withering burst up the right-hand touchline in the final minute putting fullback Toby Arnold over.
But the contracted Chiefs player's vision and stunning turn of pace has come at a price, with the 26-year-old copping a merciless bagging this week from his teammates, although Perrin suspects if the bonus point he created comes into play at the end of the season, those jeers will become cheers.
"The boys have given me heaps since Sunday. I already had a bit of a bad nickname - Pig - so since then it's been the Flying Pig or Babe!"
With starting hooker John Pareanga nabbing Bay's second try to go with the one he scored against Waikato, the heat was on Perrin to do something out of the ordinary to keep his name in front of the coaches.
When wing Ben Smith chanced his arm on his own line, broke free and shovelled the ball to No8 Colin Bourke to feed Perrin lurking out wide, the energetic rake never imagined his burst would end 65m upfield with a one-handed pass to first five-eighth Chris Noakes who delivered the final pass to Arnold to lope in under the posts.
"It was one of those once-in-a-lifetime things that'll probably never happen again. There was a bit of space there and they kept hanging off me, so I kept on running. I've always liked a wee canter," Perrin said.
"I seem to remember bumping off a couple of tackles that were pretty weak, whoever they were, and once I got over halfway it did cross my mind that I could go all the way. I was trying to get (Wellington wing Julian) Savea to come across with me and for Noakesy to cut, and then maybe sell Savea and get to the tryline myself."
Noakes expected Perrin, who will start at No2 tomorrow against Northland, to run out of puff long before he did.
"I was howling at him to give me the ball but it seemed like he was never going to pass it and was happy to ignore me. When he initially took off I thought 'righto, let's see how this goes' and was going to cut inside, but there was a big bloke inside him and I didn't fancy getting clobbered.
"He surprised us all with the wheels he's got and seemed to get his second wind once he bunted off the fullback, who wasn't much of a speed bump. I expected a pass within the first 10m but Pig had other ideas and some pretty big designs on that tryline, although there's a few questions being asked about why a hooker was out on the wing in the first place."
The amount of ground Perrin covered has been the subject of much conjecture. "I got a heap of texts after the game saying 60m, 63m, 70m, so I just took the longest distance, which was 73m, and will be going with that. It'll be 90m when I'm 80 and telling the grandkids though!"
Rene Ranger is out of the ITM Cup.
Ranger has been in hospital after lacerating his kidney in Northland's win over Otago in Whangarei when tackled by Tony Brown.
Ranger will be sidelined for six weeks.