Ranfurly Shield: Magpies lynchpin Ihaia West

If anything, you could say Ihaia West's brilliance comes on a childhood footprint of someone who displayed abnormally normal but gleefully desirable behavioural patterns.

And no, this isn't the assessment of some respected child psychologist in Hawke's Bay or, for that matter, the opinion of some professionally researched material.

No, it's the valued deduction of the Hawke's Bay Magpies first five-eighth's mother, Shona West, affectionately known as Whaia [Mother in Maori] West to countless children who went through Hastings Girls' High School over the years.

For instance, while toddlers were watching Barney and Sesame Street cartoons on telly, little Ihaia West was furiously flicking the switch to every sports programme he could find.

"He'd go away and return in clothing and things he saw sports people wearing on TV and then try to do what they were doing, such as tackling and all that," Shona reveals, while undergoing a manicure in the heart of a beauty salon in the Hastings CBD before Ranfurly Shield holders Magpies kick off in their first defence of the Log o' Wood at McLean Park, Napier, tomorrow, from 4.35pm.

Ihaia, shy?

His mother begs to differ.

"I think people tend to underestimate him because physically he's been a very busy boy even from the time he was going to daycare when he was only 5 months old," says the head of Maori at HGHS.

Staff at the Rascals Day Care centre in Hastings noticed the then 3-year-old Ihaia gravitating towards anything that resembled a spherical toy.

"They were amazed at how he could throw and kick a ball - any kind of ball.

"In fact, from the time Ihaia could hold something he would hold a ball and he'd take it to bed with him at sleep time."

He became a pet of the daycare staff, who took him "everywhere".

The 21-year-old Progressive Meats Havelock North Rugby Football Club utility back's mental fortitude is something that also caught the attention of Shona and husband Simon West, who is head of the sports department at Napier Boys' High School.

Days before Ihaia attended his first school, Frimley Primary in Hastings, he insisted on telephoning his paternal grandparents, the late Tom West, and Heather West, of Geraldine, an hour's drive out of Christchurch, to take him to school.

Ihaia won as his doting grandparents booked their flight north to ensure he had a smooth transition to education.

"Tom used to have a sore leg but Ihaia would grab a cricket bat and drag him out where they would play for hours.

"It would get dark and I'd have to call them in for dinner, sometimes," says a grinning Shona, without taking her eyes off the manicurist meticulously running an emery board over her nails then blowing dust.

Furthermore, minutes into the proceedings in the classroom, the teacher asked if any children had questions.

"Ihaia's hand was the first one up and he asked, 'When's the rugby practice?'," she reveals.

Just as fellow Magpie and All Black fullback Israel Dagg excelled, Ihaia was equally adept at playing cricket, albeit as a top-order batsman.

"As a year 10 he was the first and only batsman at Napier Boys' High School to make more than 100 runs on debut for the first XI cricket team," she says of Ihaia.

He turned down a scholarship from Dagg's former Lindisfarne College to attend NBHS because of its reputable sporting prowess.

West had switched to Te Mata School in Havelock North from standard four because his sister, Aorangi, now 24, was getting older.

From there the former Ross Shield rugby player and age-group representative cricketer secured a sports scholarship to integrated intermediate Hereworth School in the village.

Asked why he didn't persevere with the summer code, Shona replies: "The Hawke's Bay Rugby [Football] Union gave him a contract before cricket could."

But West last night confirmed it also had to do with beating the boredom of standing around the field a good part of the day, when not batting, that also saw him gravitate to rugby, which he has since adored.

Shona reckons her son's ability to think fast on his feet in the pivotal playmaking position in the sporadically lethal Magpies backline comes from husband Simon's cognitive traits.

"Simon's the kind of person who dots his i's and crosses his t's and is analytical in everything he does. In his senior years he also became a mentor," she says of her husband, who helped out former Magpies utility back Daniel Waenga.

Shona believes Ihaia's turn of speed, which is the catalyst to making him lethal in stepping off either feet in dissecting opposition backlines, comes from her lineage, the O'Keefes.

Her brother is Henare O'Keefe, seeking re-election to the Hastings District Council, and a former Havelock North premier club rugby player who has 200 games under his belt.

"So Ihaia's mum's side have sprinters. Simon, I think, and he won't tell you this, was a bit of a sprinter in school, too," she says with a grin.

Okay so what's your verdict, then, Ihaia?

He laughs, adding his parents tend to share the credit for his prowess but "I'm not exactly sure where it really comes from".

West hastens to add his father is habitually thorough in schoolteacher fashion, "making sure everything is perfect".

"But I'm not as bad as dad is. You know he wasn't much of a rugby player," he says in a jocular vein.

On a serious note, Ihaia relishes his time with his parents at home and considers himself blessed to have the opportunity to consult them, especially when he needs to throw ideas around under intense pressure.

"I've had awesome support not just from my parents but also my cousins and all my uncles and aunties. We have a pretty cool whanau," says the Hawke's Bay Sevens representative who hasn't fallen into New Zealand coach Gordon Tietjens' equation yet but that could change after this NPC season. That brainstorming session also extended to his request at the age of 19, after his first year at Eastern Institute of Technology, to put his studies on hold while he pursued a career in rugby.

Shona is indebted to the HBRFU for their guidance and also the ease and dexterity with which they put Ihaia through the spin-dry cycle that professional ITM Cup rugby can pose.

"We've always told him it's like a business, not a just a sport, because you can get caught up with things like money and all those other distractions," she explains.

Like any parents, there were trying times when Ihaia, who has built an affinity with fellow Magpies fullback Gillies Kaka, went through the motions of watching other fellow Under-20 World Cup teammates secure Super Rugby contracts while he agonisingly found himself in the peripheral zone.

"[Craig] Philpott and Danny [Lee] have been unbelievable for the last two years. They put him in the odd game here and there and didn't just push him straight into the deep end," she says of the Magpies coach and his assistant.

Shona's whanau will also converge at McLean Park tomorrow so she's gifted her ticket in the Harris Stand and will instead join her siblings and nephews and nieces on the embankment to watch Ihaia perform more magic to help retain the shield.

A "nervous for the first 10 minutes type of mother", Shona tends to relax thereafter and finds a lot of reassurance sitting next to the likes of other parents of Magpies such as Chris Eaton and Zac Guildford.

"They are very experienced and know how to handle things and are very comforting.

"It's very nerve-wracking but you first want the kids to do well and don't want things to go wrong."

For the record, Ihaia's sister, Aorangi, and partner Isaac Paewai, an ex-Magpie, are expecting their second child in the next few days.

"It's a terrible thing to say but Aorangi had better not have that baby on Saturday," she says with a grin.