NEED FOR SPEED: Daniel McIntyre.
HAVING fast twitch fibres is quite often attributed to a genetic disposition.
Daniel McIntyre laughs when asked if he has inherited his speed from his mother, Heather, or father Peter's side of the family.
"I don't know. I wonder sometimes, too," says the 19-year-old speedster before he left yesterday with a 13-strong Telecom Business Hub Hawke's Bay Sevens squad for Bay of Plenty to compete in the Mt Maunganui Pre-Nationals, starting today at Blake Park.
The tourney is a precursor to the nationals in Rotorua the next weekend.
Exciting prospects such as McIntyre, Mason Emerson, Kalin Paewai, Timo Vaiusu and Ted Walters are among the youngsters trying to make coach Murdoch Paewai's final muster of 12.
Key Bay players, such as Hawke's Bay Magpies Gillies Kaka, Ihaia West, Trent Boswell-Wakefield and Star Timu, have been rested although Timu is also nursing a minor knee injury.
McIntyre's rugby pedigree goes against the grain of normalcy of those who run the gauntlet of provincial development programmes.
In many ways, the one-season-old Central Hawke's Bay Rugby and Sport premier club winger/fullback will be the first to attest he's a late bloomer in the country's national sport.
"I'm still learning and I've only played one year of sevens," says McIntyre, who last winter crossed the line for 10 prem club tries.
The former Central Hawke's Bay College pupil, who played Ross Shield age-group rugby for Central, made the cut for the Bay under-18s rugby squad before stepping up to the under-20s last year.
"I used to do a lot of athletics in school and gym work," explains the former Takapau School pupil whose parents aren't sporty types.
"I like playing the game. I just enjoy it.
"Not so much dad. He didn't play anything," he says with a laugh.
McIntyre says with the CHB College First XV team not in the higher echelons of competition, it was hard to earn recognition as an individual.
"But plenty of people have reached out to help," says the teenager who is trying to hone his ball skills and refine the technical and tactical aspects of the game.
"My ball skills can always improve."
The electrician's apprentice from Hastings singles out former Magpies winger and Junior All Black Robbie Hunter, of Porangahau, for his input.
"He's a Hawke's Bay rugby legend so he's been giving me little tips," McIntyre says of his former CHB First XV coach who racked up 125 games for the Magpies.
He sees today's pre-nationals sevens tourney as an opportunity to make his mark with Paewai and his selectors as well as claiming more game time.
He doesn't want to get too far ahead of himself but McIntyre allows himself the luxury of thoughts of making Gordon Tietjens' New Zealand squad some day.
"It'll be awesome to make the IRB Series," he says, mindful there's always the opportunity of breaking into the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, too.
McIntyre got his first taste of overseas sevens in November when he jetted off to Malaysia before competing in the Junior World Series Sevens tournament in Singapore.
Former Magpie and New Zealand sevens representative Tafai Ioasa put him on to the Borneo Eagles stint, helping the Malaysian club with five Aucklanders finish runners-up before a fourth placing in Singapore.
"It was awesome and I learned heaps. I gained skills and knowledge," he says, adding the heat and humidity was an education in itself.
McIntyre is under no illusions he'll have to be tireless this weekend in pursuit of a place in the Bay squad against a dozen other keen contenders in a dress rehearsal tourney that entices top unions from around the country to blood new players into their equations for the nationals.
He has maintained his fitness and discipline during the festive season.
"Hawke's Bay Rugby Union helps out with that so you know what to eat and what not."
The Bay are guaranteed four games and another one should they make the play-offs.
"This will test everyone's mental and physical fitness," says union personal development manager Conrad Waitoa.
The Bay are in pool B with Waikato and Manawatu.
They play Waikato today at 9.20am, then lock horns with the Turbos at 10.40am.