Warner Dearns is New Zealand's loss and Japan's gain - for now

Japan lock Warner Dearns contests an All Blacks' lineout throw on Saturday. Photo / Photosport

New Zealand's loss might continue to be Japan's gain.

If there was a Kiwi who walked off the National Stadium in Tokyo having enhanced their rugby reputation on Saturday night, then it was arguably Hawke's Bay's Warner Dearns.

The 20-year-old lock scored a try and played very strongly for Japan in their 38-31 loss to the All Blacks.

In doing so Dearns, who began his rugby journey at Greenmeadows School, Taradale Intermediate and Napier Boys' High School, created the strong impression that he might be one who got away.

The ageing pair of Sam Whitelock and Brodie Retallick, who was sent off in the match, continue to be the All Blacks' first-choice second row.

But both are nearer the end, rather than the start, of their test rugby careers, as the national selectors cast their eye for long-term successors.

Dearns definitely wouldn't look out of place in an All Blacks squad, but it remains to be seen if that's still his ambition.

"I think he's always harboured a desire to play for the All Blacks. I think every kid who grows up in New Zealand does,'' Dearns' mother Tanya said.

"But he'll make his own decisions about where he wants to go. At the moment his future is in Japan and that's what he's wanting to do.''

Two-year-old Warner Dearns, left, with mum Tanya Dearns and sister Kyra, photographed when Tanya was named regional manager of Eastern Netball. Photo / File pic

Warner Dearns' sporting pedigree is well known. Father Grant is a longtime rugby trainer and coach, who had a successful stint with the Hawke's Bay Magpies, while mum Tanya was a noted Silver Fern.

Coaching and sports administration have been her career since playing netball and she is now chief executive of the Mid Canterbury Rugby Union.

It was husband Grant's coaching career that originally took the family to Japan, with Warner finishing his secondary schooling there, after moving at the end of 2016.

Given Warner's well-established ties to Japan, there were no split loyalties in the Dearns household on Saturday night.

Tanya Dearns' only pangs came during the anthems. She was "a bit emotional'' as the television cameras panned to Warner during God Defend New Zealand and was sure he would have felt "a level of anxiety'' at having to face the haka.

"Him choosing to stay in Japan and going straight from high school and into a professional environment is certainly setting him up for a really awesome career in rugby, provided he stays fit and relatively injury-free,'' she said.

"Being in Japan, I guess there's a smaller pool and more opportunity to showcase what he can do.''

Warner definitely did that against the All Blacks, regularly disrupting their lineout throws and charging down a Finlay Christie kick to score a deserved try.

"We'd just been talking about him having a couple of goes at charging down,'' Tanya said.

"In the first couple of minutes I think he'd hit one but it hadn't quite bounced the right way, but he had a couple of other goes and came pretty close and we said 'he's going to get one in a bit and sure enough he bloody did, so it was pretty cool.''