When Joachim Rande returned to his temporary flat in Wellington last night the hot water cylinder was cold.
For the mud-tainted Solomon Island goal-scoring machine a request to take a shower would have been tantamount to asking him to hop into a refrigerator for five minutes.
"I didn't shower tonight," he told SportToday last night after a far cry from the humble Akina Park, Hastings, where he often trains with his Homeworx Pacific Premiership Cru Bar Maycenvale United teammates.
Not showering didn't bother the 19-year-old because today he jetted of with the Wellington Phoenix team to play in an A-League pre-season match against the Melbourne Victory in Queenstown in tomorrow's 2.30pm kick-off.
Former Hawke's Bay United head coach Jonathan Gould this week invited Rande to train with the Phoenix who have their All Whites back in the squad after their mediocre Confederation Cup campaign ended in South Africa last week.
Dennis Frater, who Rande is flatting with in Hastings, said from Wellington it was hard to wipe the smile off the diminutive striker's face.
"We have a couple of Brazilians here who are complaining about training in the 10-degree temperatures.
"It makes you wonder how they will cope in Queenstown," Frater said.
Rande, who is acclimatising to the conditions in the frosty Bay weather, also adapted to the faster, more intense training regime of the Phoenix.
Frater said Rande was showing a clean pair of heels to Costa Barbarouses, the fastest Phoenix player in the squad, during sprint drills. Wellington-born Barbarouses is of Greek origin and has represented New Zealand as age-group captain before making his professional debut in 2007 for the Phoenix.
"He's not overawed by who he is training with."
Rande said he had fitted into the squad quite well but didn't want to get carried away just yet.
"I'll go and enjoy myself and see what happens," said Rande, who is top scoring for his Vale premier side who tasted their first defeat this season in their sobering 8-2 loss to Central League side Miramar in Wellington a fortnight ago.
Incidentally, Rande scored both goals.
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