Fairytale on four pies a day

By CHRIS RATTUE

In terms of football the way we know it, this is as close as you get to a fairytale.

Boy from the sticks, plucked from nowhere, gets his chance against the world champions.

It's not quite the real Reece Robinson story. At 24, he's hardly a boy. And Robinson has been a New Zealand Colt, played for New Zealand Maori against Argentina last year, is a Hurricanes B-teamer and has just been signed by first division Taranaki.

There's also pedigree. His father, Richard, was a lock in the famous 1960s Hawkes Bay Ranfurly Shield side, and cousin Mark Robinson is an All Black halfback.

But hey, Robinson is a joiner and cabinet-maker from second division Hawkes Bay. And tonight, while Super 12 forward Kristian Ormsby sits on the bench, he will tangle with the might of Australia at Subiaco Oval in Perth. Which counts as a fairytale.

And if you think he isn't making a giant leap forward, consider the training regime which has taken Robinson to this pinnacle, starting with his match-day diet.

"These guys in the Maori team really think about what they're eating," says Robinson from Perth. "Slade McFarland is a big guy, but all he eats is salad. These guys are right into carbos, eating pasta.

"I've always had five or six poached eggs on toast with an inch of butter on the morning before a game.

"This diet we've had for 2 1/2 weeks has made a difference though. I had a lot more energy in the game against New South Wales."

If the foodies at the national rugby academy are having cholesterol-induced heart attacks at the thought of the Robinson egg diet, they should steer well clear of his weekday menu.

Unlike all but two of his professional Maori team-mates, Robinson has a fulltime job and his language includes the word "smoko", not heard much in top rugby circles these days.

"I love mince pies, the Irvines pies. I'll have a pie and a sausage roll at smoko ... up to four pies a day. I'm going to have to slowly change that, maybe cut it down to one a day," he says.

And there is further hope for rugby's menu planners. Robinson sheepishly admits to gorging on sushi.

"Do I have to reveal that?" asks the head of the Egg and Pie Eating Society.

If his diet is unconventional in the modern sporting sense, Robinson is also discovering radical new training regimes on the Maori team's short Australian tour.

Second division champions Hawkes Bay, who were beaten by Bay of Plenty in a promotion-relegation duel, trained just twice a week under the steely guidance of Mark Shaw. The pre-season also involved 10km runs over hills on Sunday mornings.

After playing for clubs the previous day, some players would arrive in their No 1 gear, which suggested lengthy post-match analysis had taken place.

"I really respected Mark Shaw ... but I didn't think much of those 10km runs," says Robinson. "Cowboy would sit on top of the hill with a pair of binoculars so he could see who stopped running."

Robinson's family hail from Eketahuna in Wairarapa Bush country. His father was an acquaintance of Wayne Smith, the assistant coach of the Magpies in the 1990s, which led to the 17-year-old Reece and girlfriend Trudy heading north to advance his rugby career.

His first taste of top rugby came with the doomed Central Vikings - a Hawkes Bay-Manawatu amalgamation - when they won the second division in 1998, the year Robinson played for the national Colts.

He has had spells as a flanker, but Taranaki coach Colin Cooper views him as a lock, although the 1.98m Robinson believes lack of extreme height will lead him back to the blindside.

The move to Taranaki involved a contract wrangle and the Department of Labour mediation service before his transfer was completed.

"If Hawkes Bay had made it to the first division, I would have been the first to sign up. My heart is there, but I had to push my career."

Robinson, whose Maori heritage is on his mother's side, has never played with or against his All Black cousin, but that should change when the Maori play the Barbarians at Albany next Friday.

But there is a more important issue for now, namely taking on Australia. He and Trudy have parted. But as always, Robinson will ring their 2-year-old daughter, Taylor, before the match.

"She is my inspiration. Whenever things get tough on the field, I think of her. She asks if I get sore, and she can already say Taranaki," says Robinson.

Little Taylor may also be learning other new rugby words soon. Like "pasta" and "salad".