All Black news crowns weekend's yahoos

By ALAN PERROTT and CHRIS RATTUE

A post-NPC final celebration on Waiheke Island became an episode from Fantasy Island for five brand new Auckland All Blacks.

After ending their season in style, the players and their families huddled together in a windblown marquee to hear the squad announced on radio at 12.30pm yesterday.

It will take a few heavy training sessions before the grins fade from the faces of Steve Devine, Daniel Braid, Bradley Mika, Ali Williams and Keven Mealamu.

They are among 12 newcomers named in the squad to play tests against England, France and Wales.

Flanker Braid, son of former All Black Gary Braid, was the first to be put out of his misery.

"I was the second name. I just couldn't believe it. It's a hell of a shock. What a crazy day. I'm still coming to grips with it."

After a quick celebration, Braid, Mika, Williams and Mealamu were backslapped all the way back on the ferry to Auckland.



"I was too nervous to listen," said Mealamu. "I wasn't really expecting it, so I was playing with my son.

"I just don't know what to say. I feel very humbled."

Mika laughed off an early congratulatory text message from his sister - the team were named on Sky's rugby channel before being passed to radio.

"I thought she was joking until it came over the radio. What can I say? This has been a dream of mine. This will be another step higher, but I'm really looking forward to getting amongst all those guys you see playing over there."

The shot at a test jersey is the icing on the cake for fellow lock Williams.

"It's been a difficult year at times so it was a shock to be named. It's just huge to think of all the guys who have gone before and worn the jersey. I'm still pinching myself."

Williams paid tribute to his NPC skipper, Xavier Rush, who missed selection. "He's been huge for me, on and off the field. It's guys like that who gave me this opportunity."

Yesterday's news was just as good as the first time for born-again All Black prop Kees Meeuws.

"Every time you hear your name read out is like the first time," he said. "It's great to be named, but I'm really stoked for the young guys."

For Waikato's Regan King it was a weekend which best exposed the downs and ups of top-class sport.

One day you lose a grand final, the next you're in the All Blacks.

A year ago, even ardent Waikato rugby observers would have struggled with the name of Regan King from Cambridge.

Today, the 22-year-old is an All Black - not a bad consolation prize after Waikato's NPC final loss.

"It sounds like a fairytale. I suddenly started shaking," said King, who was about to head to the races at Te Rapa with 20 mates when the news broke.

"We're still very down about losing the final, too many mistakes. But my happiness has suddenly returned."

King's selection is unusual in an era of carefully organised junior recruitment and development. Apart from two years in the Maori Colts, he has never been in a national side.

His father, Paul, a coach at his Hautapu club, shifted him from fullback to centre this year, partly because his fellow new All Black Keith Lowen was away with the Chiefs.

King blossomed, topping the Waikato club try-scoring and making the representative team.

After he replaced the injured Mark Ranby in the first NPC round match against Southland, Waikato realised they had found much more than King for a Day.

At 87kg, King is a modern-day lightweight and at first worried about that. "I'm a waif ... But I'm confident about what I can do now," he said yesterday.

King ghosts and jinks past defenders and has repeatedly found the tryline through traffic and by popping up on the flanks.

There is some pedigree. His father played with the likes of Tea Ropati and Brent Todd in the 1983 Junior Kiwi rugby league team against a touring British side.

Among the people King was planning to call yesterday was his 5-year-old son, Jacob.

King was just 16 when a brief relationship led to the birth of Jacob, who lives with his mother in Auckland.

But it is unlikely King will be calling again for his job as a part-time maintenance worker at the Cambridge horse-racing track.

A professional rugby contract will see to that.