All Blacks: Thorn primed for test role

Brad Thorn lives for football and is thoroughly enjoying being back in the All Blacks squad. Photo / Getty Images

Brad Thorn was grumpy on last year's All Black Grand Slam tour. He was keen to play every game but was denied the chance as Anthony Boric started against Scotland and Jason Eaton and Ross Filipo ran out against Munster.

Having been a professional athlete for almost half his life, Thorn didn't rage at the selectors or throw any toys from the pram.

But having not played in Edinburgh, he was a ball of pent-up fury in Dublin. This is a man who lives for the game. He's not big into resting or managing his workload.

"That just comes from my league career," he says. "It's a war of attrition - it's 26 rounds and you have rep games as well. So you are conditioned for it. I don't like missing games but it is not up to me. It is up to the coaches and I have got to go along with what they want."

What they want in this Tri Nations is for Thorn to let loose test after test. The selectors have no choice. The injury to Ali Williams means Thorn is the senior lock.

He has to play because they can't pair the two rookies - Isaac Ross and Bryn Evans - and while Eaton has some experience, there would be a reluctance to ask the Taranaki man to guide either of the newcomers.

So it's up to Thorn to front every test; to use those colossal forearms to smash bodies out of the way for 80 minutes. He's loving that idea and still struggling to believe his fairytale story shows no signs of ending.

Remember, Thorn has gone from league, to union, back to league, back to union. When he was named in the Crusaders squad last year, few believed he would feature much. Not even Thorn would have believed that seven months later he would be back in the All Blacks and 18 months on, be an integral part.

"It's crazy - I have used that word so many times - but that's what it is," says Thorn of the last two years. "I didn't expect it and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

"I love playing footy and I love playing with my mates. I'm at the stage of my career where I see it as being a big part of my job to encourage some of the younger guys."

And he's going to have to do plenty of guiding in the next two weeks. Back-to-backs tests in South Africa are the All Blacks' next challenge and for Thorn, and presumably Ross, that means locking horns with Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha - the best partnership in world rugby.

The Boks brought out the best in Thorn last year - and the worst when he picked up captain John Smit in the opening exchanges of the Wellington test and dropped him on his head. It was a crass but hugely influential act.

It set the mood for the rest of the test and made the South Africans aware Thorn was very like them - confrontational, aggressive and relentless.

The All Blacks need more of that from Thorn in the next two weeks and the coaching panel would dearly love to believe they can squeeze another two years out of the 34-year-old.

Thorn has signed on until 2011, with a view to playing at his second World Cup. He'll be 36 by then. His body will have endured almost 20 years of top-class, high-impact football by then. Can he make it?

"I feel comfortable about my fitness and where I am. But there is a reality that my football career could end tomorrow. But I do feel good. My body feels good. My enthusiasm is good but we will have to see what happens."

He'll leave it for others to worry about the future, and in particular the World Cup. The NZRU have exceeded expectations with their targeted recruitment programme. Everyone they wanted to stay until 2011 is staying until 2011. With the players and coaching panel now locked in, this is the beginning of the run-in - the time the All Blacks will begin their climb to the summit.

For Thorn, the next few months are not about that. "Obviously for the New Zealand Rugby Union it is great [they have retained so many players]. I'm really glad to have all those guys about and as part of the team. A big part of my footy is playing with my mates.

"But for me it is about what we are doing on Saturday and the Saturday after that.

"In two years whether we will all be playing we just don't know. Sometimes I feel the country gets too caught up in what's happening two years' out. I'm just excited about the Tri Nations."