Blair looks to rewrite record in Argentina

BUENOS AIRES - The dancing feet, the acceleration, the rip-snorting goalkicks - Ben Blair is quite some fullback package, a parcel of rugby skills who will wear the All Black jersey against Argentina on Sunday.

It has been a speedy trip for the 22-year-old Coaster who took his talents to Canterbury, the Crusaders, New Zealand A and now the All Black test team after injury to his provincial team-mate Leon MacDonald.

Already Blair has a locker-load of rugby recollections.

He has been to Argentina once before, on the NZ Colts tour in 1999, when he ended the Southern Hemisphere tournament final against South Africa in despair.

Deep into injury time, New Zealand were holding a slim lead as the South Africans launched another attack.

"I got beaten by a guy on the outside, they scored, it was all over, we lost," he recalled yesterday.

"It was not the greatest memory to have of this place. I want to rectify that."

Fast-forward to this season and the final minutes of Canterbury's Ranfurly Shield defence against Wellington. A man down but still in the lead, Wellington had to defend a last scrum inside their 22.

"They had a forward out in the backs marking Aaron Mauger, but we did a planned move," Blair said. "I got the ball. Cully [Christian Cullen] had to come in and defend and I got on the outside of him for the try.

"It was an unreal feeling, awesome, because it was not long before that we thought the shield had gone."

It was that sort of form which propelled Blair into the touring party for Ireland, Scotland and Argentina, and quickly alerted the British media to his skills in the opening match in Belfast.

Three tries, nine straight kicks, a tally of 38 points against Ireland A to beat his previous first-class best, against Counties Manukau, by a point.

Across the Irish Sea, England were going into rapturous meltdown about the ability of pocket-rocket league convert Jason Robinson, who was switched from the wing to fullback.

But it was acknowledged by those British scribes who travelled to Belfast and saw Blair for the first time that he could do all, and more, than Robinson did.

That more was his kicking for goal. In a style all his own, Blair leans the ball markedly towards the posts and then really attacks it with his right boot. His strike is so violent that, momentarily, Blair is airborne.

"I devised the method myself. It feels natural to me and I thought it was normal until I saw myself on television a few years ago," he said.

There is none of the flowing grace of the similarly-physiqued Andrew Mehrtens - this is raw aggression. Whatever the technique, it works.

Most of the time anyway. He was annoyed when he came on for MacDonald against Scotland and Mehrtens offered him the final, handy conversion. He pushed it wide of the uprights.

"I hit a shocker. I did not have my tee, but that was no excuse. It should have gone over from there," he said.

Blair will win the vacant test fullback role when the All Black team is revealed today, but he is happy for Mehrtens to carry on with the goalkicking.

"He has been doing the job in the tests, and I am sure he will continue."

Once he made the All Blacks, Blair's aim was to play well midweek and make the test replacement list. He did that for the matches with Ireland and Scotland but, with MacDonald injured, is the next-best specialist.

Once he gets home, Blair plans to have minor surgery on a knee to correct some tendinitis and take a Christmas holiday in Westport.

"I have had it for a while. It is painful to get the knee working for training all the time, but once you are in a game the adrenaline takes over and it is okay."

Born on the Coast and a student at Buller High, Blair did not want to leave until his parents persuaded him to accept a sports scholarship to St Andrews in Christchurch for his sixth and seventh-form years.

His career mushroomed after he left school. His general play was electric, and some of his goalkicking was extraordinary.

Blair has a habit of scoring large numbers of points. There was the 37 against Counties, 36 for the NZ Colts in last year's final revenge win against South Africa, 29 in the Super 12 game this year against the Bulls, and 27 for NZ A against Romania at Bucharest last season.

But all those feats will slip down a rung on Sunday when Blair runs on to the River Plate Stadium for his first All Black international.