Rugby: Umaga likely to be centre of attention

By WYNNE GRAY

Since his schooldays, Tana Umaga has considered 13 his lucky number.

In the morning, he played loose forward for his Wainuiomata rugby league club in the No 13 jersey before swapping his uniform to play centre for Parkway College in the afternoon.

With the All Blacks about to embark on a four-game season finale in Japan, France and Italy, Umaga, New Zealand's rugby player of the year, must be favoured to wear the No 13 jersey in the tests with the Tricolors.

With the original candidates for centre, Alama Ieremia and Mark Robinson, not considered for this tour, Umaga must be top of the choices.

He expects to get a clearer idea of his chances in discussions this weekend with coach Wayne Smith.

Umaga's ambition to play centre - and a series of events - have pushed the 27-year-old into the leading group. The All Black selectors knew his preference and wanted to accommodate his ideas at the start of the test programme.

For the second half of the opening test against Tonga, Umaga was going to switch positions from wing to centre, but an injury to fullback Christian Cullen put the kibosh on the plan.

As a rugby league Junior Kiwi in 1991 and 1992, Umaga played centre, but when he swapped codes he thought it would be easier to start on the wing. His target, sometime, was centre.

For the last few seasons, any games Umaga has been able to squeeze in for his Petone club have been at centre.

The path to that NPC position was blocked until Ieremia's recent hamstring strain, which allowed Umaga into that job in the last three games for the NPC champions.

The dice kept rolling, with Umaga's No 13 coming up.

Ieremia and Robinson were not considered for the All Black tour as evidence of Umaga's midfield qualities shone through in the NPC playoffs.

This week he hit the trifecta. Wellington won the NPC title, Umaga was reselected for the All Blacks, and then won the premier NZRFU rugby award.

He almost gathered a dubious fourth hit. In a desperate attempt to stop Todd Blackadder scoring in the NPC final, Umaga clocked the All Black captain in the eye socket.

During the evening celebrations, Umaga was downcast when he heard an initial diagnosis and five-week recovery forecast for his skipper.

"He took me out all over the place this week," the laconic Blackadder said yesterday in reference to his injury and being pipped at the rugby awards.

Umaga did not attend the awards ceremony. He had dispensation for an extended family gathering before he left for Auckland yesterday and the start of the tour.

And his ideas about playing centre.

"I think I may have got into my comfort zone on the wing where I knew the job inside out and you do things second hand ... everything is natural," Umaga said.

"I would love to get the opportunity with the All Blacks. It would be another challenge and one I think I could rise to.

"The way these selectors have picked their teams, they want players who are multi-skilled with a high work-rate. It does not matter what number you have on your back, they want us to get stuck in everywhere."

In the changed, modern game of rugby, a centre has to be more disciplined in keeping patterns than a wing, and perhaps set more targets for his outsides.

If Umaga can emulate centres such as Joe Stanley or Ieremia from union, or Steve Renouf from league, he reckons he will be moving in the right direction.

Like some team-mates, Umaga is weary after more than 30 games of rugby this season. However, he reckons there will be no stopping everyone in the final quartet of matches.

Umaga has never played in France, but still has the scars of the World Cup semifinal defeat against the Tricolors at Twickenham.

"It's hard not to think about that game as long as we don't get too caught up in it and use it as the only motivation, otherwise we could be banging our heads against brick walls and going out there too hyped up," he said.

"In the end, we have to be cool and relaxed when we walk out there."

Umaga accepts he may have been guilty of thinking ahead to the World Cup final when the All Blacks fell to the French.

"It is something I will never do again. This year I have just played for now and have concentrated on playing well because then I know it will help the team."

At centre? Que sera, sera.