Selectors set bells ringing in Taranaki

Search the almanac for Jason Eaton's name in last year's NPC and you won't find it. The new All Black lock wasn't considered good enough to make the Taranaki team and instead spent the year in the B side.

But having replaced Reece Robinson as Paul Tito's locking partner this year, and produced a stream of high-quality performances, Eaton is on the plane for the Grand Slam attempt this week.

"If anyone had asked me 10 weeks ago before the NPC began I had a chance, I'd have told them they were dreaming," 23-year-old Eaton said yesterday.

He had been given an inkling something might be up a couple of days after Taranaki's last NPC game on October 7, ending a disappointing campaign in which they finished ninth.

"I was told to keep fit as there was a possibility of going on the tour. I'd heard nothing more until this morning.

"I was watching on TV at my neighbour's house with my flatmates. I was very shocked."

Cue an outbreak of back-slaps and, er, breaking open the tea and gingernuts in the Stratford house: "Yeah, something like that."

He never played Super 12, but he'll be in the Hurricanes Super 14 squad to be named on Friday. The All Blacks did not figure in Eaton's goals at the start of August.

"I was more worried about getting a starting spot and hanging onto it," he said.

To add extra merit to Eaton's rise, consider that the former Palmerston North Boys' High School pupil - who moved from Manawatu last year after playing 25 games for the second division union - never made a national age group team.

He moved to Taranaki to see if he could play rugby for a living. He got a few years through a sports business management degree at Massey University, but didn't finish it.

Twickenham, Murrayfield, Lansdowne Rd and Cardiff's Millennium Stadium are just places he's seen on the box. Eaton has been out of New Zealand once - on a week's holiday to the Gold Coast.

"I don't think this will sink in until Christmas. It's pretty unreal," he said.

Eaton stood out not just for his athletic ability, but for a decent head of hair and luxuriant sideburns.

They've gone, and so has the idea that the 2007 World Cup is out of his league. He knows if he absorbs his lessons on this trip, and takes his chances, it is not beyond the realms of possibility.

It was a day to savour for Taranaki; yesterday, heralded not only Eaton's arrival, but also a recall for hooker Andrew Hore and a place for aggressive flanker Chris Masoe.

Hore has been out of favour since the last of his six test appearances off the bench against Australia 15 months ago, but got in at the expense of Canterbury's Corey Flynn, whose lineout throwing has been ordinary.

Masoe's versatility, a strong season for Taranaki and the selectors' desire to look at all the alternatives got him in ahead of the luckless Marty Holah.

Assuming Eaton and Masoe get some game time, they will take Taranaki's All Black representation to 48, behind only the big four of Auckland, Canterbury, Wellington and Otago.