Hika Reid inspires Lion-tamers

Corey Flynn

A visit to cancer-stricken former All Black and Maori hooker Hika Reid inspired Corey Flynn to deal with the frontrow battlefield against the Lions.

Flynn described the match as one of the toughest physical confrontations he had ever endured, but one he survived after seeing how Reid coped with his illness.

Reid, diagnosed recently with leukaemia, has been having a course of chemotherapy in Hamilton, treatment which has not stopped him manufacturing his own fitness course in the hospital corridors.

Flynn, frontrower Greg Feek and some Maori officials spent some time with Reid last week before they were told to disappear and concentrate on beating the Lions.

"Typical Hika, he said don't bring any more of the boys in here, I want them focusing on the game," Flynn recalled after Saturday's historic 19-13 victory.

"He is in good spirits. He can't be stopped. A lot of people with cancer sort of sit back and relax, but he is up at 5 in the morning and running the corridors.

"He has paced out the corridor. It is 250 metres round, and he is moving around that. He is an inspiration, and was for me this game. He is such a passionate man and gave so much for this team. We were rapt we could do it for him."

Reid had finished his chemo course by the weekend but watched the match on television. Flynn missed an All Black recall yesterday, making the New Zealand Juniors instead, but was a key figure in the bellicose Maori style.

Nothing in the Super 12 this season, he said, compared with the frontrow conflict that he, Carl Hayman, Deacon Manu and then Feek had with the Lions' frontrow of Andy Sheridan and Gethin Jenkins, Steve Thompson and Julian White.

"We knew they were going to come at us in the forwards, and we did not want to not go at them as well. And that is the way we approached it.

"We thought, bugger it. The Maori have been known for their expansive play, their wide running ... that sort of stuff, and we made a call during the week that we were going to take them on, and that was it."

Flynn sympathised with referee Steve Walsh who endured a number of scrum resets, flare-ups, false starts and appeals from both sides as the beefcake boys did their stuff. Referees wanted matches to flow but had to make sure scrums were stable, said Flynn.

"I would hate to be a referee. That's the thing. You have got eight guys wanting to kill us and we do not want to take a bloody backward step, so we want to kill them, and there is obviously going to be a fair bit of power in that middle.

"Like there were a thousand scrums out there. They are a big pack and they kept coming at us, and we went at them and it was a real ding-dong scrap.

"I was totally buggered at the end. It is the old saying, you have got to keep going. It is all about getting through that mental barrier."

So what about the Lions' front row?

Flynn accepted the Lions had been able to wheel the Maori scrum a few times and crabbed it across field. But towards the end he felt the Maori were getting the edge.

"But I found they were pretty destructive. They are strong and [tighthead prop] Julian White loves to turn in and stuff like that, but it is just the same old ding-dong battle.

"There was a bit of niggle there to start. We were fired up with plenty of passion, being Matt Te Pou's last game, Carlos Spencer's last game and Hika Reid coming down with leukaemia, so there was a lot of passion."

He said the Lions' front row worked well.

"The All Blacks are going to have a good fight on their hands. I am sure White will be there. He is big, pretty destructive and whoever plays loosehead for the All Blacks is going to have to look after him very well.

"Thompson is the biggest hooker I have seen. He is several inches taller and kilos heavier, but we did not take a backward step."

Flynn was penalised for clipping Thompson, a punishment he accepted while adding it was retaliation for a neat jab.

Before the game Flynn felt he had been under too much pressure, "and I took myself out, had a yarn with Greg Feek who said go out and enjoy myself again. It has worked."