Lucky charm answers the call

By CHRIS RATTUE

He is Auckland's lucky charm, the go-to frontrower when the chips are down.

Auckland have won the NPC twice in the last six seasons and the burly figure of prop Scott Palmer was there both times in 1999 and 2002, his only seasons in blue and white. After last year's final, Palmer hung up his medals and settled into life as a new business manager for a commercial bank.

A month ago the phone rang, with Auckland coach Wayne Pivac on the other end. Injuries and All Blacks defections had begun to bite. Would Palmer, who turns 32 next month, be interested in another rugby round?

It was an offer Palmer, who's also played for his native North Harbour, Thames Valley and in France, couldn't resist.

"I was looking forward to watching the NPC, content with what the team managed last year.

"But it's not every day you get asked to play for Auckland, and Wayne and I go back a way. It's a buzz wearing that jersey. I had pretty good habits from a professional rugby career, and I was still going to the gym morning and night.



"I tell the guys I'm the lucky charm. They know they can't win the NPC without me."

Just how long Palmer remains in the squad may depend on how Nick White recovers from a calf injury, and when Sione Tonga-uiha is back from an arm problem.

Palmer will be vital to Auckland's plans tonight, as they face an All Black-laden Otago front row in their NPC opener in Dunedin.

He had just 40 minutes of football against Counties Manukau under his belt when tighthead White departed in the first minute against Samoa last week.

"I was only supposed to play half a game. I was spewing, gutted. It put me into a coma for 10 minutes. I hadn't even played tighthead for four years," he quipped.

While Palmer is a match-by-match proposition, he still harbours an ambition to win the Ranfurly Shield after three fruitless challenges. Auckland may challenge Canterbury in the final round, or even Taranaki in round five.

Meanwhile, after two injury-ravaged seasons, Otago first five-eighths Tony Brown is expected to last the distance tonight after surviving two warm-up games.

Willie Walker, who averaged close to 80 per cent in the Super 12, will take goalkicks, so Brown's back injury is not aggravated.