ITM Cup: Auckland hooker happy to fly under the radar

Greg Pleasants-Tate in action for Auckland. Photo / Getty

There was an opening in the hooking ranks of Auckland rugby and Greg Pleasants-Tate has taken it with gusto.

The 24-year-old has become a fixture in the No 2 jersey this season after a first-class career that has seen him do time at Bay of Plenty and North Harbour, the latter for whom he played 10 games at loosehead prop last season.

The departures of Tom McCartney to Irish club Connacht and Gafatasi Sua to Counties Manukau saw Auckland coach Paul Feeney get on the phone.

"The shift has been pretty exciting. 'Rat' (Feeney) gave me the opportunity to come over here and play hooker. I enjoy it," said Pleasants-Tate. He signed his contract but still had to perform for his new Ponsonby club. He duly delivered and has since racked up a series of top displays for Auckland, with some skilful touches in open play, witness two try assists last weekend against Tasman, and solid set-piece rugby, especially with his lineout throwing.

"I always wanted to go back to hooker. I played there at school but with James Parsons there at North Harbour I didn't have the opportunity."

Now he is central to an unheralded Auckland tight five, notwithstanding some scrum malfunctions in the last two outings. That tight five sees plaudits directed to the loose trio, the midfield and the back three where much of the tryscoring and razzle dazzle happens.

"We talk about that. We enjoy going under the radar. The likes of Fats (Michael Fatialofa) and Scraf (Scott Scrafton) clean so many rucks and do the hard yards and that allows the loosies to do all their shiny moves!" quips Pleasants-Tate.

They might enjoy going under the radar, but he takes a dim view of second five George Moala stealing their tries in the rucks.

"George stole my ball last week. I was about to roll over the line and he stripped it out of my hands. We call him 'The Burglar,' he laughs. And that is not the first occasion in 2015 that Moala has pilfered tries due to the forwards.

Pleasants-Tate would be the best performing hooker in the Blues region, but he has missed out on one of the three rake positions up for grabs, a strange call. The man himself is philosophical but may well yet be a late addition to a wider training group.

"It's one of those things. That's rugby. I've just got to keep playing and showing my abilities," he said.

In the meantime, there is a whiff of revenge in the air as Auckland ready themselves for tomorrow's ITM Cup Premiership final.

"They came up here and beat us at Eden Park (in August), which hadn't happened in awhile, so we want to get a bit of payback."

The set-piece, if you'll pardon the cliché, is where it all starts, and Auckland have undergone plenty of technical work with Nick White to sort this area.

"We're pretty happy with our lineout and field play. We won all our lineouts last week and got a couple of steals, so we're going well in that department," said Pleasants-Tate.