Rugby: Little back 'home' for shield challenge

By WYNNE GRAY

Boarding school, serious talent and Peter Thorburn altered Walter Little's ideas of a Waikato rugby career.

Aiming for a senior rugby career with the Mooloo men had seemed a natural order for the sports-obsessed Little after being raised in Tokoroa and making Waikato age-group rugby teams.

However, the first stage of his sporting detour came when his parents sent him north to join an elder brother at Hato Petera College, on Auckland's North Shore.

"I still thought after school I would go back home though and work with dad at the Kinleith Mill," Little recalled yesterday.

"All my brothers had been through there and I wanted to follow them."

But Little's array of skills soon had rugby circles buzzing and Peter Thorburn, the original North Harbour coach, circling and noting the skilful midfield back.

"We had a bit of a chat and Thorbs changed my ideas a bit," Little said.

So much so that Thorburn intended playing the schoolboy for North Harbour against the Combined Services in 1987 until a knee injury put that idea on hold.

The debut had to wait until the next season, when the teenager played the first of his 141 games for Harbour. Interestingly, he came on as a replacement against Canterbury for the injured Allan Pollock, who is now Harbour's assistant coach.

Waikato was to be a missed career. Nothing much has changed since Little donned the white, black and cardinal jersey instead of the red, black and yellow.

It has been a remarkable career for the 30-year-old, who played 50 tests until his last All Black appearance in 1998.

He still has that dodgy left knee, the cartilage irreversibly damaged, with medics amazed that Little can still train and play at the top level.

In a sport which has sometimes seemed to go gaga because of professionalism, Little remains one of the very few players at the top level who seem unaffected by the whole process.

Certainly, it has given him a career and he carries on because he is well paid, but you figure his enthusiasm for rugby and being with his mates would have kept him playing anyway.

Little's attitudes and demeanour have scarcely changed from his Harbour debut as a schoolboy through his All Black days to the latter stages of his career. He is real and sincere, as natural off the park as he is in Harbour colours.

Today he challenges again for the Ranfurly Shield, opposing Scott McLeod, who grabbed his All Black place for a couple of tests in 1996 before injuries and form affected his play.

The shield and NPC title have eluded Little and Harbour since the union was founded in 1985. Victory today would pick up the log o' wood and, more importantly, push Harbour towards a semifinal berth.

"We don't really want to be distracted by the shield," Little said. "We are after a win for our NPC hopes, which would then bring the bonus of the shield.

"We are in a better position than last year where our players were a bit iffy because of the pressure. Apart from the Canterbury match, we have stuck much better with the game plan. We are starting to mature a bit."

Little finishes his NZRFU contract at the end of next season and does not discount top rugby after that. New coach Gordon Hunter did not use him much with the Blues in the latest Super 12 season, though Little wants to have another crack next year.

"But first I have got to perform in the NPC and help some of the younger players. The All Blacks may be past tense. There is a lot of talent and I have been there and done that, but I am still keen about all my rugby."

He is especially eager about today's Ranfurly Shield challenge.

"I have played in Hamilton quite a few times for Harbour and the Chiefs and there is a lot of attitude there with the crowd and the cowbells," he said.

Little played on Rugby Park as a youngster and his parents will be in the crowd again today as the midfield back comes "home" on his latest rugby mission.