All Blacks: Slade happy to play second fiddle

Colin Slade doesn't mind playing back-up to All Black first five eighth Dan Carter. Photo / Getty Images

Most All Blacks fans will hope he isn't sighted too often in the upcoming World Cup but Colin Slade doesn't mind.

The key point for fans is that, if Slade doesn't play, it will mean Dan Carter has come through the World Cup largely unscathed and the world's best first five-eighths is crucial to the All Blacks' chances of breaking a 24-year drought.

The debate on Carter's back-up was one that often dominated talk around the water cooler, on the airwaves and in the media for much of the year. There were four main contenders - Stephen Donald, Aaron Cruden, Luke McAlister and Slade - but for much of that time Slade wasn't even in the race.

He broke his jaw during the Highlanders' pre-season and did it again on his comeback against the Rebels. Remarkably, Slade made the final 30-man World Cup squad on the back of only a handful of games, which probably says more about others playing their way out of contention rather than Slade playing his way in.

It's not that the 23-year-old doesn't possess considerable talent. He has a strong all-round game, and his ability to drift back and act as a second fullback under the high ball is an asset, but he's just not Dan Carter. He also had a jittery start against South Africa in Port Elizabeth recently, which caused the nation's collective blood pressure to rise.

The selectors kept faith with Slade and, while he isn't expected to play much at the World Cup, particularly in crucial games, he needs to be ready to slip into Carter's considerable white boots at any time.

"It's great," Slade said enthusiastically. "It's what I want to be. I want to be the second 10 in the country and learn off DC [Carter] and hopefully I will get better myself. That's what has happened so far and I am picking up things as I get more experience. Every opportunity I get to play, I will hopefully take with both hands and real excitement.

"The coaches and I learned a lot from that game [against South Africa]. They were really positive about it. They said there were some things that were good and obviously some other things that weren't so good and stuff I know I am capable of but let myself down on.

"It was a pressure environment in South Africa and a massive test match. It was my first exposure to something that big in a starting position. You have to learn the hard way sometimes and that's certainly what I did. I'm definitely better for it and looking forward to another opportunity.

"I tried a little too hard to prove I deserved to be there. I also put a lot of pressure on myself trying to fill DC's shoes. He doesn't go out there and do everything on his own, he's just a cog in the wheel. While he's a special cog, you still have to function as part of a team. As a first five you just have to run the team and not always look for the individual play."

Slade is mostly thankful he's playing at all.

It's something that often seemed a remote possibility as he was sucking on his smoothies or eating mashed up combinations of chicken and potatoes with a teaspoon (anything bigger wouldn't fit in his badly-damaged mouth). One of the low points came when he bought jars of baby food from the supermarket - it's not something he would recommend, even for infants.

"I was pretty disappointed," Slade said of the second time his jaw broke. "I had worked so hard to get back as quickly as I did and to get a knock the second time really dented my mental state. I was pretty down for a while.

"It was good to hear from the selectors to know I was still in the picture. I had assumed I was an extremely long shot. I was really disappointed but they gave me the motivation to get off the couch and get back training and get back as quickly as I could.

"The biggest frustration was hearing everyone talk about who should be DC's back-up and I couldn't do anything about it. I couldn't prove my point. Instead I was sitting back and sucking on my smoothies. While I hoped it was me, I could only watch the other guys go out and play well. It was tough. I'm just so thankful to be here."