Skills shout for attention

By WYNNE GRAY

He is as shy off the field as he has been elusive on it for Waikato.

There is no way Regan King courts publicity, nor does he feel comfortable about it as his NPC exploits have catapulted him into public prominence.

In essence he is a country man, a bloke who plays his rugby for the Hautapu club near Cambridge and who wants to play his sport and leave it at that.

But the speed of his rise and impact in first division rugby has promoted interest in the 21-year-old centre and made him one of the successes of this year's competition.

Last season, King was a fullback or wing for the Waikato Colts, a useful enough player but not one who suggested he was going to make a first division splash this year. It has been a mix of fortune and skill.

With team-mate Keith Lowen on Super 12 duty and another clubmate out for the season, King was shifted into the midfield.

"It was just by chance I had a go at centre and from there it just sort of snowballed," he said.

Hautapu made the semifinals of the club champs, King ended as his club's top tryscorer and was picked in Waikato's NPC squad. By arrangement, King's work as a groundsman at the Cambridge race track became more part-time as his rugby commitments rose.

Waikato coach Ian Foster had scouted the club scene hard looking for a midfielder to join Lowen and Mark Ranby as Waikato sought to replace the departing Scott McLeod. King had different skills to complement the physical strengths of the senior pair. "It was the one position I was very worried about," Foster said. "I was after someone who gave me a different perspective. Regan did that in the first game I saw and in the next four or five confirmed it.

"He was not the smash and bash type but someone who offered a lot more subtlety. I like ballplayers in my backline."

Foster's preference for King got an immediate assessment when Ranby damaged his shoulder in the opening NPC match.

The centre has shone, helped by Lowen shifting to second five-eighths.

At 1.88m and 87kg, King is one of the leaner midfield backs in the first division but his agility, pace, deception and evasive body shifts have made an intriguing contrast.

King comes from a rugby league background.

His father was a Junior Kiwi and his son played that sport until intermediate school.

King snr now coaches the backline at Hautapu, where his son, Lowen and Todd Miller form a lethal club combination, one which has offered new provincial dimensions as well.