Hurricanes' halfback TJ Perenara has to wait before he heads off to the races.
As the drums continue to beat louder for Perenara to pull on an All Blacks jersey this year, coach Steve Hansen said they were keen to let the 20-year-old play on at Super Rugby level beforehe was rushed on to the international scene.
Perenara has been one of the more puzzling omissions from the All Blacks' wider training groups this season with four halfbacks, Aaron Smith, Andy Ellis, Tawera Kerr-Barlow and Piri Weepu all named to joined the camps.
Hansen said despite the buzz about the youngster, who only turned 20 in January, he was in no rush to pull him in to the All Blacks and likened his development to training a winning race horse.
"I know everyone's excited about him, because we are," Hansen told media today.
"But if you use a horse-racing terminology, you don't take a two-year-old and start him in the Melbourne Cup, do you? You wait till he's ready to be in the Melbourne Cup. He's still an under-20 player and there's no doubt that at some point in his career, if he continues to do what he is doing, he will play for the All Blacks. Our job is to make sure it's at the right time. You've got two other young players [Smith and Kerr-Barlow] that are playing particularly well as well. We've got a couple of guys that have got runs on the board [Weepu and Ellis] and we just need TJ to keep doing what he's doing, get a bit of a training age and when we let him loose I'm sure we'll see something special. But people don't need to panic, we know he's a good player and we are just being patient and he's just a young two-year-old. He's a young colt, we don't need to rush him."
The second All Blacks training camp got underway in Wellington today, which came on the back of another handy display from Perenara as he helped the Hurricanes destroy a woeful Melbourne Rebels team 66-24 at Westpac Stadium on Saturday night.
Perenara's rapid rise has been well documented; he made his provincial debut for Wellington as an 18-year-old schoolboy out of Mana College in 2010 before beginning this year's Super Rugby season as the third-string halfback.
But a hat-trick in his first start for the franchise against the Western Force in March announced he was here to stay and he has seemingly improved every week since.
Smith has been impressive for the Highlanders this year, while Weepu's form has been underwhelming for a struggling Blues outfit and Kerr-Barlow has split time on the paddock with Brendon Leonard at the Chiefs in recent times.
Jimmy Cowan's impending departure overseas, coupled with Weepu's inconsistency and fitness problems appear to have pushed the Crusaders' Ellis right up the pecking order and the 28-year-old is a good bet to start in the No 9 jumper in next month's three-test series against Ireland.
Hansen names his 30-strong squad to meet Ireland on Sunday, June 3.
