Blues v Stormers
Eden Park, 5.30pm today
Jerome Kaino's line-in-the-sand moment came early this season when the All Black coach came knocking.
Graham Henry, and Pat Lam, had a message for Kaino that the No 6 didn't want to hear, but needed to.
In not so many words, they told him to pull his finger out. They
were tired of seeing a world-class player one week, a virtual passenger the next.
The man who turned 27 this week sat and listened, vowed to do something about the inconsistency - and has been as good as his word.
Still, it can't have been easy for him to be called out by the two men effectively in charge of his career.
"He took it really well," Lam said. "The one thing you want is honesty and he took it straight down the barrel if you like, and he's responded."
To help, Lam decided to reduce Kaino's off-field leadership role, while increasing the onus on him to be an on-field leader.
"In the last couple of years Jerome has always been in the leadership group as far as off-field stuff goes," Lam said. "I realised this year that for him it's not a priority, it's about leadership on the field, the strategy side of the game, as a lieutenant to Kevvie [Mealamu].
"He's done a lot of work on the game as a whole, rather than just his position. His understanding of that enables him to do his job better and to see the bigger picture."
Also helping Kaino's transition from occasionally brilliant to consistently excellent was the fact that he was intelligent enough to recognise his shortcomings and had his own ideas about why he scaled peaks and succumbed to troughs.
Part of it was due to a lack of clarity about his role, part was due to the fact that, at All Black level at least, he was never sure whether he was going to play and if so, for how long.
In Lam's Blues team there has been no such ambiguity. He starts at blindside flanker and unless injury intervenes, he's expected to go the full 80.
"I'm a mile ahead of where I was the past couple of years, especially on the consistency side of things," Kaino said. "I'm just enjoying focusing on one position at the moment and also getting 80 minutes. That's got a big part to play."
Another factor to consider when assessing Kaino is that he is only truly effective when he plays on the physical edge, like his bone-bruising performance against the Bulls last week. Such was the impact of that game on his body that he did not train properly again until Wednesday.
"I woke up on Sunday morning and I could barely walk, Monday and Tuesday I was still a little bit sore. But, you know, winning and playing well eases a bit of the pain."
So do the dreaded ice baths and the not-so-dreaded massage table. But the best aid to recovery is something much simpler.
"When you wake up and you're really, really sore and the boys have got the result you wanted, you can sit back and relax and do the recovery with a smile on your face."
Kaino has picked the perfect time to peak as a rugby player. He admits to the odd look over his shoulder at the form of his All Black rivals. He would see Adam Thomson enjoying a strong campaign in a weak team and would notice also that Liam Messam had become a more complete player this season for the Chiefs. Victor Vito, too, is starting to fulfil his immense promise at the Hurricanes. What Kaino has more than the others is the ability to put murderous hits on his opponents.
"A massive tackle always gets the excitement up - that pushes the buttons these days," he said.
His performance will again be pivotal to the Blues' chances when they take on another South African side noted for their confrontational style, the Stormers.
"If anything, the Stormers will be a lot more competitive this week because they know what we're capable of," Kaino said. "It's important for us that we leave that game against the Bulls behind. Yes, we did well in that but we're still eighth on the table."
BLUES v STORMERS:
Blues
Isaia Toeava
Joe Rokocoko
Rene Ranger
Benson Stanley
Rudi Wulf
Stephen Brett
Alby Mathewson
Viliami Ma'afu
Serge Lilo
Jerome Kaino
Anthony Boric
Kurtis Haiu
John Afoa
Keven Mealamu (c)
Charlie Faumuina
Stormers
Gio Aplon
Sireli Naqelevuki
Jaque Fourie
Juan de Jongh
Bryan Habana
Peter Grant
D Duvenage
Duane Vermeulen
Francois Louw
Schalk Burger (c)
Andries Bekker
Adriaan Fondse
Brok Harris
Tiaan Liebenberg
JD Moller
Blues reserves: Tom McCartney, T Mailau, Filo Paulo, Peter Saili, Chris Smylie, Luke McAlister, Paul Williams.
Stormers reserves: Deon Fourie, Eusebio Guinazu, Anton van Zyl, P Louw, Ricky Januarie, W de Waal, Tim Whitehead.
