Umaga happy with win; worried about English cold

Tana Umaga

Wellington Hurricanes and All Blacks captain Tana Umaga headed for London today for next Saturday's tsunami charity rugby match after giving southern hemisphere fans yet another example of his full-hearted qualities at Ballymore on Saturday night.

Umaga was captain courageous as he spearheaded his team to a 24-10 win over the Queensland Reds in their opening match of the Super 12 season.

The 31-year-old was repeatedly the player who made the telling break or the thumping tackle to disrupt the Reds' backline. He made the crucial break and pass for Ma'a Nonu's first half try and once halted a Reds' attack deep in Hurricanes territory, ripped the ball from the tackler and booted it 60 metres down-field to put his team hot on attack.

Afterwards he was sporting a grin and a haemotoma, but he appeared unconcerned at the bruising to his knee and said he was looking forward to the tsunami match, with two regrets.

The first was that he would miss the Hurricanes' match against the Cats at Johannesburg next weekend and the second was the cold English weather.

"My brother is over there and sent me a text. He said it was a balmy two degrees and he was going to the beach."

Umaga said he much preferred the sultry conditions of Brisbane on Saturday night, but added that he was pleased the Hurricanes had had a week on the Gold Coast to acclimatise to the hot, humid weather rather than coming straight from Wellington's cooler weather into the Queensland sauna.

He was pleased with the manner in which the Hurricanes ground out their win, which would give them confidence heading to South Africa for their next two matches. But he said the team needed to tighten up in some aspects, such as ball retention.

"We felt we played down the right end of the field in the first half. We had field position and a lot of possession, but we just did not capitalise and we did make a lot of opportunities. That is something we will work on during the week."

Umaga admitted to some surprise at lock Ross Kennedy's sin-binning in the second half for collapsing a maul, when there had been no prior warning from referee that such a sanction was likely. "But that's the way the ref sees it and we just have to live with it."

Told he could be heard asking for consistency from referee Shaun Veldsman, Umaga said: "I'm there to remind him there are two sides out there and hopefully I have not made an enemy and we can move on and be friends!"

Umaga will head to Durban after the northern-southern hemispheres clash at Twickenham for the Hurricanes' third match against the Sharks in two weeks.

- NZPA