CHIEFS v BLUES
WEEK OFF: CRUSADERS
training group in 2010. No doubt the Auckland-based franchise had its reasons for cutting the halfback from their programme but, upon reflection, it clearly wasn’t their greatest call.
The following year Jamie Joseph asked Smith to join the Highlanders as back-up to All Black Jimmy Cowan.
In doing so, Joseph made one of the best finds since Gabriel Read discovered the yellow stuff in Otago in 1861.
‘‘Some athletes have struggled this year with so much uncertainty . . . I have something I can turn on and off.’’
Portia Bing on combining athletics with working for the Serious Fraud Office
4. Loose forward Kazuki Himeno is poised to make his debut for the Highlanders, having been listed on the bench.
Southlanders, more than anyone, may be scrutinising the Japanese international’s every move.
They had hoped Stags skipper and back rower Tony Lamborn, who was named Stag player of the year, players’ player and supporters’ player of the year in 2020, would get a deal with the Highlanders.
Instead ex-Crusaders No 7 Billy Harmon was signed, and Himeno has been flown in from Japan. Lamborn was left right out. That must have stung.
5. Former Chiefs assistant coach Tabai Matson has landed the job as NZ under-20 coach.
Matson replaces Craig Philpott, now the head of the PE department at Scots College in Wellington.
Matson previously worked under Warren Gatland and Colin Cooper at the Chiefs, but didn’t have his contract renewed after 2020.
If a trans-Tasman travel bubble is approved, Matson hopes the under-20s will play 3 games in an Oceania Tournament later this year. Under Covid, that’s the best anyone can hope for. sport and travel, she has this other life she can throw herself into which provides security, challenges and opportunities.
It is a big reason why Bing, ahead of the national track and field championships in Hastings (today and tomorrow) was in a decidedly relaxed frame of mind.
The Aucklander still has work to do to seal a spot in Tokyo. She recently broke the New Zealand resident’s record for the 400m hurdles in Hamilton with 55.99 seconds (her national record of
55.86s was set in Sydney in 2019). The Olympic automatic entry standard is 55.40s which Bing believes is well within her reach. At present she sits 24th on the world rankings which would likely earn her a spot in the
32-strong field for Tokyo if she can maintain it.
The feeling is one more sub-56s performance could be enough to both seal her selection and maintain her lofty ranking – and there is a chance that could be