Seeing grown men reduced to fan boys cheering for the ball to find its way into the hands of a youngster with a sprained knee ranks as an early contender for one of the sights of the 2015 Bay of Plenty sporting year.
The fact said youngster, former Rotorua Boys phantom Mason Walker, was even on the paddock in the play-off for third against a huge Wellington side at last weekend's Bay Engineers Provincial Sevens in Mount Maunganui was noteworthy enough.
Minutes before, dressed to play but with a heavily bandaged knee, the young man they call "Mase" had seemed less than sure he was good to go. But he played the second half on a bad wheel and burned the men from the capital with two 50m tries in as many minutes - the second of which featured his trademark swerve and hammer down to the outside - bordered on the absurd. Bay of Plenty men's Sevens coach Peter Woods said he had not given his young flyer, who now plies his trade in club rugby for Mount Maunganui, much of an option.
"He sprained his knee in the first game and I said to him that if he didn't play the last seven minutes he wouldn't play at the nationals," Woods said.
"Then he went out against Wellington and scored those two 50m tries. He was on one leg that day."
