Never say 'break a leg' to this trouper

LILLE - On the stage, "break a leg" is a good-luck wish. In sport, it can mean the end of a career.

That threat was hanging around flanker Jerry Collins just over a year ago when he broke his right leg just above the ankle and had a steel rod inserted after a freak collison with Mark Mayerhofler during the NPC.

Collins' surgeon suggested the loose forward have at least a season away from the sport which had already pushed him to New Zealand Colts status.

Tomorrow, Collins will wear the black No 6 jersey for NZ A when they begin their tour against the French Barbarians at Lens.

It would have been a dramatic rise to prominence anyway for a young man who turned just 20 at the weekend. Overcoming his serious injury made Collins' ascent more remarkable.

"The doc said I should have a long rest but he also left the door open," Collins said yesterday.

"If I worked hard on my rehab and had no problems then he would reassess things."

In April, Collins played his first club game. He made the NZ Colts for the second year and with a storming NPC is in the NZ A touring party in France. He worked extra hard to get there.

As soon as Collins was allowed to run after an initial three-month healing process, he reckoned his leg took a couple of months to work properly. Even now, he says, the reactions in his leg are still slow.

He has been told it might take 18 months before he gets the full range of movement.

But like his father, Collins has a very tough streak.

Frank Collins has done manual work all his life, a drive which prevented him playing regular sport, though the 49-year-old still turns out as a prop for the Paremata club in the senior seconds.

Son Jerry has never played against him as he captains the Northern seniors.

Desperate to make the NZ Colts again, Collins went back to his old holiday job on the rubbish trucks as a get-fit-quick scheme.

"It was great. I was doing five days a week starting early finishing at lunch and it got me going again," said Collins. The versatile flanker got the NZ Colts recall, played blindside, then No 8, for Wellington when Filo Tiatia was hurt, and then forced his way into the NZ A team.

He down-plays suggestions that it would be harder for young forwards to make that squad rather than young backs.

The youngest member of the squad, Collins reckons it is getting very tough to be a back in rugby these days.

"People make a big deal about size in the forwards but you don't have to be that big to be good," he said.

"Look at George Smith, the Wallaby flanker.

"He is only about 90kg and he is playing great rugby."

Collins is a good size at 1.90m and 103kg, though he reckons his shape is a bit like his dad: "Good up top, but skinny legs."

As a young boy, Collins moved from his native Samoa to Wellington, where he began rugby at about 11 before two years in the First XV at St Pat's College.

Now it is full-on footy, though he is doing some papers towards an arts degree as well.

As reported in the Herald yesterday, NZA lock Dion Waller confirmed his role as the preferred cover for injured pair Troy Flavell and Norm Maxwell by training with the All Blacks yesterday.

That effectively quashed radio speculation yesterday that Waller had not been called up as backup for Flavell and Maxwell.