KEY POINTS:
Daniel Braid will be keeping his mobile phone close over the next few days.
The Auckland openside came through yesterday's Ranfurly Shield defence against Poverty Bay in Gisborne having suffered nothing more than a slight shiner.
The calf injury that ruled him out of New Zealand Maori's Pacific Nations Cup campaign didn't bother him at all.
With All Blacks captain Richie McCaw still sidelined, Braid seems likely to be called up as the team's specialist fetcher for the Bledisloe Cup opener against the Wallabies on July 26.
"The calf is feeling good," Braid said following Auckland's patchy victory over the plucky Lochore Cup champions.
"Fitness-wise I was a little fatigued from playing 70 minutes on the mud on Saturday [in a club game]. But I worked into the game, got a few turnovers and was strong in the contact. And the calf was 100 per cent.
"I'll play another club game on Saturday and then I'll wait for a phone call."
If that call comes it will herald a second chance at international level for Braid, who last played for the All Blacks at the 2003 World Cup.
His status as McCaw's backup was confirmed when he was named in the All Blacks train-on squad at the end of the Super 14 but he initially thought the calf strain he suffered against Fiji on June 14 would rule him out of the Tri-Nations.
After spending so long in his shadow, watching McCaw damage a knee ligament against England just a week after his own injury had been hard to take, Braid admitted.
"It was pretty tough for me when I saw that. I thought when I first did [my calf] it was a really bad injury. Then [McCaw] got injured in the test match the week after and I was pretty down. But after that I went in and saw the physio and it wasn't as bad as it first seemed. From then on, I've been really positive, getting the calf right and getting my fitness up so that if I do get a crack I can really take the chance well."
Another All Blacks hopeful, wing Joe Rokocoko, won't feature in the Tri-Nations. Rokocoko's comeback has been put back after he consulted his surgeon and found his wrist was healing slower than expected.
Rokocoko travelled with the Auckland team but his input was limited to promotional duties. Coach Pat Lam confirmed the winger won't play again until late August or early September at the earliest.
Lam was happy enough with Auckland's performance against the Heartland minnows but he will know he has his work cut out getting a team that yesterday featured seven debutants up to speed in time for their national championship opener against Counties in a little under three weeks' time.
"Obviously we have still got plenty of things to work on but the key focus for us was getting our structure right and I was pretty pleased with that," Lam said. "The understanding of where we were supposed to be and what we were trying to do was very good. It was just a case of not executing it well, too many errors. But those little errors you can tidy up."
"Plenty to work on" looks a bit of an understatement.
Poverty Bay were willing enough, putting plenty into the early scrums and throwing themselves into the rucks with reckless abandon.
But that had little to do with the unforced errors, the poor option taking and the obvious lack of communication and cohesion Auckland exhibited.
The jury is certainly still out on whether many of the new players are up to the task.
Wing Jarek Goebel, for one, endured a torrid debut, shelling two simple kicks as Auckland struggled to find their feet.
They finally did so thanks to the individual talents of first five-eighths Lachie Munro, who scored two tries and landed five of six conversion attempts.
With playmakers Nick Evans and Isa Nacewa among players having quit the Blues region, the national championship shapes as a crucial campaign for Munro.
Number eight Chris Lowry was another to impress. His 80th-minute try pushed Auckland's score beyond 50. But considering Hawkes Bay's development team put 96 unanswered points on this opposition a week ago, it was little reason for celebration.
"I think there was a little bit of young guys expecting to walk out there and do superman stuff because they had the blue and white hoops on," Braid said.
