All Blacks: Eaton gets a leg up with recovery

Jason Eaton. Photo / Getty Images

As the New Zealand rugby community obsesses about the fitness of one All Black lock, another has slipped quietly back onto the scene.

Jason Eaton has recently recovered from his second anterior cruciate ligament injury in four years. He initially thought he would be out for the year but played three games for the Taranaki development side towards the end of their provincial competition.

He didn't do quite enough to play ITM Cup for the amber and blacks but will be able to launch himself into pre-season training when the Hurricanes assemble on December 13.

It will at least give him a fighting chance of reclaiming an All Black jersey for next year's World Cup. He played Australia, Wales and the Barbarians on last year's northern tour but is something of a forgotten man in New Zealand rugby as more attention is focused on Ali Williams and his troublesome Achilles.

"I don't mind that," Eaton says of his lower profile. "I don't mind sneaking in the back door."

He will have to do more than sneak to convince the All Blacks selectors of his World Cup credentials.

A bit has changed in the last few months. Coach Graham Henry appears well set on Brad Thorn, Sam Whitelock and, fitness permitting, Williams, meaning Tom Donnelly, Anthony Boric and Eaton will be the main contenders scrapping for the fourth locking position.

James Broadhurst, Bryn Evans and Josh Bekhuis are all pushing for attention in a congested locking landscape.

Eaton has a lot of ground to make up. The 28-year-old with a penchant for mullets and bushy beards seemed to be getting back to some of the form that saw him first picked in the All Blacks in 2005 when he ruptured his ACL in his right knee in the Hurricanes' 33-18 win over the Lions in Wellington in March.

It takes time to recover from serious knee injuries - most suggest it takes a year to get up to speed once fully recovered - and it took Eaton nearly two years last time to come close to the sort of form that made him such a good All Black earlier in his career.

At least he has an expanded Super Rugby season to press his case and the All Blacks have four tests before their World Cup opener against Tonga on September 9.

"I'm not expecting it to happen straight away but we have got a longer Super 15 so there's longer to build into things," says Eaton, who missed the 2007 World Cup because of his first knee injury. "It's not the easiest way to make it. Ideally it would have been good to make it [into the All Blacks] this year and now some others are putting their hands up and doing a good job.

"It's not the be-all and end-all. If I have a good season in 2011, it will take care of itself."

He has at least given himself a fighting chance. Initially Eaton thought he would be out for the year but halfway through his rehabilitation he refocused his goals and decided he wanted to play again this season.

"I wanted to get on the track for Taranaki but I wasn't quite up to it," he says. "My fitness wasn't quite there and I needed a couple of games before I warranted selection.

"But the biggest thing about getting back for those three games and four weeks' training was that it's given me a lot more confidence. I won't be going into Hurricanes training wondering if I'm up to it or not."

He has his sights set on playing the Hurricanes' season opener against the Highlanders on February 18 which would earn him his 50th Super Rugby cap.

"I was robbed of it this year," he says wryly.

Now he just needs to steal a World Cup spot.