Rugby: Hail King Kumara

As a former teacher and student of the game, a bloke who soaks up the technical nuances of rugby and likes to keep things interesting, assistant coach Wayne Smith came up with a beauty on day one of the All Black panel's season-long utterances.

Smith leaned across to interject yesterday as supremo Graham Henry neared the end of his opening address to media.

"Ted is like a kumara - old and wrinkly but sweet inside," Smith said.

We waited for the Tui's "yeah right" punchline as Smith continued to tell us that Maori have a saying that kumara do not go around telling people how sweet they are.

"Graham's very humble and gives everyone else credit, but strategically I think he's the best in the world.

"He works hard at it and he's great at it.

"It's a great position for him to be in the coaching sense. It's logical that Graham be that person and it'll align the team brilliantly," Smith said.

So it was confirmed. The footy coach who started his sporting career known as Ted before he morphed into the Great Redeemer during his time with Wales, has now risen to become the King Kumara.