Rugby: Umaga created huge problems

By Wynne Gray

All year Tana Umaga has been a problem. An obstacle Jonah Lomu could not crack on the left wing for so long and a selection puzzle for All Black coach John Hart as he looked to accommodate Lomu, Umaga, Jeff Wilson and Christian Cullen in his back division.

But Umaga's form has been so good that he had to be picked and would have to be in the group of five players of the season chosen by the New Zealand Rugby Almanack.

But lovers of Lomu's style and field appeal could not have been blamed for sticking pins in any Umaga voodoo doll earlier this year as the dreadlocked wing locked the superstar out of the All Blacks.

Umaga recalls some unflattering letters in newspapers but no one ever came up and had a crack at him - not that he remembers anyway.

What Umaga's regular test selections offered was a glowing compliment about his play which has reached even greater heights than his stellar season in 1997. Lomu's form could finally not be ignored once he got over injury and into full stride, and Hart solved the selection quandary by slotting Cullen into centre.

Umaga stays, as he should when you watch an entire game. He may not have great top-end speed but he is superfit, defends with venom, is safe at the back under the high ball and is constantly working back and forwards with Wilson from fullback or belting the ball into midfield to set up width for his outsides.

Life is pretty good for the 26-year-old Umaga who has 10 tries in his 14 internationals and is at his first World Cup.

"It is what it is all about, you have just go to put pressure on the selectors," he said as he readied for the World Cup semifinal against Scotland, "it is every player's job to make it as hard for everyone as possible.

"No one wants to be a reserve or sitting in the stand."

Umaga was in that position the other day at Murrayfield as he and the All Blacks watched Samoa slide to a playoff defeat against Scotland. At least Umaga is getting gametime while his elder brother Mike, who played in the 1995 World Cup, did not make it onto the field for Samoa.

When you watch the younger Umaga he appears calm and in control but for at least several days before a game he is on edge.

"I worry a lot eh, I like the build-up to be really right. I am a neat person who likes everything like my room and all the day's tasks to be sorted out so nothing is left to chance," he said. "I don't go out for a couple of days before a game, I just stay in.

"If I keep to my routines then I will sleep and run onto the park okay. That system works for me."

It has in 1999 and if there are no pre-match dramas and the weaather remains really fine expect Umaga and Co to try to sort Scotland out wide where the Samoans were able to find a fair amount of space.

"If we can get our forwards to nullify their pack then who knows what might happen out wide where Samoa showed there were some holes. We noticed that and everyone loves to run into space but first we have to get our basics right. But I need to play again, I am ready."

So are we and if the Scots concentrate too much on defending against Lomu or Cullen, the Murrayfield crowd may be giving plenty of ooh, aahs about Umaga.