Miller reflects on career cut short

1.00pm

Todd Miller arrived on the national rugby scene for Waikato with a bang as an 18-year-old.

Eleven years later his career has fizzled out, his worn-out right knee finally giving up six weeks ago and refusing to see out what was going to be his last season, and robbing him of a send-off game.

"It's not the end that I was hoping for but not surprising according to the medical staff, who have been looking after me for the last five or six years," said Miller, who turns 30 in December.

The knee has been a problem for him for the last couple of years and only careful management of it, including training once a day instead of twice for the last 18 months, has enabled him to get this far.

Miller has already booked "clean-up" surgery on his knee, which has had the cartilage cushioning the bones worn away, but delayed the operation in the hope he could squeeze one more game out of the aching joint if the team needed him.

"We put it off until the end of the season in the hope there would be the opportunity for it to get a bit better and if there was a need I'd be able to play but unfortunately while the need's probably been there the getting better hasn't happened."

Luckily for Waikato, halfback Isaac Boss made an outstanding fist of switching to fullback and Miller said that had made it a little easier for him to sit on the sideline and not think he'd left the team, also without Loki Crichton all season, in strife.

Now he will undergo the surgery to clean up the knee joint as best the surgeon can to enable a reasonable quality of life after rugby before the inevitable joint replacement.

"The hope is that five or six months down the track I'll be able to run around in the park with my kids and not be sore."

That's a far cry from the zippy little Whangarei kid who bounced in to Waikato club rugby back in 1993 with such impact that six games into the NPC he found himself making his first-class debut against Taranaki at the age of 18 -- and scoring a try.

Miller came to Waikato with quite a pedigree -- nephew of All Black legend Sid Going, and a New Zealand Secondary Schools fullback for three straight years.

But even so, no one could have predicted what a part he would play in helping Waikato end Auckland's eight-year Ranfurly Shield reign at Eden Park in only his second game for the province.

"It didn't really dawn on me how important that was until probably '97 when we won it again, which was probably the more exciting of the two games for me because I'd already had a taste of Shield rugby and realised how important it was."

Miller, whose 1994 season was wrecked early on by chronic hamstring problems, took two years off rugby in 1995 and 1996 to go on a mission for the Mormon church and has always steadfastly stood by his no-play-on-Sundays stance.

He made the All Blacks' 1997 end-of-season tour, scoring three tries in the first of three non-test appearances, and said another major highlight of his career was the 2002 NPC season with Waikato which ended with a loss in the final.

"That was probably some of the most enjoyable rugby I've participated in -- off the field and on. It's funny how so many of my highlights have involved Auckland because this year's Auckland game was one of the most fun games I've played in too."

Now it's time for Miller to put his Diploma of Teaching and Bachelor of Education to work. He hopes to become a high school phys-ed teacher.

"It's what I trained to do but I haven't been in a class since '97, apart from a few days relieving at (Hamilton) Boys' High a few weeks ago, so I've got a bit of catchup to do."

While he believes he will have to learn a lot as he goes he hopes he is better equipped now to cope with dealing with young people than he was straight out of teacher's college.

"I've loved rugby but I'm excited about doing something else now."

Then there is Miller's wife Suzanne and three young girls -- Hannah, four, Paris, 2-1/2, and Eden, seven weeks.

Ironically he said professional rugby probably afforded him more time at home with the family during the week and during the summer than a normal full-time job would.

However, don't count out rugby involvement in the future.

In recent years his coaches have rated him one of the best rugby brains in the business and an outstanding backline organiser -- a natural coach.

Whether that happens or not -- and Miller admits he is not a good sideline watcher -- there are no regrets. He is not that teenage rugby prodigy any more and a new life beckons.

- NZPA

NPC fixtures, results and standings
Division One | Division Two |