KEY POINTS:
The days of blistering five- and 10-minute cameos are behind Lachie Munro.
Glimpses of the player being groomed to inherit the Auckland number 10 jersey have usually been brief over the past two seasons. Typically, they have involved an audacious dummy, step or chip, followed quickly by five more points being tacked on to a healthy Auckland lead as their beaten-down opponents tire.
There will be no more such luxuries for Munro, whose 21 appearances for the province contain just a handful of starts.
Converting the 21-year-old former hockey player from a fullback into a first five-eighths has been a special project of Auckland coaches Pat Lam and Shane Howarth.
Now, with Isa Nacewa and Tasesa Lavea having departed, it's time to see whether that project will bear fruit.
The early signs are positive, with Munro standing out in an otherwise muddled display in the Ranfurly Shield defence against Poverty Bay in Gisborne on Tuesday. His option-taking was sound, passing crisp and kicking game proficient. And his running game was as deadly as ever as he effortlessly carved up the part-timers for two tries to take his tally to 10 in just 21 appearances.
With Blues first five-eighths Nick Evans also having quit the region, it is a big season for Munro, who was passed over for a Super 14 contract earlier this year.
He will certainly get an extended chance to prove himself.
"Pat has given me a heads-up that I will get a good chance this year," Munro says. "I'm looking to take advantage of it, really play well in these first few games and cement a place for the rest of the year."
He has been working hard on rounding out his game to make sure that happens.
"Goal-kicking and kicking around the field has become a strength for me over the last year. I did a whole lot of work on that and through the club season I have been doing a lot of work on defence. I've got that to the point where I am quite confident going into the season."
Lam, too, is confident Munro is ready to be a fixture on the Auckland team sheet.
"I'm very happy with Lachie's progress," he said following the victory over Poverty Bay.
"This is his third year now. He has served a good apprenticeship and he is now very much a big part of this team.
"Obviously he has to maintain that and build on that but he certainly is maturing and growing nicely."
Munro impressed in starts against Southland and Hawkes Bay last season but found his game-time severely curtailed at the business end of the season.
He did get on the field in the final-round when Auckland prised the Shield away from Canterbury, but only for about 20 seconds. Understandably, he is relishing the chance to make a more meaningful contribution.
"I thought I played well in the games I played last year and you are never too ashamed when Isa [Nacewa] comes in and takes your spot," he says. "He was a great player. You do what you can to learn from them when those guys are around. Now it is my chance to show what they have taught me.
"It will be great to get some regular starts and hopefully play well enough to hold on to the spot.
"I love playing for this team. And it is quite neat being one of the senior guys and feeling more of a part of it.
"There is more pressure on me to perform and I am really taking that pressure to heart and working hard."
It says something about the player turnover at Auckland this season that Munro is now considered a senior player. Many of his new teammates are relative unknowns to the wider public but they are hardly strangers to Munro.
"For me they are not new faces because I played a lot with them coming through the ranks.
"For Pat and Howie they are not such new faces either because they have been involved with coaching them through the academy over the last few years.
"A lot of them know our systems really well. There will be a couple of weeks where we really get it right into their heads how Auckland plays and then we'll be looking good again."
He may be right, but their display against Poverty Bay suggests the odds will be firmly stacked against Auckland repeating last season's flawless campaign.
Lam, who will depart after round five to begin his Blues duties, doesn't really expect them to.
Last season was a culmination of four years' work, he said. Munro and his teammates have a little under four weeks to get up to speed.
