Rugby: Magical pair of Magpies show great potential

One likes listening to roots reggae music and the other gravitates towards rock and indie sounds.

Their choice of favourite rugby players when they were growing up is also worlds apart - Zac Guildford is predisposed to Tana Umaga's leadership qualities while Israel Dagg draws inspiration from Jonah Lomu.

Guildford attended Napier Boys' High School while Dagg went to Lindisfarne College in Hastings.

But those discords give way to a rapport on the rugby field that has many Air New Zealand Cup pundits wildly speculating whether these two Hawkes Bay Magpies players will conjure something in the backline that will pay dividends in the international arena in the near future.

Fullback Dagg and left wing Guildford have in the past few games pulled the Magpies from the brink of defeat in what can best be described as magical.

Commentators and scribes have toyed with the idea of a pairing that could one day be rescuing the All Blacks, almost in the fashion of the Sid, Brian and Ken Going in provincial ranks or the international pairings of "Smoking" Joe Stanley and Warwick Taylor or Walter Little and Frank Bunce.

A more pragmatic look inarguably suggests there's a lot of fine-tuning to do before Guildford and Dagg will grace that echelon of stardom.

Nevertheless, just the prospect of helping groom a magical combination, pretty much a domain for Magpies coach Peter Russell now, must be an itchy proposition for the Canterbury Crusaders and All Black coach Graham Henry and Wayne Smith.

While 20-year-old Guildford has confirmed he is switching Super 14 allegiances from the Hurricanes to the Crusaders next season, Dagg is still mulling over the idea of migrating with his close friend.

"I sometimes talk to Izzy about it [where he'll play] but I never try to influence his decision. It's something he'll have to decide for himself. Of course, I'd love to have him playing in a team with me at any level," said Guildford.

"I guess we're just best mates off the field. We're usually at each other's house hanging around like brothers, doing lunch and things," he says, adding they clock up some serious computer-game time and play poker.

Both Guildford and 21-year-old Dagg had meteoric rises through age-group and secondary school rugby, securing berths in the Magpies team before taking the leap into the Super 14.

Pivotal to moulding their raw talent is the time they spend in training, refining skills such as those that lead to match-saving tries through endless repetition and routines.

"We talk about it. We work on extra skills. Izzy just looks up to see spaces and I just run through and get over the line," he explains.

"When Izzy gets the ball in his hands I get very excited and that's the same for him too. It's a hell of a lot of fun when we put things together," he says of a talented Dagg who also represented Central Districts under-17s as a fast bowler in cricket.

Such fame at an early age can often prove to be detrimental to players' careers but Guildford isn't carried away with such accolades as the highest try scorer (nine) in the Air NZ Cup to date for the Magpies who are in second spot on the table.

The notion of the team and putting together a performance for 80 minutes are crucial to the Magpies making the play-offs, let alone lifting the title.

"We need to be concentrating more for 80 minutes and keeping that momentum," he says, ruling out any complacency against bottom-of-the-table Counties Manukau tonight.

For someone whose earliest memory of rugby is playing for Greytown on a cold Saturday morning in his birthplace of Wairarapa, Guildford isn't looking forward to the big chill that has taken hold of the Bay in the past week.

"I prefer it to be not raining or too cold [tonight] because I have to stand around waiting for the ball to come my way. I love the sun, mate."

The thought of his father, the late Robert Guildford, is forever etched in his mind. His father died this year midway through watching Guildford play in the final of the Junior World Cup in Tokyo, Japan.

"I think of my dad all the time. When I'm playing rugby I always think of him first and want to do him proud."

His father played for Greytown as wing but when he lost his pace he moved to the second five-eighth and centre positions. Guildford treasures his father's words of "go hard or go home".

"I used to be a ballboy and I would run the tee to the centre of the ground and fetch balls for his team," he recalls fondly, revealing how Robert taught him and his younger brother basic skills of the game in their backyard.

Guildford has no qualms about losing himself in fantasy on the odd occasion. He sometimes wishes he had super powers.

"You know it would be nice to fly to somewhere with a bit of magic and not have to go in a car every time you want to go somewhere - you'd save a lot of time," he says with a laugh.

But that jocular vein and flights of fantasy evaporate when he talks about his desire to slip on the All Black jersey some day, accepting experience will be a stabiliser and indicator to his youthful exuberance when he does.

"I know I'm good enough to make it and I'll just keep that belief. Nothing will stop me from becoming an All Black," he says with a steely resolve.

- HAWKES BAY TODAY