Conrad Smith's Rugby World Cup finally got underway against Portugal. Photo / Reuters
Having survived a game, and then scoring two late tries, All Blacks centre Conrad Smith couldn't understand why the crowd booed his first try against Portugal at Lyon.
Smith got over the line and then stood up a defender in the in-goal area and headed to the goalposts
to touch down.
The crowd at that end of the ground roared its dislike of the move, apparently it is a convention, in France at least, not to try and do that sort of thing in the in-goal area.
"When I came back from scoring I realised they were all booing me. I didn't know what I had done wrong but they obviously didn't appreciate it.
"I was quite happy with what I did, but I know now. When I saw a French guy giving me two thumbs down I put my head down and got out of there," he said.
The two tries were a bonus for the centre whose season has been plagued with injury concerns.
He was meant to be subbed after 60 minutes of play but was left on and he scored in the 71st and 78th minutes.
His injury concerns had made his preparations tough for the game.
"Going into the game I was more thinking about getting through it rather than playing the game. It probably showed as I didn't get into it as much as I wanted to so it was nice to get through," he said.
And the nature of the game made it difficult to settle. Being a high-scoring affair it tended to become loose with more players than usual running through the middle and preventing him getting the ball quite so often.
"I knew that would be the case and I just tried to keep my wits about me," he said.
The backs went into the game with a simple approach, not wanting to give too much away, and he felt it was a policy that largely worked.
But in the end surviving 80 minutes without a hint of injury made it a welcome relief for the man who was rated as New Zealand's best centre on last year's end of season tour to Europe.
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