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MARSEILLE - Greg Somerville says he is well undercooked heading into a long-awaited return to test rugby.
The experienced Canterbury prop has played in far tougher tests during his 55-cap All Blacks career than Saturday's World Cup pool C match against Portugal in Lyon, but he can't remember one with as such personal meaning.
More than a year ago he tore his Achilles tendon against South Africa in Pretoria. It was operated on but there were complications, meaning more surgery in January, followed by what seems like a lifetime of recuperation.
"It will be a bit more special than it has been before just because I've been through it and I didn't know if I'd be here again," Somerville said of his return.
"If the operation hadn't gone right on the Achilles again, I probably wouldn't be playing rugby."
Somerville also suffered a poke to eye in the first round of Air NZ Cup rugby two months ago, sidelining him for another frustrating period.
The frontrower said his fitness was now up to scratch but felt conscious about his lack of rugby this year.
"There's no doubt about it, I definitely feel like I need some game time," he said, reflecting on how the eye injury arrived at an inopportune moment.
"I had just reached a point where I felt I could push on because of two or three games I'd had at a good level," he said.
"I'm probably a wee bit back from there now. Although I've kept up training pretty well, there's really nothing like being out there."
The key to a quick recovery had been his relative youth at age 29 and high fitness levels.
"If I was older, say 50, I wouldn't have been able to push it so hard over those first few weeks and not get back into contact as early as I did," he said.
"It would be fair to say I didn't have much time left in the end.
"With the eye it was maybe 50-50. They managed to fix it, they looked after me pretty well."
"As long as I had enough time, I thought I was a chance of making it."
Somerville enjoyed a live scrummaging session early in the World Cup campaign and said it had been a worthwhile to attune him to scrummaging at the highest level.
He packed down against the likes of first-choice props Tony Woodcock and Carl Hayman.
"When I go down against the likes of Woody, I know I'm propping against the best in the world," he said.
There was now pressure on Somerville's hulking shoulders to repay coach Graham Henry and forwards mentor Steve Hansen, who handed him the 30th and final ticket to France after leaving it open to assess his fitness.
"I'm grateful they've shown a lot of faith in me and stuck by me, which I don't think many coaches would have done," Somerville said.
"I've got to show I was a worthwhile selection."
- NZPA
