Spencer back to his brilliant best

By WYNNE GRAY

Well before Auckland training is due to begin Carlos Spencer is into his goalkicking routine. He imagines conditions he will have to deal with tonight at the Cake Tin in Wellington.

The wind there swirls and can be more tricky than Athletic Park, where it blew hard, but generally straight.

Spencer drills most of his kicks between the sticks, as if to answer assistant coach and goalkicking whiz Grant Fox, who has balls placed on a variety of tee levels nearby.

At some stage, Fox would like Spencer to lower his ball flight. Spencer will refine his style over summer, but his task now is to raise the percentages on his present style.

It is another contest for Spencer, a player of huge creativity who keeps asking questions of the national selectors.

He has played 14 tests in an erratic journey, while Auckland, aside from some occasional positional dalliances, have consistently asked him to run their rugby.

Spencer played the first of his 85 games for Auckland eight years ago, a teenage talent from Levin who had impressed his new employers when they had taken the Ranfurly Shield on tour.

Unlike some with his natural flair, Spencer works incessantly to improve those gifts and remains an example for the younger players in the squad.

Spencer turns 27 on Monday and has made a vigorous return to the NPC this season after more than a month out with injury.

He played the first few games wearing new artwork on his arm to acknowledge his grandparents' Maori ancestry, and headgear to guard against another knock like that which sent him to hospital with a cracked eyesocket when the New Zealand Maori side played the Barbarians in late June.

He also played at fullback, though he often came in to play as a pivot after several phases. But when Auckland needed to change, when they had no more chances in this NPC, Spencer was whistled back into five-eighths.

"Look, it is good to be back there, but the way the forwards went against Otago it made my job a lot easier. It would have been a top day to have played at fullback as well," Spencer says. "If the forwards do their thing it makes it a lot better for me.

"We will have to hope for that against Wellington. It will all start up front because if you give that team any space they can kill anyone."

Spencer remembers the 2000 campaign when Auckland finished ahead of Wellington, but were then whipped 48-23 in the opening semifinal as Wellington charged to the title.

"This pressure game is the sort of match we all live for, it is all or nothing probably, and I am in a crucial position where there is a lot of responsibility."

Like all in the Auckland squad he tries not to think back to the shock opening defeat against Taranaki. He prefers to look at the gradual progress, with only one other hiccup against Waikato.

But tonight is the biggie, the match which could decide Auckland's season and also allow Spencer to make an All Black return for the tour to Europe next month.