Rugby: Donald ready to enter eye of Hurricane

Stephen Donald (centre) says tonight’s Super 14 semi with the Hurricanes will be at test match intensity. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Stephen Donald is ready.

The man pegged as Dan Carter's All Blacks understudy may be yet to fully prove he is the goods at international level, but when it comes to Super Rugby, Donald is more master than apprentice.

Tonight's semifinal will be the Waiuku-raised playmaker's 61st Super rugby match in just his fifth season. Still just 25, Donald has become the firmest of fixtures in the Chiefs line-up. Since he made his first start, against the Sharks midway through the 2005 season, he has not missed a match.

An unflappable sort, he is taking his customary laid-back approach into what is unquestionably the biggest match in Chiefs history.

"It's just a game of footie at the end of the day," he says.

The scorer of all of his side's points in their last two matches, Donald knows the acid will again be on him tonight. And that's how he likes it.

"You learn a bit about yourself in pressure situations. But this is where you want to be. I'm pretty confident going into this sort of game now. I just can't wait to get out there and enjoy the moment."

The experience garnered from last year's All Blacks campaign, when he debuted against England and went on to play nine tests, has certainly helped that confidence.

The intensity of tonight's match will rival some of those test matches, he says.

"A big Super 14 match like this, it is right up there. Your decision-making time is cut right down, so it is very similar."

Although they have come out on the right side of consecutive nail-biters to earn their home semifinal, Donald admits the traditionally more adventurous Chiefs may have underplayed their hand against the Brumbies and in the round-13 prequel against the Hurricanes.

"We certainly don't want to go into our shells. Maybe in the last couple of weeks we have been a bit predictable. We may have been a bit guilty of going in with some pre-conceived ideas about what we can get away with in the wet weather. Once we realised that we could shift it a little bit we got a bit better."

Showers and a temperature of three degrees are forecast for tonight's game so it remains to be seen just how expansive the Chiefs' approach will be. But, having beaten the Hurricanes for the first time since 2004 just 14 days ago, they will believe they can get the result they need to become the first team to make a Super Rugby final having started a season with three straight losses.

"We needed to get that Hurricanes monkey off our backs," Donald says. "Now that we have, we will go into the semi with a lot of confidence."