Striding in his father's steps

By WYNNE GRAY

Angus MacDonald is in a select "sons of" group in the Super 12.

When he made the Blues this season, he joined others such as Daniel Braid, Ben Hurst, Bryce Robins, Anton Oliver and Paul Williams whose fathers wore the All Black jersey.

It is a tag Macdonald is both proud of and would one day like to alter as his Blues team-mate Daniel Braid did last year when he followed his father into the All Blacks.

A letter before Christmas gave MacDonald a whiff of what that elevation would involve.

It was an invitation from the All Black selectors to attend a training camp to assess more than 40 of the country's top players.

"I had been stoked to get in the Blues and then to get that letter, I was just over the moon, I was staggered," Macdonald recalled. "I didn't even realise they knew where I lived."

That taste of the top action was great for the 22-year-old AUT business studies student, but he then had to wait some time until his first start in the Super 12.

It was an auspicious beginning, whistled into the team as blindside flanker against the champion Crusaders after skipper Xavier Rush withdrew with injury.

Macdonald coped well in the startling Blues victory, but had to wait for another start until the road-trip in South Africa, when he filled in at lock for the injured Vula Maimuri.

That solid work has been rewarded with selection at flanker tomorrow for the Blues match at Eden Park against the Sharks.

Macdonald's versatility helped in his Super 12 selection after limited appearances last season for Auckland, but he would prefer to specialise on the blindside.

He is roughly the size of his father, Hamish, who locked the All Black scrum in 1972-76, but he favours getting out and about more than working in the engineroom.

Father and son often muse about the game, which has moved as far as the Macdonald family when they sold the Northland sheep farm and shifted to Auckland in the mid-90s.

As a youngster Macdonald remembers watching his father play rugby, for the first and last time, when his mother took him to a social game.

"It was some Golden Oldies match at Kaikohe and some joker was running near the sideline and dad knocked him out with his elbow. I remember mum abusing dad and saying he wasn't a very good influence."

Since then Macdonald has watched his father only on film, on the rugby channel on Sky.

Macdonald never felt burdened by his identification as the son of an All Black when he boarded at Kings College, where he, Braid and Ali Williams were part of the first XV.

He has been a regular selection in national age-group teams, and it was on the under-19s tour to France in 2000 that he first played as flanker rather than lock. Intriguingly, All Black selector Mark Shaw coached the forwards and made the call.

"He suggested I switch, and I think it probably suits my build better. It also gives me more chance with the ball, and it is where I would like to specialise," Macdonald said.

He considered that a wise decision last week when he lined up as a temporary lock against the Stormers in Cape Town. Competing against 2m tall, 125kg locks such as Quinton Davids was a tough slog.

"I was happy to have a go, but they're huge men and it showed when we got blown off the ball early on. But we recovered, and have to do that against the Sharks as well."