Opinion: All power to funny 'Badger'

In the world of the PC, of the finely manicured yet non-revealing post-match interview, a simple soul like Nick Cummins is a godsend.

Many Kiwis would have got their first prime-time guffaw thanks to the 26-year-old Force winger when he stood in front of Melody Robinson after his team's win over the Highlanders last weekend.

Why are you nicknamed the "Honey Badger", Robinson inquired, likely already fighting to keep a straight face.

Blessed with the oxymoron (a contradiction) of possessing a drawling tone but a quick wit, Cummins cheerfully launched into his well-tread story about watching a doco on "National Geographic ... or Animal Planet ... one of them Fox bloody setups".

"I watched this thing and this honey badger was going toe-to-toe with a male lion," the curly-haired blond enthused. "It was underneath him and the underdog, obviously, on his back, clawing away, one-two.

"Anyway, the big fella got his 'canastas' [testicles] clawed off and he trotted off round the corner and fell over and the badger gets back up and I thought 'what an animal, it's bloody ... that's impressive'."

By this point, Robinson had lost it and her broadcast colleague Scotty Stevenson could make only one assessment: "Best. Post match interview. Ever."

In truth, Robinson and the Sky TV crew knew exactly what they were getting when they requested Cummins for a chat, despite not being the Force captain or one of his team's four tryscorers.

In the past few years, Australian rugby fans or any online surfers hunting for the latest "meme" have had many a laugh at the unique view on the world provided by the boy raised in south Brisbane with seven siblings by a single dad.

A 12-game Wallaby, Cummins expanded on his badger admiration to the willfully bemused, and no doubt confused, foreign press corp when on tour in Argentina and Europe over the past two seasons.

"I like to get in the mindset of the honey badger when I go into contact," he would tell them.

"There's no doubts, no fears. If you can do that as a human, you're killin' it."

How about what he did to earn selection for the gold jersey?

"I've been doing it a good five years now. Lucky for me every bugger fell over and I got a gig."

But surely, Nick, you had to make a few plans to reach the top level? "One of my old man's sayings was 'if you want to make God laugh, you tell him your plans'.

"We're more focused on tredding softly and carrying a big stick."

This bloke is irrepressible, often indecipherable.

After the sterile vein in which the media-managed player trots out the truism of "full credit to the forwards" or opines that useful nugget "we knew what we had to do and came away with the result", you need a fresh-air character like this to break through the cynicism.

Among all the hyperbole around contracts, television rights, referee appointments, and scrum law interpretations, the wide-eyed lad telling you he'll be "going off like a cut snake" if he scores a try gives us a timely reminder that we all play and watch this game for one overarching reason.

It's a bloody lot of fun.