Sport: Perofeta overlooked but still appreciated

Jared Smith

HOW MUCH have we wanted to kiss the selectors of the New Zealand schoolboys rugby team in the past month and a half?

Whatever the baffling reasons they had for deciding there were better utility backs to take on their September-October tour of Australia other than gifted Collegiate and the Hurricanes Under-18 player Stephen Perofeta, those are consigned to history now.

For Steelform Wanganui coach Jason Caskey, it was a God-send - a strong candidate to become a ITM Cup regular and Super Rugby bolter within the next two years now available to run around in Heartland rugby for more than a couple of sporadic matches.

Having debuted against men at 18 years and six months old, Perofeta had already shown glimpses of what was to come when at fullback against Horowhenua Kapiti on August 22, and then off the bench in the shutout of North Otago on September 5 - scoring tries in both matches.

Having missed the schoolboy for over a fortnight on the New Zealand trial camp and then his outing for NZ Barbarian Schools against the chosen ones heading to Aussie, Caskey showed his hand for Wanganui's trip to Paeroa on September 26.

Perofeta was not only back but slotting straight into first five.

It seemed a massive gambit, even with his talent, but both Caskey and captain Peter Rowe were beyond convinced - the kid was ready.

Perofeta would proceed to score five tries in the next two matches, with the Cooks Gardens faithful finally getting to see what all the fuss was about with his glorious hat trick against Poverty Bay on October 3.

Play just seemed to speed up when Perofeta touched the ball - you don't find his kind of acceleration at Heartland level - it's zero to 100km in a instant.

"That's a good performance, he's obviously going places," Rowe opined, already comparing the teenager to the last prodigy chosen to play for Wanganui while still at school - All Black Waisake Naholo.

But that's just what I think and how his team feels about him. Perhaps biased?

Very well, read this snippet from the Wairarapa Times Age scribe Gary Caffell, after he witnessed Perofeta's eighth try in five games during the helter-skelter October 10 match.

"Perofeta came to Masterton with a huge reputation and looked every inch a class act, particularly during the first 40 minutes when his forwards provided him with a constant supply of quality possession.

"His nifty footwork and rapid acceleration often allowed him to probe gaps in what was an admittedly a tentative Wairarapa-Bush defence, and on the few occasions he was forced to put boot to ball he carved off big metreage."

I'm glad Caffell mentioned the kicking, because in my report on that stunning 13-try match I ran out of ink space.

At one point in the first half, Perofeta caught the ball inside his 22m and found two Wairarapa-Bush forwards bearing down at the same moment.

Unable to kick in their approaching direction for the nearer left-hand touch, Perofeta just casually pivoted onto his other foot and sent a booming clearance to the right-hand side, deftly landing the ball well past the halfway.

Potential calamity turned to superior field position in an instant.

Our secret will be out for the wider New Zealand rugby public when Perofeta jogs onto Timaru's Alpine Energy Stadium field for this afternoon's Meads Cup final on prime time Sky Sport television.

Whomever he impresses, the Taranaki Rugby Football Union have already got their hooks into him, as he will be off to join their academy group in 2016.

But at least Wanganui will get a bonus chapter to this story when the young man pulls on the NZ Heartland jumper to face the Australian Barbarians at Cooks Gardens next month.

Not good enough to go on the NZ schoolboys tour, but more than good enough to be the first ever schoolboy chosen for New Zealand's No1 amateur team.

I guess there's no accounting for some people's taste.