Hayden Meikle

It was a brief, wet start to an international career but Otago's Adam Thomson left the field after his first test feeling like a real All Black.

It was terrible to watch and far from convincing but this was possibly the ideal result for the purposes of accelerating the healing process.

Carisbrook is already half full for the Tri-Nations test on July 12, and the Otago Rugby Football Union hopes many more seats will be taken over the next two weeks.

Taieri holds a massive lead in the Carisbrook club incentive and looks certain to field a junior team in the curtain-raiser to the test on July 12.

Hundreds of people watched Marc Ellis play a game of rippa rugby with school pupils and Colin Meads hand out the oranges at half-time in the Octagon today.

Former All Black backs Chris Laidlaw and Marc Ellis have endorsed the plan to give All Black first five-eighth Dan Carter a six-month sabbatical.

One of New Zealand's greatest rugby players is in Dunedin today to urge the people of the South to support the Tri-Nations test at Carisbrook on July 12.

Nearly two and a-half years ago I was walking back to my car after covering the national sevens tournament in Queenstown when Steve Martin stopped for a chat.

The first All Black squad in Graham Henry's fifth year as coach will be named in Christchurch tomorrow. Rugby writer Hayden Meikle finds room for one new Otago player in the group of 26.

Megan Hutton and Jenny-May Coffin both battled through the pain barrier to lead the Southern Steel to a comfortable win against the Central Pulse on Saturday.

Their season is in tatters and half their players are gone but the Otago Nuggets can still put up a fight.

Les Fridge has been a football nomad but he is not yet ready to permanently follow his big brother to Dunedin.

An athletic Aucklander, a rugged Cantabrian and a long-striding Otago newcomer are lining up to be Jerry Collins' long-term replacement.

Highlanders captain Craig Newby has been cleared of serious neck damage after sustaining an injury while playing for the Barbarians in England yesterday.

To draft or not to draft is no longer the question - the issue is whether the Highlanders can persuade their bosses to alter a long-standing policy.

This was much closer than it should have been but at least the Highlanders have won their first game in a long, long time.

Jimmy Cowan knows neither he nor any of his team-mates can guarantee a win but he promises the Highlanders will not die wondering against the Lions tonight.