Uncapped Chiefs winger Lelia Masaga spent today getting his feet back to earth in the All Blacks rugby camp, something that could have been a major exercise if fate had dealt him a different hand yesterday.
Masaga and Hurricanes fullback Cory Jane were the beneficiaries of more bad luck for winger Rudi Wulf, who was ruled out of tomorrow's first test against Carisbrook here.
Scans detected a small fracture to Wulf's left shoulder, suffered at training yesterday, which will sideline him for six weeks and rule him out of initial squad selection for the Tri-Nations.
A reshuffle sees Blues teammate Joe Rokocoko switch to his more favoured left wing, Jane promoted from the bench to the right wing for his first test start and Masaga come on to the reserve bench.
All Blacks coach Graham Henry revealed Masaga was passing through customs when contacted yesterday, ready to board a flight to Samoa with the Junior All Blacks.
Henry grinned when asked what would have happened if Masaga had missed the call and boarded the plane.
"There's parachutes there," he said.
"If they had a fast boat, we would have had it sorted." Masaga, 22, had been looking forward to seeing his grandmother in Samoa after 18 years apart.
"He's got another nice little treat," said Henry, commenting that Masaga can't have been too upset as he had been walking around with a grin since arriving.
"The big thing he has to do is be as relaxed as possible and go out and show why he's a good rugby player.
"We don't want him to be inhibited by the occasion because he's playing for the All Blacks.
"If we try to put too much into his head, he'll get too uptight and won't try to express himself." Jane, 26, came off the bench in the season-ending tour tests against Australia and Scotland before starting at fullback in the midweek match against Munster.
While lacking in experience, Henry believed Jane had the right attitude to succeed.
"He's an uncomplicated young fella. He enjoys having the opportunity and he just wants to get into it.
"I enjoy his attitude. He will go out there and express himself, I'm sure." Emotions were at the other end of the scale for Wulf, who fought back remarkably from a broken neck in 2005 to make his test debut last year.
A broken wrist in February had an impact on the 25-year-old's Super 14 campaign but he did enough to convince the coaches he was capable of replacing the injured Sitiveni Sivivatu.
"He's a better rugby player now than when he was when first selected for the All Blacks, so that's sad for him," Henry said.
"He's a remarkable young guy because he's just taken it on the chin. He's got four more weeks before he can do too much and he'll work hard at his game again and put his hand up again I'm sure."
