All Blacks hooker Andrew Hore will be a hard nut for the Wallabies to crack, reports Phil Wilkins.
It's the age-old story with an international rugby hooker like Andrew Hore - he's had his arms around more partners than Casanova had lovers.
Over a century of trans-Tasman Tests, they have worshipped the ground that All Blacks walk on in New Zealand, especially the grim, eat-'em-alive characters of the legendary past like Colin "Pinetree" Meads, Frank Oliver, Billy Bush, Alex "Grizz" Wyllie, Mark Shaw and Richard Loe, forwards who have made New Zealand rugby renowned for many reasons, historic and notorious.
They were men so tough, so hard, they might have lived in the mountains and grown up as kids playing in the frosts and icy southerlies before coming down to the plains to bind on their boots and receive the black jersey and silver fern.
You're correct: you probably would have got a shock if your daughter had walked through the front door with one on her arm, especially in hobnails.
Hore may have a warm, inner-glow, but he keeps it well hidden. He is 110 kilograms of beetle-browed, single-mindedly ambitious, obstinate, industrious forward, suitably hard-boiled and cunning for the man-to-man warfare of international front-row play.
Now 29 years of age, Hore came out of New Zealand's south, from the beautiful university town of Dunedin, breaking into provincial rugby 11 seasons ago for Otago against Southland, playing Test rugby against England in 2002.
In the intervening years, he has often been in the national squad or on the fringe of it, kept at arm's length by hookers such as Anton Oliver, Keven Mealamu, Corey Flynn and Mark Hammett.
In last year's World Cup, coach Graham Henry preferred Oliver to start the Tests because of his scrummaging prowess and Mealamu to finish them for his around-the-field attacking skills. Hore accompanied them to France and Wales, essentially for sightseeing purposes.
In Wellington for the Hurricanes' Super 14 clash with the Western Force this year, Hore was surrounded by internationals in props Neemia Tialata and John Schwalger, lineout forward Jason Eaton and back-rowers Chris Masoe and Rodney So'oialo. Henry was an attentive observer.
Hore has developed an unlikely cult following for his try-scoring heroics, burrowing through the Hurricanes' driving mauls from lineouts to secure tries, invariably granted after numerous television replays. He would be the first to acknowledge they would not occur without a tremendous pack around him.
Watching the black head-geared hooker in action that night, scoring a close-range try in the 12th minute, accepting teammates' congratulations without a smile, television commentator Ian Smith sighed wistfully: "He's a throwback to the good old days."
Henry obviously thought so, too.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Critics took a long look at the forward combination Henry, Steve Hansen and Wayne Smith chose against Ireland and described it as a "new-look pack".
So they were without that flailing strand of barbed wire of the back row, Jerry Collins; the best tight-head in Test rugby, Carl Hayman; hooker Oliver; and strong-arm lock Keith Robinson from the team beaten 20-18 by France in the World Cup quarter-final in Cardiff last October.
The Test pack chosen to play Australia in the Bledisloe Cup in Sydney is hardly a "baby Blacks" combination, with a front row of Hore; tight-head Greg Somerville, who began his record-breaking prop career for the All Blacks in 2000; loose-head Tony Woodock, who started for New Zealand in 2002; lock Ali Williams (2002); dual international Brad Thorn (2003) and back-rower So'oialo (2002).
With typical conservatism and modesty, Hore said: "I'm starting to feel like a real All Black, and enjoying it. I've been chipping away at the All Blacks for a few years now, and getting a few starts in a row is really pleasing. I'm getting starts and stuff so I must be doing something right."
