Umaga still stands out from crowd

Photo: Photosport

STANDING OUT: Tana Umaga is enjoying his role as assistant coach at Toulon but says one day he will permanently return to New Zealand.

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Like a new widow who still talks about her late husband in the present tense, Tana Umaga unconsciously uses "we" when he refers to his former team.

It has been four years since he last donned the black jersey but considering he is in the same city as Jonah Lomu and the All Blacks, can you really blame him for mixing up his tenses?

Having witnessed Italy fall to a version of the All Blacks in Milan a fortnight ago, Umaga will be in the stands again this morning as New Zealand attempts to win back the Gallaher Trophy from les Bleus.

Umaga drove through midweek from Toulon where he is assistant coach to their Top 14 side and where he lives with his wife and three daughters (his son attends Scots College in Wellington), to catch up with his old mates at their hotel in Marseille. And deliberately avoided talking shop.

"I'm still not long left (from) there," he explains. "Being asked to speak (to the All Blacks) is something I'll expect when I'm 50 or 60.

"As a player, I don't have to advise them on anything, they're getting enough of it from everywhere else. I just come in as a friend, and the last thing I would want is to put up with a mate who wants to tell me what he thinks is wrong with our team."

Instead, he does talk up France's Top 14 competition and what it is doing for the national team.

"It's a good competition here and it really prepares them for the test match ring because it's very similar. It's a graft. There are drop kicks. They try to play an open game but if they can't get points that way, they're willing to knuckle down and really work hard at it.

"It's very similar to test match rugby."

As a result, classic French flair has become a casualty of the modern game, says the former All Blacks captain.

Financial accountability has taken the wheel of test rugby and its cargo of coaches and players can only hang on if they get the results expected.

"It's not so much how you win but if you win, that's the key," he said.

"Whether it's by one point, three drop kicks or 10. Everyone asks what about the familiar flamboyant French rugby? But it's a thing of the past, really. With professionalism obviously there comes a responsibility – not just to the owners but to the fans – to give them what they want so everyone goes away happy.

"The players get told win any way you can and so that's what they do."

Umaga admits to concerns over this and other directions rugby is taking. He rues the Italy test as a blown opportunity for the sport.

"You had 80,000 people – and they reckon more than 50% were new to the game – and you had a great chance to really support and promote the game. And then you go out and have that.

"I know rugby seems like it's in a state of decline but to have that opportunity and blow it like that ... that's what teams do because it's within the laws. It's just not right."

He doesn't fault the Italians, nor anyone at the pitch level for that matter. Players and coaches will only play to the rules they are given.

"You write something down and we'll try to play to it the best we can. We might border on the right side or the wrong side but we play to it and if we can push it, we will. That's what being a competitor is."

All Black No 961 has a few ideas to bring back the excitement of test rugby's glory days.

"The maul – get rid of it. It's illegal to start off with, because they're obstructing a team from having a chance to get the ball and it slows the game down.

"The ruck – it needs to be cleaned up. I think making it a contest is good but there's too much emphasis on it and the attacking side ends up penalised.

"The defensive team has a lot of advantages at the ruck – they can do what they want."

Umaga joins Graham Henry's public chorus in a desire to see the number of points a team gets from kicking goals reduced.

"I'd make a dropped goal one point. It shouldn't be your first option when you get into the 22 and have forward momentum. It's negative. They (dropped goals) are the easy way out.

"I think the game is all about scoring tries."

When it comes to personal ambitions as a coach, three years in France haven't dampened Umaga's modesty and he skirts around the topic of coaching the All Blacks one day. But it's clearly in the back of his mind.

"I'll see how far I can go with it and I'll end up at home some time.

"To coach the All Blacks is a lot of time commitment, a lot of emotional commitment, and there's a lot involved with it. You need to be really settled in what you're doing and what direction you want to go.

"I have a young family now, I'll wait until they're much older."

Maybe then Umaga will never have to stop saying "we".