Chuffed Tana Umaga loving life with Counties

BY DAVID LONG AT TRUSTS STADIUM, WAITAKERE

Last updated 06:14 15/07/2010

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Tana Umaga is loving life at Counties Manukau so much he says it's like he's from the province.

The former All Blacks captain played for the Steelers in the first half of their 33-33 preseason game against Auckland at Trusts Stadium in Waitakere last night and afterwards said it's been great at his new province so far.

"I've been back for three or four weeks and I feel like I'm from Counties," Umaga said.

"The guys have been great for us, they've really helped us along.

"They're a young group and I'm getting the old man quips here and there, but that's fine.

"But I'm enjoying my time with them and if you're around young guys it makes you feel younger, but it also makes me feel like I'm adding something, I'm trying to give back as much as I can through my experiences."

Playing his first game in New Zealand since bringing up his 100th appearance for Wellington against Manawatu in 2007, Umaga played well in a game where Auckland blew a 26-0 lead, but no doubt a large proportion of the 663 in the crowd came to this hit out solely to see one man.

Although he hardly set the game alight, it was the type of performance you'd expect from a veteran who hadn't played since May, when Toulon wrapped up their season.

"I was sucking in some big ones at the start, but it was good to get back out there and get the body into some contact again, it's been six or seven weeks," Umaga said.

"I'm feeling alright and the boys really turned it on at the end.

"I probably did too much at the beginning of the week and I was a bit stiff going into it and the Auckland traffic doesn't help because we sat on a bus for an hour and a half and got to the game a bit late."

Despite his 37 years of age, Umaga still demonstrated that he had pace, chasing down Auckland fullback Brent Ward in the seventh minute, swooping onto his former Hurricanes team-mate as he tried to round him.

It took until the 19th minute for Umaga to touch the ball for the first time, taking the ball up the midfield before he was quickly jumped on by two Auckland defenders.

Auckland were in front from the third minute with Tevita Mailau going over for a try and there were to be three more scored by the home side before halfback August Pulu got Counties on the scoreboard with a couple of nice individual tries.

Counties held the upper hand for the second half as both teams emptied their benches, with Uini Antonio, Richie Ah Chong and Samisoni Fisilau all bagging tries in what was a remarkable comeback leaving Counties coach Milton Haig feeling far happier about this game than Auckland's Mark Anscombe.

And Umaga was pretty chuffed with this game too.

"We did some good things today and we'll take them away from this. We've got another preseason game next Wednesday (against North Harbour) and hopefully we're building well for the season.

"There were some things early on that we can improve on, but we're trying to build a bit of heart and grit within ourselves as a squad and I think that showed at the end as a squad and we never gave up.

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"We can take some confidence, but we're not going to be over confident, we know we've still got work to do."

Auckland (Tevita Mailau 2, Tom McCartney, Charlie Faumuina, Jamie Helleur tries; Ash Moeke 4 cons).

Counties (August Pulu 2, Uini Antonio, Richie Ah Chong, Samisoni Fisilau tries; Baden Kerr 4 cons)

Halftime: 33-14

- © Fairfax NZ News