Kiwi Payne for Boks
Jared Payne is renowned for being a laid-back character and the New Zealand-born utility back reflected this in dismissing the people who question whether he is as committed to the Irish national side as those born in Ireland.
Not for the first time a sportsman has had his dedication to his adopted country queried, but 29-year-old Payne, who will start in a new-look centre partnership with Robbie Henshaw against the South Africans on Saturday, doesn't appear fazed by the doubters.
"They can think and say what they like, it's not for me to tell them what to think or say," Payne told reporters at the Irish team hotel Carton House, the former stately home of the Dukes of Leinster.
"All I will say is that I have lived in Ireland for the past three years [he joined Ulster from the Blues] and I am pretty passionate about the Irish national side.
"To the extent that I came and watched all their matches last season and the November tests last year."
Payne, who also had spells in Super Rugby with the Chiefs and then with the Crusaders before moving to the Blues where he was a virtual ever present for one season, said those who doubted his full hearted commitment to the Irish cause should think about what he potentially gave up.
"It was a huge decision for me to take as by agreeing to move to Ulster I was saying goodbye for ever to the possibility of playing for the All Blacks," said Payne, who represented New Zealand at Under-21 level.
"However, in the end I decided why not take the chance."
Payne, who perhaps is best remembered and probably unfairly by a wider audience for being sent off in only the fourth minute of Ulster's European Cup quarterfinal against eventual finalists Saracens last season, said he hadn't been on tenterhooks every time a squad was named once he became eligible for selection.
"I don't think I would say I've been waiting for this as to me you can't wait for things to happen otherwise they pass you by," said Payne.
"Now that it has happened I am really stoked and very proud. This is a great opportunity for me and I intend to take it."
Payne, who said he had kept his selection fairly quiet in terms of telling friends back home only letting his parents know and that they were 'over the moon', said he and 21-year-old Henshaw, who has been capped just three times, had a daunting task ahead of them.
Not only are they facing one of the strongest centre pairings in the sport at the moment in captain Jean de Villiers, capped 102 times, and 21-year-old Jan Serfontein but they have to fill the large boots of legendary Irish duo Brian O'Driscoll and Gordon D'Arcy.
O'Driscoll, or 'BoD' as he was affectionately known, has retired while D'Arcy is in the Ireland squad but was overlooked for this match as he has just returned from recovering from a heavy knock.
"It is a big ask, this is probably the biggest game I've played in apart from a Super Rugby semi-final, but this is why I play rugby to accept the challenges laid down," he said.
"Robbie is a very good ball carrier and confident too and we've worked well together in training.
"It is true I have been more used to playing fullback so I better expect to make more tackles than I would be asked to at the back!"
Payne, whose parents will watch him on television though his mother could get to see him in the flesh in one of the other two November tests as she flies over next week for a two month stay, says the Springboks better not take his laid back attitude off the pitch as a reflection of how he is on it.
"The Springboks have a very physical attitude and like to impose that on you, and myself and Robbie have just got to match that and not give in to them," he said.
Source: AFP
