Hungry Smith eyes All Black jersey
Highlanders scrumhalf Aaron Smith is desperate to start his All Blacks career next month and is viewing the match-up with Crusaders stalwart Andy Ellis this weekend as a trial.
The impressive 23-year-old has forced veteran Jimmy Cowan to play a part-time role for the Highlanders off the bench this season and after getting a taste of things at the highest level in the wider All Blacks training squad he cannot wait to make the step up to Test level.
Smith is one of four scrumhalves currently in All Blacks coach Steve Hansen's training squad of 35 players, and is determined to stay in the mix when it is trimmed down to 30 names on Sunday.
Smith told Newstalk ZB that just being in the squad has been a dream come true, and has inspired him to fight hard to stay there.
"I'm chuffed to be here – I'm just trying to learn and soak up as much as I can. It's sort of a dream come true, but it's only the squad so I'm trying not to get too excited about anything," he said.
The nippy scrumhalf knows that if he is to keep his place he will have to outplay the more experienced Andy Ellis when the Highlanders play the Crusaders in Christchurch on Friday.
"I'm just trying to do all the little things right, on the field and off the field, and get my body right to play well against the Crusaders," he said.
Smith believes that the key for him to upstage his Crusaders rival this weekend will be to show composure and slot in with the needs of the team rather than try to do everything himself.
"I'm looking at it like that so I think the key for me will be going out there and not trying to do everything and try 'be the man' or anything, it's just trying to do my job within the team and do my job within our game plan and hopefully that's enough," he said.
