All Blacks and Highlanders loose forward Shannon Frizell made his return to rugby at the weekend after the best part of a couple of months on the sideline.
The 28-year-old packed down on the blindside for Taieri in a Dunedin premier game against Southern at Peter Johnstone Park on Saturday.
Taieri won the fixture 41-11 to remain at the top of the competition standings after five rounds.
Frizell stood out with some strong carries in the opening 40 minutes before being replaced.
His troublesome left knee was heavily bandaged, but otherwise as good as new.
He looked very much the same player who was bowling his way through tackles for the Highlanders earlier in the season.
At one stage there was at least three defenders trying to pull him to the ground.
"It is feeling good and I feel all right," he said.
"I started doing a little bit of rugby with the Highlanders last week.
"A couple of occasions I felt a little bit tired, but it was good to get back."
There was a moment in the half when Frizell was trying to bust his side out of its 22m with a robust carry.
He had blokes hanging off him, desperately trying to wrestle him to the ground. They succeeded momentarily. But he placed the ball and muscled his way back to his feet, picked up the pill and took off again.
He had maybe 70m ahead of him and perhaps someone would have caught him. But pulling him down would have been a challenge.
We will never know because the referee blew a fraction too early for a penalty to Taieri.
Frizell reckoned he was more relieved than the Southern cover defence.
"I was thankful of the ref for blowing the whistle because I wasn’t able to catch my breath for about the last 20 minutes," he joked.
Frizell planned to watch the Highlanders’ crucial game against the Rebels with some team-mates yesterday.
He was keeping his fingers crossed the Highlanders would make the playoffs, so he could play at least one more game for the team this season.
