As part of a promotion to highlight next year’s Brisbane 10s tournament, event ambassador Nick Cummins, known as the Honey Badger, was in Dunedin. Because he was in the South, he decided to have a go at shearing a sheep.
Alongside him was Highlanders hooker Liam Coltman, who is slowly recovering from a nasty ankle injury.
Coltman went first with the blade and using all his vast experience of having shorn one sheep in his life, managed a not-too-bad job.
The ever-willing Australian, having his first attempt at shearing a sheep, was no natural and eventually had to let shearer Aaron Robinson, of Dunedin, finish it off.
Cummins said he did about 30% of the sheep but then realised there was another side to the animal.
The former Australian winger said he was looking forward to the 10s and was the party planner for the event.
As for the state of Australian rugby and tonight’s Bledisloe Cup clash, he said Australia was not necessarily in a rebuilding phase but more of a destruction phase.
But like a bushfire, Australian rugby would eventually get into a regeneration phase and come again. He picked the All Blacks "to get the chocolates" tonight but it would be a fiery opening 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, Coltman is not too far away from a return to the training paddock. He tore ligaments in his ankle in the Super Rugby quarterfinal against the Crusaders in July and was forced to miss the entire Mitre 10 Cup season with Otago. But his moon boot is off and he wants to be back running next month.
He hopes to be ready for the pre-season at the end of next month though he has plenty on his plate.
Coltman and his wife, Aleisha, welcomed a baby daughter, Tilly Joy, on October 7. The baby girl, the couple’s first child, weighed 3.67kg on arrival and is doing well.