Andrew Knewstubb misses his best mate Benji Marshall.
And he cannot wait to give the old mutt a pat.
Knewstubb has been almost too busy settling in at the Highlanders over the past two weeks to pine for his pal, a border collie named after the Kiwis league great, but life is just not quite the same without Benji.
"He’s a good bugger. He’s a hard case, and I’m missing my old mate."
The Highlanders always welcome fresh faces from outside the region each season but it is fair to say Knewstubb has an interesting story to tell, and not just because of the dog.
He spent nine years in the sevens system and this will be his debut Super Rugby campaign at the age of 30.
Knewstubb was preparing for the NPC final with Canterbury — we shall skip past the result of that game — when he got the call from Jamie Joseph to ask if he was keen to be a Highlander.
The first five or fullback had all but given up on his hope of playing for a Super club, but he was chuffed to get a chance with the Landers.
"I grew up on the Kapiti Coast and I was actually always a fan of the Highlanders," Knewstubb said.
"When I moved to Nelson, a lot of the Tasman boys were Highlanders men too.
"Now that I’m here, it’s a bit of a dream come true to get a taste of Super Rugby."
Most, of course, are young fellows around the age of 21 or 22, not 30-year-olds with vast experience of playing in global events, albeit in the shorter format of the game.
"It’s a strange old feeling," Knewstubb smiled.
"It’s pretty crazy to feel like a newbie again after so long in sevens.
"I’m trying to look at it like I’m not actually a newbie. I still know how to be a professional.
"But I do think the two games are very different now. So there is still lots of learning for me to do, which I’m really excited about. And there are lots of young guys around here who are pretty keen to teach me a few things."
Knewstubb spent time on the sevens scene with new Highlanders team-mates Jona Nareki, Jacob Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens, Caleb Tangitau and Xavier Tito-Harris.
He was a regular member of the All Blacks Sevens after making his debut in 2017, racking up 500 points, winning Commonwealth Games and World Cup gold in 2018, and claiming Olympic silver in 2021.
He said his parents had a little cabinet into which he had "chucked" a few mementoes from his time in sevens over the years.
"I put in our fish hook necklace and I realised, yeah, maybe this is the last thing I put in from sevens. That was a bit of a moment.
"I’ve loved the sevens. I’m best mates with a lot of guys in the team. But it’s a new chapter now and this allows me to spread my wings a bit."
Unsurprisingly, Knewstubb set the fitness standard on the first day the Highlanders assembled.
The 4min 20sec time he set for the gruelling bronco test was not far off his personal best of 4min 11sec — 1sec faster than the two quickest All Blacks, Cam Roigard and Beauden Barrett.
Knewstubb is flatting with two fellow rookies, 20-year-old outside back Stanley Solomon and 22-year-old wider training squad loosie Senita Lauaki.
He will also be spending a lot of time with first fives Cameron Millar and Taine Robinson, 23 and 26 respectively.
"There’s heaps of talent there. Taine has been unlucky with injury but last year he was massive for the Highlanders, I thought. And Cam had an unbelievable year with Otago in the NPC.
"I’m really looking forward to learning off those guys and hopefully I can help them with some things too."
Sevens commitments, and a couple of ACL reconstructions, limited Knewstubb to just a couple of full NPC seasons.
But he enjoyed plenty of time in the saddle this year as Canterbury dashed Otago’s hopes of winning the title for the first time since 1998.
"Playing 10, you’re kind of running the show. You don’t often see players jumping from sevens to playing first five in 15s — they usually go to the wing or something.
"So there was lots of learning to do, but I feel like that’s one of my strengths and I was pretty happy I could still play 15s."
There had been no if-looks-could-kill glares from the Otago players in the Highlanders, he confirmed.
"Hah, no. They’ve been pretty welcome."
Knewstubb has learned of some family links to Port Chalmers.
"I don’t know too much about it but I think they were boat builders.
"I actually went for a wee wander the other day and found a Knewstubb memorial chair, just before Carey’s Bay."
Building runs in the family.
Growing up with a father in the trade, Knewstubb picked up some woodcrafting ability, and one of his roles with the sevens team was carving a patu each season to be presented to the best defender in the team.
"That sort of led on to awards and trophies and then it went on to doing some work on guitars.
"I’ve done 40 or 50 guitars. I’m not building them from scratch but I’m just carving the story on top of them.
"A lot of these people I’ve done guitars for don’t even play them — they just stick them up on the wall, ha ha.
"I kind of like learning things around meanings and patterns and how it can link to families and your values in a sporting team sense."
That could open the door for a pun about Knewstubb striking the right chord for the Highlanders, but that would be far too obvious.
