An ungainly toe poke spoke volumes more than Jerry Collins himself as the Hurricanes hard man appeared to bid goodbye to Super rugby here last night.
Collins stepped up to convert prop Neemia Tialata's try in the final act of their 22-33 semifinal loss to the Crusaders here, the sort of act usually reserved for players who know a departure is imminent.
The 48-test All Blacks flanker has for some time professed an interest in playing in Europe but recently issued a muffled denial that he had asked for his New Zealand Rugby Union contract ending in 2009 to be shortened by a year.
Fuel was added to the fire last night by the kick and the subsequent comments of captain Andrew Hore, when asked to explain his choice of goalkicker.
"I won't burst his bubble, you can read into it what you like. What's it mean when most people take the last kick?" Hore said.
Collins, 27, still wouldn't concede his eight-year Hurricanes career had ended.
"It will be the last act for some of us I think," he mysteriously told a pack of journalists.
"It was just one of those things. I've been practising all year, we decided why not end the year with a toe hack I suppose." When pushed, Collins still sounded like a man who had an announcement brewing.
"Tonight's just about the team. There's nothing to celebrate for individuals tonight so we'll pretty much just keep it at that.
"I don't really want to talk about it, we just lost the semifinal. The last thing I want to talk about is myself.
"We're pretty much down. We'll enjoy each other's company because we're never going to have the same team again, players and management." Earlier in the week Collins described the Crusaders style as structured and predictable, comments that came back to haunt him as the southerners turned on a masterful all round display.
The weary blindside admitted his team had been shut out.
"We're disappointed, we didn't get any front foot ball. We tackled for 75 percent of the time," he said.
"We made a bit of a spurt at the end but probably left our run too late."
