Kieran Read

Uh, the incumbent number eight.

Um, and yeah, I guess I remember, uh,

I played number six, Liam Messon played number eight, debut, and Wapa started at Loosehead, so us three debuted together.

Yeah, I remember just being like a crazy time, like getting the jersey for the first time and you're kind of staring at it going, you know, how real is this?

And you think back to all those people that helped you.

And then once you get out there on the field, like I look back now and I go, you know, you think you made a difference, but you probably run around a lot with it.

Not doing too much.

I do remember I got up and I stole a line out, I think, and then we scored in the corner, so quite early on in the game.

And so that kind of gave me a little bit of confidence that I actually, you know, I did something in the game that helped and...

Yeah, it always was.

And it seemed to grow, I guess, in that environment too, in All Blacks.

I got the opportunity to have a bit more to say on that.

So, yeah, so basically I played that Scotland game.

It was a Grand Slam tour, so we played Aussie the week before in Hong Kong, so it was

Scotland, and then I, yeah, after that Scotland game, same thing, I got on the bench.

So I found my way into the bench spot, so I found my way into the 22.

You know, so it was Richie, Rodney, and Jerome were the starters.

Yeah.

Not bad.

Starting team, and me on the bench.