May's up for the challenge
29th July 2009 03:24PM
By EVAN PEGDEN - Waikato Times
Ben May wants to stamp his mark in the Waikato colours of red, yellow and black but for a while doubted he would get the chance to make his debut this year.
The versatile Nelson prop, who transferred from Tasman this season after two years playing for the Chiefs, had not played rugby for three months until he made his Mooloo debut last Friday in the pre-season win over Taranaki.
When a knee injury ended his participation in April in the Chiefs' most successful season, it looked as though he was gone for the year with a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament.
"Initially I was told I was going to have to get a reconstruction and I thought I was out for six to nine months but it's come through pretty good and I'm pretty happy with it," May said yesterday after training in the buildup to Saturday night's Air New Zealand Cup opener against Southland in Invercargill.
"I had three or four scans. It was pretty swollen and, even though it ended up being not as bad as they first thought, it was still a major injury and took a while to settle down."
Waikato's acquisition of May this season is a major one, as is the return of experienced tight-head prop Nathan White after a back injury that has taken two years and two operations to come right.
Waikato last year suffered through a lack of front-row experience and young props were thrown in the deep end.
May said he was confident Waikato had a tight five that could acquit itself well in this year's championship.
"It's huge having Nathan back and while obviously we've lost Aled (de Malmanche to the All Blacks), Ole Avei's been in the wider training group for the Chiefs, is getting a bit of experience now and has come from a Reds background. We've got Kevin O'Neill and Toby Lynn who are vastly experienced in the second row there so we're looking pretty good and pretty confident going into this game."
Southland were an experienced, tight-knit forward pack with a lot of Highlanders players and would test Waikato up front, he said. "But I think we're up for the challenge."
The 118kg, 1.94m May is likely to play loose-head prop and mark equally large 2008 end-of-season-tour All Black Jamie Mackintosh.
